DE PERE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The recent warm-up is causing a winter fishing spot in the lower Fox River to fade away.
Anglers try their luck for walleye and white bass through the ice at Voyageur Park in De Pere, but those anglers are being asked to stay on shore, for now.
With pockets of open water, and cracks all around, Zachary Mickle and Chris Mitcheltree tell WLUK they knew right away they wouldn’t be ice fishing Thursday morning.
“It looks like we’re not getting out on it. There’s a bunch of open spots. The current is just eating away at the ice. There’s no way to get out there” “It’s not worth your life coming out here, just for a fish. Falling through that water, because if you go through, in this current, they’re not going to find you. If they do, it’s gong to be too late,”
The recent warm up is causing the Fox River to run, and the De Pere Dam is just upstream.
Rich Annen is the Assistant Chief at De Pere Fire-Rescue.
“Any time you’re near rapid water, that ice will not freeze as much as it does say in dead water, or calm water”
Annen says De Pere Fire-Rescue responds to several calls each season for people needing help along the Fox River. He says if you do fall through the ice, there isn’t much time.
“If you fall into 32 degree water, you’ve got anywhere from 10-15 minutes, and your muscles are going to tighten up, and you’re probably not going to do a whole lot to save yourself. You’re not going to get to your cell phone. So don’t think that your cell phone is going to be your saving there. The only thing that’s going to save you at that point in time, is other fishermen, or people on shore, that will be able to acess 9-1-1 to alert us to it”
Meanwhile back at the park, the two fishermen called it quits.
“No. No. We’re definitely not going out there today,” said Mickle.
Officials warn no ice is ever 100 percent safe.
De Pere Fire-Rescue and Ashwaubenon Public Safety will hold an ice-rescue training session just south of the dam, this Saturday.
