A 59-year-old Meigs County man was found dead in Watts Bar Reservoir on Sunday night after failing to return from a fishing trip, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA).

The victim, identified as Leyroy Fairbanks, was reported overdue by his family around 8:30 p.m. When family members went to search the launch site, they discovered his boat adrift near a boat ramp along Highway 68. Emergency crews—including the TWRA, Meigs and Rhea County rescue squads, local sheriff’s departments, and fire departments—responded to the scene and recovered Fairbanks’ body.

TWRA officials noted that Fairbanks was not wearing a life jacket at the time of the incident. State regulations require boats to carry a properly fitting, U.S. Coast Guard-approved wearable life jacket for every passenger on board.

The death marks Tennessee’s 19th boating-related fatality of 2026. Watts Bar Reservoir, an impoundment created in 1942 spanning Rhea and Meigs counties, was also the site of the state’s first boating fatality of the year in February.