Lake Winnebago Ice Shoves

The scene on the East shoreline of Lake Winnebago near Brothertown is an astonishing one!  As a major blast of Arctic air pushed in from Canada, 30-40 mile per hour winds out of the West caused the entire ice sheet covering Lake Winnebago to shift!  The ice had nowhere to go on the East shore, besides onto the shoreline, where it caused damage to docks, boat houses, and even piled up on local roads, hampering travel.

To make matters even worse, this event also caused a nearly 100 yard wide area of open water that stretches from Oshkosh to Neenah!  Getting on and off the ice safely will be dangerous until new ice has a chance to thicken.  Ice anglers should use extreme caution when venturing onto the ice along the entire West shoreline of Lake Winnebago, since this area is expected to skim over and look like the rest of the ice.

Back on the East shore of the lake, crews will need heavy equipment to move the ice off of the access points.  Some of these ice piles are upwards of 30 feet high and 100 feet wide!  Fishing clubs are expected to get the launches accessible before the spearing season, which is encouraging.  There are also a few areas that have reportedly opened up during that monumental shift, so if heading out, stick to known areas to avoid potential disaster!

Despite the crazy ice shift, the cold temperatures that are now in place should really firm things up out there and with a little luck, anglers could still be taking full size trucks on the lake for the Sturgeon Spearing opener!