Milwaukee recently had a weekend with highs in the 50s. It’s not the best time for ice fishing. Rising temperatures fueled by climate change have begun to take a toll on the iconic sport.
Over the last 55 years, January temperatures here have gotten more than 8 degrees hotter. The warming trends makes the joy of finding good ice all the sweeter.
One of those spots is Lakeshore State Park in downtown Milwaukee.
Park manager Elaine Zautke has a perfect view from her office in the Discovery World building. The 22-acre parcel off Lake Michigan features beautiful prairies and paths.
Its lagoon hugging the Summerfest grounds is especially popular.
Zautke points to ice shanties dotting the frozen expanse.
“So it can be a little nerve-wracking when I go out there and see folks out there,” she says.
There are two reasons Zautke is concerned.
Number one: “The DNR does not monitor ice conditions,” Zautke says.
That means anglers decide for themselves whether to venture out onto the ice.
Number two: Zautke says anglers love fishing this spot, “We have a lot of fisher folk that come out starting as soon as the ice is thick enough to walk on. It could be a quarter-inch, an inch of ice and people will definitely be out,” she says.
Conditions were good when I met Zautke in early February. Temperatures hovered in the mid-20s.
But she says that’s an anomaly. She’s seen a lot of “yoyo-ing” due to climate change.
“In terms of temperatures — and so the ice is constantly melting and refreezing. And in general, I think that the ice is forming later and later and possibly thawing earlier,” Zautke says.
The next morning, I crunch across the ice. Fishing guide Cal Haataja had been there for hours.
“I got here at 3," he says. "We gotta get here and get set up, and that way by the time our clients get here, we’re all ready to rock."
Fishing is in the Milwaukee native’s blood.
“My dad’s been a fishing guide and charter captain down here for 25 years," Haataja says. "I’ve been helping my dad ‘guide’ since I was about was 10-12 years old. Yeah, about 10-12 years now."
He keeps a constant watch on ice cover as he guides anglers up and down the Lake Michigan shoreline. He says he’s guided people from around the world, including to this lagoon.
“We’re catching world-class brown trout and it’s a pretty unbelievable thing. We’ve had people come from Japan, China, Australia — tons of people from Canada,” Haataja says.
He and his crew set up heated shacks for their comfort.
“We’ve got chairs in there, a heater going,” Haataja says.
He augers strategically into the ice, then stands by to help clients reel in a big one.
Peter Tanis and a couple of his friends drove down from Minneapolis to fish with Haataja. They’re fishing in Milwaukee for the first time.
“I said you know, 'I gotta do that. That looks really unique.' A lot of fishing destinations you’re flying way up into northern Canada or Alaska to catch these kind of trophy-size fish. So, we came down just for Monday and Tuesday. We’re going to drive back to Minneapolis this afternoon,” Tanis says.
This is strictly a catch-and-release operation. Tanis calls it a "rush."
“I want you to watch us catch one. You’ll hear the bells go off on the rods. We run over and reel them in and they fight really hard and it takes a while and sometimes they get away,” Tanis says.
Just south of the guided group, Todd Niedermeyer and Steve Thorne kept watch on their augered holes in the ice. “It kind of gets in your blood. It’s not for everyone and we like it that way,” Niedermeyer says.
The Franklin and Oconomowoc residents started fishing as kids and never stopped. This is one of the spots they love.
Thorne says over the years, they’ve caught the ice when its right, but, “The last couple of years hasn’t been particularly good. Some years you’re lucky if you get a week,” Thorne says.
He says the ice comes later and doesn’t last as long.
“When I was in high school, I was a downhill skier and an ice fisherman and had been downhill skiing and ice fishing before Thanksgiving two years in a row," Thorne says. "I couldn’t tell you the last time that's happened in 30 years since then."
He says they intend to savor what they’ve got.
“We joked this morning about fishing. We should try to ice fish all of the Great Lakes this year,” Thorne says.
They were planning to head to Lake Erie the following week.
During my time on the ice, I didn’t see any big fish on the line, but later that day, Peter Tanis of Minneapolis let me know he pulled in a 36-inch brown trout.
He said he held the 17-pounder long enough for a photo and then released it “back to swim again in Lake Michigan."
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