Risk life for a fish dinner

“3 Die In Mishap On Lake Erie Ice
Anglers drive into open water, drown

By Erica Blake
And Kelly Lecker
Blade Staff Writer

Ottawa County officials leave a plane Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2001, in Port Clinton, Ohio, that carried the bodies of three men whose all-terrain vehicle fell through the ice in Lake Erie. The bodies were taken to the Ottawa County Regional Airport for the coroner to examine. Killed were Stanley Puster, 60, of Lakeville and Howard Taylor, 73, and Robert Shammo, 65, both of Shreve, authorities said. (AP Photo/Fremont News Messenger, Ben French)

MIDDLE BASS ISLAND - Three fishermen disoriented by fog and blinding snow lost their way to a group of ice shanties on Lake Erie yesterday and drove their all-terrain vehicle into open water.

It's uncertain when the men disappeared; the first sign of trouble on the ice was a lone cooler bobbing in the water and vehicle tracks leading to broken ice.

The man who found the cooler called police at 2:28 p.m. Diving teams were on the ice by 3:21 p.m., said Ottawa County chief deputy Mark Putnam.

Minutes later, the first diver found all three men in 10 feet of water about 15 feet from the four-wheeler, which still had a trailer attached. The men had fallen into a hole roughly the size of four parking spaces. They were found with their fishing equipment.

The men were identified as Howard Taylor, 73, and Robert Shammo, 65, both of Shreve, Ohio, and Stanley Puster, 60, of Lakeville, Ohio.

The men were found 1/4-mile northeast of Sugar Island between Middle Bass Island and North Bass Island.

Diver Roger Garn from the Ottawa County sheriff's office said the water where the men were found was clear. It didn't appear that they were trapped under the ice, but more likely couldn't make it out of the frigid water. They did not have floatation devices.

Authorities said the men could not have survived in the water more than a couple of minutes.

Ice fishermen and rescue workers tried to figure out what happened. A diver speculated the victims might have thought they were following flags used to mark trails on solid ice but were looking at markers in holes that fishermen no longer were using.

Pat Chrysler, an ice fishing guide who knows the men, said they were about 11/2 miles east off the path to their destination - a group of about 100 ice shanties off Rattlesnake Island. He believes they got confused and wandered off the ice.

''We traced their tracks in the snow,'' Mr. Chrysler said. ''They were en route to their shanties that were north of Rattlesnake Island and they got twisted around because of the snow - it was snowing like crazy. They ended up going about a mile and a half east and rode out into open water.''

The National Weather Service in Cleveland reported wind, snow, and cold in the morning and early afternoon around Middle Bass Island. Snow fell throughout that time, accumulating 1 to 2 inches and combining with fog to limit visibility.

"It's kind of hard to say what the visibility was out there, but on land some visibility dropped to half a mile at times," said meteorologist Frank Kieltyka. "So it's possible it could have been even lower on the ice."

Dale Burris was on his dock outside his Middle Bass Island home when he saw something sticking out of the ice in the distance.

''I got on my hovercraft and headed in that direction. When I got there, I saw a big plastic cooler near a hole in the ice. At that point, I knew something was wrong. I knew someone was in the lake. So I headed back and started calling around to get help,'' he said.

Mr. Taylor owned a cottage on Middle Bass Island, where the men started out. Mr. Chrysler talked to that man's family after the accident.

"This is sad. Really sad," he said.

The three men flew to Middle Bass Island on Monday morning to fish. Authorities believe they headed out yesterday morning to the ice shanty they had on the lake.

The men's bodies were taken to the hangar at the Erie-Ottawa Regional Airport just east of Port Clinton and later were taken to the Lucas County coroner's office, where autopsies will be conducted.

Rescue workers congregated at the hangar while they tried to sort out what happened.

The ice under the shanties at Rattlesnake Island is about 13 inches deep, according to fishermen.

''It's a great spot for ice fishing,'' Mr. Chrysler said. "Where our shanties are sitting - and we have 100 shanties out there - we have 13 inches of ice. As far as we're concerned, the ice is in good shape.''

But the ice on much of the rest of Lake Erie is deceptively thin, authorities said.

Warming temperatures and currents caused by heavy winds have broken up the ice to the point where it is not safe to be on most parts of Lake Erie, said Marblehead Coast Guard Petty Officer Jason Gale.

"We can't tell anybody to stay off the ice, but it is very unsafe," he said. "We have open water from the station to the islands."

The Coast Guard is not able to patrol constantly the area around the islands, officials said.

Anglers still have a few shanties out on the ice, but most of the lake is empty as the ice cracks up and melts.

Petty Officer Gale said even when fishermen are on solid ice, they should take cell phones, flares, and life jackets in case something happens.”