OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Fox Valley anglers are starting to test their luck on the ice on Lake Winnebago.
The sport is usually part of the annual Otter Street Fishing Club Winter Fisheree Weekend, but weather conditions are bringing challenges to this year’s event.
Just off the boat landing at Menominee Park, crews are flooding part of Millers Bay with water, and laying a frozen foundation for five pond hockey rinks.
“It’s not like NHL rinks, but it is pond hockey. But they can’t have the really rough spots on, so we’re trying to give them a new sheet. And we’ll take down some of the really rough stuff yet,” said Bob Hable, Otter Street Fishing Club Board of Directors Member.
Hable tells FOX 11 the Winter Fisheree runs Friday and Saturday, featuring music, food, and raffles inside the tent.
The event typically features an ice fishing competition as well, but club leaders say conditions on the big part of Lake Winnebago are questionable.
“We’re at about six inches. Five to six inches out here,” said Don Herman, SUNK? Dive and Ice Service.
Ice expert Herman tells FOX 11 a flyover on Tuesday showed no open water areas on Lake Winnebago, but he’s still not ready to install bridges capable of carrying ATVs over the lake’s cracks, quite yet.
“You put a four-wheeler bridge out. They have some big four-wheelers right now. They have side-by-sides. They weigh 1,200 pounds. And they load up two people, three people, in them, it’s like driving a small car out.”
Meanwhile crews continue to try to make ice. The 16-team hockey tournament is scheduled to begin this afternoon.
“It’s been challenging. It looks sloppy, and it is sloppy. It’s pretty slushy out there, but we’re going to make the best of it, and pull this off,” said Hable.
Club members say they may cancel the fishing competition because of the ice conditions.
They hope to make that decision sometime today.
