TROY — Brian Duffy and Scott George were fishing in their usual spot near the Troy dam Thursday evening when, from the perch of their 14-foot aluminum boat, they witnessed an unusual series of events just before nightfall.

A man was attempting to swim across the Hudson River, a rare sight at any time of day. At almost the same time, Troy police began flashing their lights at the two fishermen. Had they parked their truck illegally, they wondered?

When the two men got to shore, police instead asked for a ride. They needed help locating and apprehending a man in the river who had just fled the scene of a serious hit-and-run crash on Middleburgh Street up the road.

"Fishing was by far the least interesting part of the evening as it turned out," recalled Duffy, who lives in Averill Park.

With the help of the two fishermen, and first responders from the Troy Fire Department, the Green Island Police and Fire Departments, and the Albany County Sheriff's Office, Troy police were able to locate the man and convince him to come back to shore and face the situation.

The man, whose identity was not immediately released, was driving north on 9th Street near Middleburg Street when he struck "a couple cars" and a motorcyclist around 7:20 p.m., said Troy Police Capt. Daniel DeWolf.

The motorcyclist was transported to Albany Medical Center in critical condition, DeWolf said.

The driver, meanwhile, fled in his SUV to the bottom of Middleburgh Street, where he drove into a bank of trees near Snyder Printer Inc. and jumped into the Hudson River just yards away. He swam halfway across to an island, then attempted to swim the other half when the fishing boat and police boats caught up with him.

"He didn't want to go to jail is what it sounded like," said George, an East Greenbush fisherman who witnessed police negotiate with the man. "It sounded like he thought the traffic incident that just occurred would send him back to prison and he wanted some assurances that it wouldn't."

After getting his mother on the phone to talk to him, police were able to convince the man to come back to shore. He will likely face felony charges, said Capt. Brian Owens, who was on the fishermen's boat.

Wood credited the fishermen with helping police locate the man and making sure he didn't swim out of sight. Along with three police boats that arrived soon after, they helped maintain a perimeter around the man, he said.

The fishermen, meanwhile, credited police for their calm interactions with the man, which lasted just under an hour.

"They weren't trying to take him down," they said. "They were hoping for a peaceful resolution. It seemed like a good ending to what could have been a bad one."