On my personal list of "things I've done but never want to do again," going ice-fishing is right near the top. It's right next to diaper-changing and eating haggis (although, those two things are remarkably similar).

I don't know if any of the 66 ice-fisherman who needed rescuing from the frigid waters of Sturgeon Bay, off of Green Bay, Wisconsin feel the same way or not, but given the dire situation they found themselves in yesterday, it would be totally understandable.

WBAY.com reports:

The U.S. Coast Guard worked with local and state agencies to rescue 66 people stranded on three separate ice floes that became detached from shore in Door County.

Those on the ice noticed a break at around 9 A.M. Thursday, but by then it was too late. The ice broke off and traveled more than 1,000 feet from ice attached to shore, trapping the fishermen.

As I mentioned above, I've been ice-fishing before. A good friend who was born and raised in Minnesota talked me into...dragged me out onto a frozen lake in Ohio once to experience the joys of 7-plus hours of freezing my butt off while looking into a frozen hole, holding a stick. We didn't catch much of anything but a buzz, thanks to the copious amounts of alcohol that were stashed in our ice-shack, or "ice-shanty" as they called it.

All things considered, I'm glad I went, but there's never going to be the need for an encore performance.

I didn't have the option of a Coast Guard rescue when I was out on the ice, but luckily for all concerned in Wisconsin yesterday, these ice-fisherman did.

 

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