PIPE – A 50-yard wide split in the ice stranded five ice fishermen about a half-mile from the east shore of Lake Winnebago on Sunday afternoon.
The Fond du Lac County Communications Center received a call for help from the anglers at 11:29 a.m. Dec. 7, almost directly in line with Columbia Park in the village of Pipe. The fishermen ranged in age from 16 to 20 years old and said they became stranded when the wind switched and open up a crack in the ice that they were unable to cross, according to a Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office press release.
Rescue personnel from the Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team employed the department’s Amphibious Rescue Craft and were able to bring all five people and their fishing equipment to shore.
The Dive Team was assisted by the Town of Calumet Fire Department, Mount Calvary Ambulance and the Sheriff’s Office.
“The crack that stranded the fisherman had opened to approximately 50 yards wide, the ice around it had also become unstable,” said Sgt. Chris Dobyns in a press release. “This crack and the unsafe ice associated with it travels from an area of approximately Fisherman’s Road in Fond du Lac County and continues north into Calumet County approximately one-quarter to one-half mile off shore. This area of ice is unstable and dangerous. There is also another similar area which runs due west from the Fisherman’s Road area across Lake Winnebago. This area appears to be approximately 100 yards wide in areas.
“This area of ice is unstable and dangerous.”
Dobyns said the east shore of Lake Winnebago are not freezing due to warm weather and wind. The water is expected to remain open and shift in some areas.
“What may appear as solid, stable ice can and will open up depending on the wind directions,” Dobyns said. “The Sheriff’s Office always advises that no ice is safe ice, and with the conditions that exist as they do now on Lake Winnebago, the ice is extremely dangerous as the conditions can change by the minute.”
Source: FDLReporter.com Photo by Patrick Flood
