Warden divers at Cathance Lake resume search for fisherman

TOWNSHIP 14 – Tim Craig went looking for his cousin Jim Craig on Wednesday. He didn’t find the lost fisherman, but he did find a lawn chair with a fishing pole attached to it in 7 feet of water.

That find brought the Maine Warden Service back to Cathance Lake on Thursday.

The lawn chair and pole are believed to have been in the Grand Lake Stream canoe that belonged to Tommy Hiland, 57, of Princeton. The canoe, in which Jim Craig was a passenger, capsized in stormy waters on May 7. Hiland’s body was found washed ashore close to where the men’s battered canoe was found.

Jim Craig was never found.

For days after the accident, the Maine Warden Service searched the area with an airplane, boats, divers and a dog team.

Family members and friends also combed the shore.

The search was called off when it was clear that the lake was offering no more clues as to Craig’s whereabouts.

For weeks now, Tim Craig, in his bass boat, has used his vacation time to search for his cousin, most recently with an underwater camera. He said he had borrowed the camera from a co-worker who does salvage work.

Craig, who works for the same mill in Bucksport that his cousin worked for, said he has been staying at his cousin’s house in Meddybemps with Jim Craig’s father, Edward “Mooney” Craig. “You’ve got to find something for his father to put this behind him. He’s an 86-year-old man. It happened on his birthday,” Craig said. “My mother called me and told me about it Mother’s Day morning. It’s been pretty tragic for the family.”

Craig was on the lake Wednesday when he found the lawn chair. “I was actually fishing when I stumbled on this. It was flat calm, and it showed up really good underwater. It was pretty amazing how easy it was to see. But just as soon as the water roughened up it was difficult to see again,” he said.

Once he found the chair, he called his cousin’s neighbor who notified the warden service. “[The wardens] came down in about an hour,” he said. “They got divers within two hours; they flew some divers down from Bangor. They did a preliminary search. They found another fishing rod, a package of flies, a couple of Slim Jim wrappers. So we’re pretty sure we found where the canoe had their mishap,” he said.

On Thursday, nine divers, working in teams of two, combed an area of the lake about 1.5 miles from where Hiland was found in an area known as Smith’s Cove.

Wardens now believe that the two were farther out on the lake when the accident happened. Family members speculate the canoe may have hit a rock in the lake. “If they were down in here [near the shore), it would have been calm for them, they could have fished,” Craig said.

Warden Jim Martin said the family’s efforts had helped. “We have limited resources, and to have a family member continue the search and expand it and find new evidence helps us,” he said.

There have been reports that Craig may have been wearing waders. “We don’t know that,” Martin said. “We don’t have any witnesses other than typically he did fish with waders on.”

Tim Craig, who spent Thursday either on the lake or on the shore, talked about his cousin. “Jimmy was an all-around nice guy,” he said. “He was well liked at work. He was a superintendent there at the mill. He was well-respected at work, and his guys all respected him.”

Craig said that his cousin, who was an only child, had no children. “Jimmy always wished for a family. He was happy with what he did. He wanted to retire. His goal was to get out of the mill and enjoy life. He was ready because he’s got all kinds of boating equipment over to his house right now. It’s just amazing,” he said.

He said his cousin planned to spend the summer fishing. “He got a couple of trips fishing, but apparently it was his last one. That’s the sad part,” he said.

Lt. Pat Dorian of the Maine Warden Service said late Thursday that the dive team had searched a large area, and more debris had been found on the bottom of the lake.

“From where it appears they dumped, we thought that was it, but we found a tackle box in the opposite direction from where the wind would have been coming from, 400 yards away [from where the lawn chair was found]. It’s just pretty incredible,” Dorian said.

Dorian said the dive team would not return today. “We will keep looking for him with the boats and the aircraft,” he said. It was unclear whether the warden service’s K-9 unit would be on-site Friday.