Smith: Amid poor ice, an airboat provides access and adventure for anglers on Green Bay
LUXEMBURG – Under muted light Sunday morning, Green Bay stretched west of Red River County Park like a mysterious, gray expanse.
In places jumbled plates of ice were piled in ridges. In others the surface slumped into dark, slushy hollows.
In the distance a large ship pushed through open water.
And something extremely rare for these parts powered its way over the bay's ice and toward the park's boat landing: an airboat.
My ride had arrived.
Bret Alexander, owner of Alexander's Guide Service and Ice Fish Green Bay, rumbled toward shore, cut the engine and slid to a stop.
"Meet our newest addition to the fleet," said Alexander, 53, motioning to the long, flat-bottomed craft. "It's not something we planned on. But with this winter I had to do something."
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Ice conditions make Wisconsin sport fishing a challenge in winter of 2023-24
The winter of 2023-24 is making headlines for being not like a winter. The unusually warm temperatures have limited ice formation on waterbodies in Wisconsin and the Great Lakes.
As of Jan. 1 the Great Lakes had 0.4% ice cover, down from an average of 9% and the lowest documented for the date in the 50 years it's been tracked, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.
And it continued through January. As of Wednesday, NOAA estimated 6.9% ice cover in the Great Lakes, down from a long-term late January average of 29%.
The poor ice conditions have caused dozens of Wisconsin ice fishing derbies to be canceled in recent weeks, including Battle on Bago, the Winnebago System event billed as the state's largest.
In a normal winter Alexander and his son Brody Alexander and other guides with Ice Fish Green Bay would be using UTV's to shuttle hundreds of clients a week to hard-sided fish houses situated offshore.
Most of them would target lake whitefish, a tasty native species that over the last 15 years buoyed a resurgence in ice fishing in Green Bay.
Sunday no fixed shanty was in sight on Green Bay. And no UTV, ATV or snowmobile, either. A few dozen ice anglers traveled by foot a few hundred yards offshore on the uneven ice near Luxemburg and Dyckesville.
The ice is calling the shots.
So in mid-January Bret Alexander called an audible. He purchased an airboat from a guide in Ohio.
Airboats useful in mixed conditions on Lake Michigan
Two weeks ago he learned to drive the boat on a snowy field next to his house. The boat features a steering wheel, gas pedal and a 396-cubic inch engine. A canopy covers two bench seats; it can hold about six adults. Gear is stowed in a compartment on the bow.
You may be more familiar with airboats in the Everglades of Florida. But the craft are also extremely useful in mixed conditions in the North, including open water, slush and ice.
There are no brakes. There are no doors.
I climbed in, Alexander fired up the engine and we slowly gained speed over the rutted nearshore ice.
He picked his way around ice heaves and across cracks and stepped on the gas in open, flat areas.
I felt like a passenger in a World War 1-era biplane.
In 5 minutes we reached our destinate a couple miles offshore: a temporary ice fishing village set atop an area of 10-inch-thick ice.
The group included Brody, Alexander's daughter Portia, friend Matt Stephenson of Sturgeon Bay and four clients, Kevin Wolosek and his son Jacob Wolosek, both of Wisconsin Rapids, and Nazar Kryzko of Chesterton, Indiana and Vlad Melnyk of Chicago.
Fishing for whitefish on Green Bay
We used jigging rods to fish a "whitefish rig" which included a weighted jig at the end of the line tipped with a soft plastic and two hooks higher on the main line tipped with wax worms.
The jig was intended to resemble a round goby, an aquatic invasive species common in the area that are utilized by whitefish. The idea was to bounce the jig on bottom and wait for a fish to come along.
Alexander grew up in Green Bay and has fished the bay's waters his whole life. He started Alexander's Sport Fishing 21 years ago primarily to guide anglers to the region's smallmouth bass, walleye and musky from spring to late fall.
But when he started catching more whitefish in the early 2000s, he helped pioneer the winter fishery for the species. He started Ice Fish Green Bay as a dedicated guide service for the winter months.
Over the last decade trips to fish whitefish in Green Bay have emerged as a tradition for anglers such as Kryzko and Melnyk.
"We enjoy coming up, spending a few days in the area, catching these fish," Melnyk said. "This year we feel lucky to get out at all."
The Green Bay whitefish population is in good shape, said Scott Hansen, a fisheries biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
According to DNR records, the sport harvest of whitefish in Green Bay was 1,559 fish in 2007 but topped 150,000 in four years between 2011 and 2018.
But with relatively poor ice last winter, the sport catch (individual anglers and guided anglers combined) dropped off to 10,465, Hansen said.
And this winter, it's likely to be even lower.
Sunday access to prime, offshore whitefish spots in Green Bay was limited to airboats.
The bite wasn't on fire but we picked up fish periodically, mostly on the jig and soft plastic. The fish ranged from 16 to 20 inches in length.
Trips with clients yielded limits of 10 whitefish each for Alexander's crews on other days last week.
Airboat on Green Bay is one more change for guide
After six hours Alexander used his new chariot to start shuttling people back to shore. The ride in was just as exhilarating as the voyage out. Top speed was about 40 miles per hour.
Alexander hopes the airboat will extend his ice fishing season by at least a couple weeks.
"We've had to roll with lots of changes," Alexander said. "Twenty years ago nobody saw whitefish becoming a key part of the sport fishery. So what's next? I don't know but we'll keep working at it, that's for sure."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Airboat provides access, adventure for fishing on Green Bay's bad ice
