IRONDEQUOIT, N.Y. --  Saturday morning started out just like any other day for Lee Covill, fishing in the Genesee River near the Yacht Club in Irondequoit.  That is, until he started to hear cries for help.

The Rochester resident says he began to hear a voice crying out from the water just before 6 a.m.  A short time later, he found where the noise was coming from.  He discovered a man in the water hanging onto the cement walkway.

Irondequoit police say the man had been out for a walk when he slipped into the water around 1 a.m.  He couldn't get out on his own and had to hang on all morning until someone came to his rescue.

"I happened to be in the right place at the right time to be helpful - that's what you're supposed to do isn't it?" said Covill. "He had presence of mind to take off his belt, wrap it around the steel girder right here and get his arm hooked around it. and he was in the water for 5 hours. He went over at 1 o'clock and came back out around 6."

Two Irondequoit police officers responded and pulled the man out using rope Covill put around the man's chest.  Covill says the man's legs were weak from the chill of being in the water all morning.

He was turned over to the Rochester Fire Department, and then taken to the hospital by AMR for treatment and observation.

Police say he is expected to be OK.