Ice fishing is not recommended over about the southern third of Iowa and caution is advised across the state. D-N-R conservation officer Michael Miller recently had to rescue an ice fisherman who fell through the ice on West Lake near Osceola. Miller says people may get fooled by a couple of cold days and think the ice is safe.

“It takes some pretty extreme conditions to make ice…and now we are having open water and when that water gets blown around by the wind, that weakens the ice,” Miller says. Temperatures were rising again Friday and Miller says that also adds to the problem.

“You don’t make very much ice on sub-32 degree days this time of year,” Miller says, “it needs to be 32 and under for considerable amounts of time.” He says far more ice is lost on warm days than is gained when the temperature might dip down below 32 at night. Miller says the water remains cold and the is a bigger concern when someone falls through the ice than drowning as it does not take long for hypothermia to set in and be deadly.

(Radio Iowa)