“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 Lee Covill, who thought it would be a normal morning for him.

He was fishing in the Genesee River near the Yacht Club in Irondequiot when he started to hear cries for help. Just before 6:00 a.m., he found where the noise was coming from after discovering 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 1:00 a.m. Covil tells us the man devised a way to help hang on all night.

“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,” said Covill. “And he was in the water for 5 hours. He went over at 1:00 and came back out around 6:00.

Two Irondequoit police officers pulled the man out using rope Covill put around the man's chest. He was taken to the hospital by AMR for treatment and observation.

Police say he is expected to be okay.