Oshkosh –
The very first ice bridge was placed on Lake Winnebago over the weekend and many more are going out within the next several days.
Frigid weather has drastically bumped up the timetable.
Right now a number of bridges and Christmas trees which mark the ice roads are ready to go along the shoreline.
Ice expert Don Herman says it’s the earliest seasonal start in recent memory and very different from last year.
“Normally our bridge doesn’t go out until January 13trh average. Something like that. Last year we didn’t put them out until February 7th. Just before sturgeon spearing is when we put them out,” said Herman, who owns Sunk? Dive and Ice Rescue.
Herman says a hole in the ice a quarter of a mile long and two hundred yards wide is the only thing delaying the bridges near Oshkosh, off the shore of Menominee Park.
In Neenah the Paynes Point Hook and Spear Club put it’s first bridge out on Saturday.
“If I recall the last time we had ice this early like this a few years ago we ended up having spots with over 30 inches of ice on the lake. If it keeps going like it is, it’s going to be a lot of ice and a long winter,” said Jim Nobbe, whose a member of the club.
Of the seven fishing clubs on the lake most anticipate having their bridges out by this weekend. With temperatures hovering right around zero the ice should firm up just enough.
Herman said,”It makes about an inch to two inches a night when it gets below zero like this on that open hole so hopefully next week we will have about ten inches, twelve inches there.”
If the weather stays cold, the bridges are likely to stay on Lake Winnebago thru the end of March.
Source: WBAY.com
