Rednecks
Americans rescued from Man. ice floe
29 Mar 2012 Leader-Post ALDO SANTIN WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
WINNIPEG — The fishing is over for 13 fishermen from Wisconsin who were rescued off an ice floe on the Manitoba section of Lake of the Woods overnight Tuesday.
The fishermen became trapped on the giant floe when it broke away from shore near Buffalo Bay, just east of Sprague, Man. Buffalo Bay is the only part of Lake of the Woods that is in Manitoba.
Leonard Friesen, owner of Silver Birch Resort, where the fishermen were staying, said the group had gone out mid-morning Tuesday.
It’s an annual, weeklong trip for the 13 men, who range in age between 25 and 45 years.
Friesen said the wind was blowing toward shore, from the south, when the men left, but at some point in the day, the wind shifted from the north, the ice fractured and the men found themselves floating back toward Wisconsin.
“They called me around 7:30 p.m. on their cells and said they had a situation,” Friesen said Wednesday.
The men had set up their fishing shacks about 45 metres from shore, Friesen said, and when he responded to their call he said the floe had floated about 30 metres from the main ice.
Friesen said he warned the group to stay off the ice but they went out anyway.
“I’d been telling people to stay off the ice all week,” Friesen said, adding in most years the ice is about one metre thick at this time of year but it was only about half a metre thick this week.
Friesen said the men didn’t appear to be in any immediate danger. The ice floe they were on was about three or four football fields in size. They had their shacks and heaters and warm winter clothing.
“They were sitting in their ice shacks with the heaters on, toasty warm,” Friesen said. “But you still want to get them off the ice.
“Moving ice is unstable and you never know what might happen.”
The men were rescued by the Kenora, Ont.-based Lake of the Woods Search and Rescue organization, which made the two-hour trip to Buffalo Bay with an air boat, and with assistance from the RCMP and the Dominion City, Man., fire department.
Friesen said that when the rescue effort began around 1 a.m., there was about 122 metres of open water between the men and the main ice.
The men were taken off the floe in three trips, using the Lake of the Woods SAR airboat, with the last men removed at about 2:45 a.m. Wednesday.
Friesen said a couple more trips were made to take off some of their gear but their quads and some other fishing gear remain on the ice.
“I think their fishing is over for the year,” Friesen said.
The men had arrived Saturday and are scheduled to leave this Saturday.
The RCMP said no one was injured.
The fishermen have declined to speak to the media.
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