MADISON, Wis. — One week it is warm, and another it is cold. Unpredictable winter weather is leaving many Midwest ice fishermen with no other choice than to pack up the auger and take to the waters by boat.
Brian Oberfoell is the owner of Widow Maker lures, a lure company based in Iowa. He said Wisconsin has had one of the better winters this year compared to some other states. Oberfoell was one of many who setup at Wisconsin’s largest fishing expo at the Alliant Energy Center this weekend.
“The southern end of the ice belt has been drastically affected this year, obviously with very poor ice conditions,” said Oberfoell. “Some of our shops in Indiana and Michigan literally had ice for days.”
Oberfoell sells his lures at shops throughout the U.S. and in areas where ice fishing is popular. He said shop owners are all worried about the same thing.
“I know they are stuck with a lot of big-ticket items, like the power auger, shakes, stuff like that, I have definitely seen worry about some of the shop owners,” said Oberfoell.
The warmer winters aren’t all negative. Steve Hammer, owner of Hammer Time Lures, said these higher temperatures have been boosting his sales.
“We do a lot of custom painting of crank baits, we do jigs, we do all different spoons, so a lot of the customers that we have down in Ohio, they have been fishing all winter long,” said Hammer.
Hammer said many of his customers haven’t even put their boats away this season and while many of his customers are happy about the warm temperature’s others enjoy the cold weather.
“I have talked to a lot of people up here who have been ice fishing, but down in Ohio people like to go out on the boats, they like to be able to keep fishing the way they fish all year long,” said Hammer.
Oberfoell believes that there is still a large number of people who truly enjoy getting out on the ice in the winter. The problem is, no one knows what the winters will look like in the years to come.
“I think a lot of these people are frustrated with this crazy weather we have had and obviously are going to have to take it into the open water market now,” he said. “And hopefully next year we can have a strong season after a couple up and down ones.”