No room for error

WILLMAR -- Now and then, even old hands learn a lesson the hard way.

John Wodash is 43 years old. He can't remember when he hasn't spent a good deal of the winter months on the hard surface of a Minnesota lake.

But he and a friend took an unexpected dip in the chilly waters of Long Lake late Monday afternoon while moving a fish house.

"I'm embarrassed," he commented 24 hours later. "I was very, very foolish. I cut the corner on the (aeration) signs."

Wodash was driving his four-wheeler and pulling his 8x10 foot shanty on a trailer. The Polaris model 700 quickly dropped to the bottom of the 1,600-acre lake five miles north of Willmar. The ice house sank halfway to its roof.

Wodash said he was knee deep in the cold water. Eric Haider sank to his chest. Wodash helped get his friend onto the ice safely. Neither man was injured. Fortunately for both, the temperature was mild, in the upper 20s.

It doesn't take long for word of a winter dunking to get out.

"I called the sheriff and DNR right away to let them know what happened," said Wodash Tuesday evening in a phone interview. "They were appreciative. I didn't want them thinking someone might be under the water."

The accident occurred within the orange aeration sticks that warn of thin ice. Wodash said he expects to get a citation for entering the dangerous area.

The media, including an area television station, descended on the scene Tuesday, 100 yards off a woody point of land on the lake's northeast end.

Five men were on hand ready to help recover the four-wheeler and ice house. More showed up later.

Wodash described the recovery as taking "all day."

"You can't beat having friends," he said. "A lot were from high school."

Both items were winched from the lake using a cable. To retrieve the four-wheeler, he attached the cable to an anchor which he dropped to the bottom of the lake about 10 feet below to hook a wheel.

"Everything is OK," he said.

Lakes are usually solid by now, but the mild weather has left lakes especially risky and ice thickness unpredictable. Extra caution is necessary, especially on the aerated lakes.

"The ice is so shifty, so dangerous," said Wodash, who lays underground cable in the warm months and has time to fish when the ground freezes.

He and Haider were moving the shanty from the lake's north end to the south.

"I was talking to Eric, who was riding with me on the four-wheeler, and had let down my guard," he said. "We were further out then I expected. It happened so fast. It was just a small hole; it really opened up today," Wodash said on Tuesday.

As a precaution, Wodash had not locked the wagon tongue onto the hitch so the trailer and 4-wheeler easily parted company when they hit the weak ice and open water.

Wodash indicated that he doesn't enjoy the thought of being a "poster boy" for the dangers of thin ice. But he agreed to the interview, admitting that his momentary lapse in judgment might be a cautionary tale for others.

Long Lake is speckled with fish houses, but another was in the water near the island. Aeration areas are clearly marked. The county has aerated lakes which creates open water since the early 1980s. Aeration helps fish survive low oxygen levels in shallow lakes.