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Lake Winnipeg ice fisherman stuck in storm rescued by guide

A first-time ice fisherman was stuck on Lake Winnipeg for almost five hours in the blizzard-like conditions on Sunday — a problem caused by inexperience and lack of preparation, his rescuer says.

Richard Griffiths and two friends, who have ice fished on the lake before, arrived on the lake at 6 a.m. in clear conditions.

"It was beautiful out in the morning. There were shacks all around us. At about 200 yards, you could see everybody," said the Winnipeg man.

They were fishing in a shack with no windows about a mile away from the southwest shore, south of Matlock, Man.

"The next thing you know, we go outside and you can't see the shacks around us. Couldn't see 10 feet in front of us."

They knew there would be winds at 30 km/h but they didn't expect it to get any worse, he said. The strongest wind gusts came in at 80 km/h on Sunday.

They packed up into his friend's jeep and tried using the GPS on their phones to guide them back to shore.

"We'd get about 50 feet, get stuck, pull the shovels out, get another 50 feet, pull the shovels out," he said. "We couldn't see one direction to the next."

His friend posted in a Manitoba ice fishing group on Facebook that they were stuck and about a dozen people came out in trucks to help them and others stuck on the ice.

"It was amazing to see that happen," he said. "They could have been sitting inside watching the wind blow."

By the time someone found them to help, their gas light was on.

A guy whose truck was stuck had joined them to stay warm.

"He said his legs were about to freeze off. He couldn't feel them," Griffiths said. "There were some people out there who were in worse condition than us."

They finally got off the lake at around 6:20 p.m., Griffiths said.

He wasn't too worried about being stuck because they had a propane heater to keep them warm in case they had to stay the night, he said.

"I like the adventure. It was kind of fun," he said.

Stuck fishermen inexperienced, guide says

Donovan Pearase, owner and operator of the guiding business Blackwater Cats Outfitter, saved Griffiths and his friends, along with about half a dozen other people stuck on the ice on Sunday.

"Guys are very excited to get out and catch fish in all conditions, but inexperience was the big problem [of] the day," he said. "All you're doing is putting other people in danger that have to come rescue you."

Pearase works as an ice fishing guide on Lake Winnipeg. He was out on Sunday fishing off the west side of the lake when he received several messages with the GPS co-ordinates of about a dozen people who were stuck within a few miles of each other on the lake.

Pearase spent almost three hours pulling trucks out of snow drifts and showing them off the lake in his track truck.

"That was the silliest, stupidest thing I've ever seen," he said of Griffith and his friends using the Jeep to ice fish.

"No matter how mad I get, you don't leave anybody out there."

Pearase said even trucks aren't enough to get through the eight- to 10-foot snow drifts that pile up at the access points to the lake when winds are as high as they were on Sunday.

"They think they've got their big 4x4 truck, souped-up and everything else, they can get through anything, but their tires [are] on a snow-filled lake in whiteout conditions with blasting wind. Everybody's just lucky it wasn't –25," he said. "If I wasn't out there that day and it was –25, what would some of these guys done?"

He said if the wind is more than 25 to 30 k/h, people should rethink ice fishing unless they're extremely prepared and know how to handle those conditions.

"No one has to die to get the message," he said.

People should fish with at least one other person, and each person should bring a 4x4 truck with a full tank of gas, Pearase said. Everyone should bring a metal shovel, cellphone, GPS, phone charger, tow rope, food and water, he said.

"And that's that bare minimum to go on Lake Winnipeg," he said. "If you're going to go out on Lake Winnipeg, come prepared to spend the night, and then you'll be ok."