“We might move this bridge tomorrow or the the next day,” Herman said of the rapidly changing and unpredictable ice conditions. “Sometimes we move them twice a day just to keep people safe.”
Don Herman, a longtime member of the Otter Street Fishing Club in Oshkosh, uses an auger to drill a hole so he can measure ice thickness. Volunteers like Herman help ice anglers who flock to Lake Winnebago each winter to fish for walleye and spear sturgeon.
Venturing onto the ice is always a risky proposition, but with the proper precautions, a little common sense and, through the work of volunteers like Herman and those involved with other fishing clubs that ring the lake, most trips onto Lake Winnebago and other bodies of water can be done without getting wet, or worse.
According to the state Department of Natural Resources, no ice is ever 100% safe. There are just too many variables. They can include wild temperature swings, underwater springs and currents, wind that can break up massive sheets of ice, pressure ridges and heaves, and insulating snow cover that can reduce the rate at which ice forms.
Don Herman looks in the rearview mirror of his heated utility vehicle as he tows a metal bridge out to an expansion crack on Lake Winnebago. The ice, still not thick enough for cars and trucks to travel, is limited for now to UTVs, ATVs, snowmobiles and foot.
Earlier this month on Green Bay, more than two dozen anglers had to be rescued from a sheet of what appeared to be stable ice that had detached from the mainland. Passing barge traffic, which created waves, is being blamed for the incident. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
Back on Lake Winnebago, snowmobiles and ATVs are running the surface, but the ice isn’t thick enough for cars and trucks, which need a minimum of 12 to 16 inches of ice. But that’s a uniform thickness, according to Herman.
