A Vicksburg man who was an avid fisherman died Saturday, “doing what he loved to do,” in the Ross Barnett Reservoir in Madison County.

Christopher Scott Ingraham, 50, 436 Tucker Road, was knocked overboard while bass fishing with his wife, said his mother this morning.

“All he wanted to do was fish,” said Jerry Ingraham, 79. “He loved every minute of it.”

Christopher Ingraham was with his wife, Laurie, in their boat Saturday, in a cove on the Pearl River, said Kathryn Duggins, Laurie Ingraham’s mother.

He was backing the boat up when it hit a submerged tree stump and the impact knocked him over and into the water.

“He would never wear his life jacket,” Jerry Ingraham said. “His wife always tried to get him to wear it, but he never would. She tried to throw it to him, but he couldn’t catch it.”

“It’s been very traumatic,” said Duggins, “(but) he died doing what he loved to do.”

Lt. Randy Newell, spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, said a crew began searching around 12:45 Saturday afternoon, after Laurie Ingraham called the Reservoir Patrol to report the accident.

“We only had one dive team working,” he said. “We could only keep divers in the water 10 minutes at a time. They were coming up shaking, shivering from the cold.” Water temperature was about 50 degrees, he said.

Divers went back out Sunday, recovering Ingraham’s body at 10:22 a.m.

Agents took Ingraham’s wife on the lake to get a better idea of where her husband fell overboard, marked the spot with a buoy and used sonar to locate his body.

“We had five different dive crews today,” Newell said Sunday. “The air temperature was warmer, so we were able to get there and switch divers in and out. And this morning we had a more precise location.”

More than 50 people assisted in the search, said reservoir patrol Chief Perry Waggener, including officers from the reservoir patrol, wildlife and fisheries, emergency response teams from Madison and Rankin counties and Lake Harbor, Reservoir, Ridgeland, Madison and Langford fire departments, and medical personnel from American Medical Response.

Ingraham’s body was sent to the Mississippi State Crime Lab for an autopsy, but pending the results the death is being classified as accidental, Waggener said.

Boating regulations require adults to have life vests readily available while on the water, but only children aged 12 and under are required to wear them.

“We wish people would wear them,” said Newell. “They save lives for sure.”

Christopher Ingraham was born in Dayton, Ohio, and the family moved to Vicksburg in the 1970s, his mother said. He attended Warren Central High School for a time before they relocated to Florida.

He had a technical degree from a Florida junior college and was employed as a quality engineer at Siemens in Jackson, Duggins said. Ingraham had previously been lead technician for the boosters on the space shuttle, she said, and had worked at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral for 26 years.

He was a member of Bowmar Baptist Church.

In addition to his wife and mother, Ingraham leaves a son, Bo Harmon of Atlanta, a daughter, Mandy Bartlett of Hawthorne, Fla., and a grandson.

Services are being handled by Riles Funeral Home.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.