Search and rescue crews have recovered the bodies of four men who drowned in a US reservoir after a prank turned deadly during a weekend boating trip.

The search began Sunday evening after 911 dispatchers got a cell phone call from a young child who was adrift with four other kids on a boat in the middle of the American Falls reservoir.

The kids, between 2 and 9 years old, said one of the four men they were with was standing in the boat when another pushed him into the water as a joke.

But the man couldn't swim, and one by one the other three jumped in to try to save him. Only one of the men grabbed a life jacket before plunging into the water, but he wasn't wearing the device.