MADISON, Wis. — Mother Nature’s mood is about to swing again. After a blast of winter, we’ll soon see temperatures above their seasonal averages — just as ice fishers started enjoying being out on freshly frozen lakes.
“It’s going be unfortunate,” said angler Jim Kochanny on Monona Bay Tuesday. “I don’t know how long the ice will hold up.”
Still, he wasn’t heading back home to Illinois with an empty bucket.
“(I’ve got) two bluegills here, roughly eight to nine inches, got a total of 15 over 7.5 inches today; one crappie, and probably 50 or 60 little dinks.”
“I don’t care if I’m catching 3-inchers, it’s just the action and something to do in the middle of winter,” Kochanny said.
But even he knew that’s all he’d be reeling in for a couple of weeks.
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There was about five to six inches of ice out on Monona Bay Tuesday afternoon, but officials from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said the perfect storm is coming of warm temperatures and precipitation that could change that before you start your augers.
“Don’t assume that if the ice was good right now, over the weekend, don’t assume that it’s going to be good in a couple of days,” off-highway vehicle administrator Jim Holsclaw said.
Forecasters said temps will bob well above freezing, even near 50 over the next several days.
“We also may have some rain, I think in the forecast,” Holsclaw said. “And that can also kind of deteriorate that snow condition that can put water on top of the ice, so it might be harder to judge the thickness of that ice.”
All that is enough pressure to crack Kochanny: “I’d say three to four days of that and I wouldn’t be out here.”
According to Holsclaw, there’s no such thing as safe ice. It can vary widely, even on the same body of water.
“You may have an area that can support your weight or even a vehicle’s weight in one spot, but then maybe a few feet away from that area, you could have a current or a spring or something under that lake or river that you don’t know about,” he said.
He said that if you fall in the ice, don’t panic.
“Monitor your breathing and get turned around so that you can face the area that you went in. That ice held you until that point,” he said.
Then make sure you get to warmth and out of your wet clothes as soon as possible, because hypothermia can set in quickly even at 40 degrees and above.
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If you still chose to venture out on a lake in the coming days, check conditions, make sure you have your cell phone and something waterproof to put it in or bring a buddy along.
And don’t become bait for the freezing water – wear a float coat or flotation device, and carry an ice pick — “just something you can keep kind of around your neck on a lanyard or in your pocket easy to access, and those ice picks will really help pull you out of the water,” Holsclaw said.
Still, even if you thought you were prepared enough to cast your line on a frozen lake the next few days, you’d still be on thin ice – or worse.
“We got to make sure everybody stays safe,” Kochanny said Tuesday, gear on a sled in tow. “Got here at daybreak, and it’s time to go home.”
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