OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Sturgeon spearing just came to an end a few days ago.
And now, another sign that winter’s grip may be loosening ever so slightly– many ice bridges on Lake Winnebago are coming out.
It should have been a pretty straightforward day for members of the Otter Street Fishing Club and Sunk! Dive and Ice Service.
But early Tuesday afternoon, an extraction job off Oshkosh had them scrambling to save their own equipment.
Don Herman, who runs Sunk! Ice and Diving and is a member of the Otter Street Fishing Club, tells FOX 11 the ice was deteriorating so quickly it caught even seasoned veterans off guard.
“The lake really is turning bad with the sun… it’s just going bad. We pulled a truck out of the river today. We just got it out, we’re coming in, and we dropped our truck in, just the back tires.”
He and other volunteers with the Fishing Club were planning on removing the ice bridges this morning.
As it became clear how fast the ice was changing on Tuesday, Herman says their plans had to change as well.
“We’re probably going to do an emergency deal and probably pull the bridges here shortly… I drove out to just about everybody an told them, I said get your vehicles off. It’s fine for four-wheelers yet, but I think most fishing clubs are pulling their bridges today.”
Over the southern half of the lake, the bridges were already off by Tuesday.
Steve Klein with the West Shore Fishing Club in Van Dyne says the ice there is even worse.
“When we were coming in, we could actually feel the ice moving up and down, almost like a wave action. You could see in front of you where the vehicles in front of you were actually going down. Not a good feeling.”
He says he pulls six to ten trucks out of the lake per winter– but he’s had seven go through in the last week alone.
Back at the Merritt Street launch in Oshkosh, fishing guides like Lance Sweeting had also pulled the plug on their trucks and shanties on the lake.
“I’m done. Snowmobile from here on out.. Safety first, that’s what we go by. We feel it’s unsafe now, and we’ll go out and pleasure fish on snowmobile all by ourselves.”
And with milder than normal weather forecast to stick around, the ice likely won’t be getting any better.
