Wisconsin Ice Fishermen Head For The Boats - Only A Few Bays Of Superior Have Frozen

[hatrack]

Puddles may freeze overnight this week, but it's still no typical Wisconsin winter. And it's probably not enough to let Rick Kielman finally go ice fishing. "This should be the coldest week of the year, and here I am fishing from a boat," Kielman said as he packed his gear at the Fox Point Boat Launch in De Pere.

Kielman said he caught 20 walleye from his boat Sunday afternoon. Normally he's ice-fishing all winter on lakes near his home in Waupun. "There isn't ice to be had. It would take a few days of 10 degrees to make it ice up now. I think we'll just have to use the boat," he said.

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Normal temperatures for Jan. 8 are a high of 24 degrees and a low of around 7 degrees. "It's going to be slightly cooler this week, but it's still warmer than normal. Our low temperature is close to the normal high temperature," said Bob Sanders, forecaster assistant at the weather service office in Ashwaubenon.

There's little ice cover anywhere on the Great Lakes. Only a few northern bays on Lake Superior have frozen, according to the NOAA's Web site on ice cover at www.natice.noaa.gov/products/glches/index.htm. The last time Green Bay recorded a below-normal temperature was Dec. 8. The weather service's data for Green Bay shows December was 9.3 degrees above normal. It was the 8th warmest and 8th wettest December on record.

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http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070108/GPG0101/701080521/1207/GPGnews

[ClintonTyree]

1. Same way in Lakes Erie and Ontario

No ice in Lake Erie is astounding since it's the most shallow of all the Great Lakes. We have a cottage in a sheltered bay of Lake Ontario and there's not a bit of ice in it. We've been there for 50 years now and I can't remember a year when the bay hasn't been froze over this late into winter, let alone no ice at all. In fact, there is no snow-pack in New York State at all. The restaurants, hotels and bars that depend on snow-mobile traffic in the winter are hurting. People with snow-mobiles face an 8 hour drive if they want to use their environmentally obnoxious machines. Whether reports are for a cold snap mid-week but a return to much warmer than usual temperatures come the weekend. So, it doesn't look as if there will be any immediate or intermediate change for the winter sports loving people.

Unusual, indeed.