Good fishing, but a bad day on the ice of Solomon Lake north of Willmar
SOLOMON LAKE -- Workers with Donnie Hanson's Auto and Truck and Towing of New London hooked the big one this afternoon, but it will take them another day to land it.
A scuba diver attached a cable to a 2007 Ford Ranger pickup truck that had gone through the ice on Solomon Lake north of Willmar during the snow and sleet storm on Monday evening.
Kris Ryks of Willmar and passengers Jason Mackey and Jarrod Gates had safely bailed out of the truck as it nose dived in about 10-feet of water, located 1.4 miles from the public access on Kandiyohi County Road 5. They were able to walk to their fish house to warm up and dry out their one cell phone, which worked and allowed them to call for help, said Ryks.
Things weren't working so well on Wednesday afternoon as efforts to hoist the truck from the lake got underway. An attempt to use timbers as a ramp and pull the truck onto a trailer failed. The ice gave way and the trailer went down. A Ford Explorer hooked to the trailer was anchored to a timber driven into the ice and remained in place.
Tim Hanson said the crew planned to erect a tripod frame and use a winch to complete the lift operation on Thursday.
