FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ) – The City of Fond du Lac Fire and Rescue has boats in the waters of Lake Winnebago after reports of a capsized canoe last night.
The initial call coming around 8:30 p.m. Fond du Lac Fire/Rescue says the canoe capsized near Lakeside West. When the call was made, the two were both in the canoe, but were ejected from the boat shortly after making the call. They were able to stay on the line for several minutes while treading water.
According to that call, the canoe was about a mile north of the Fond du Lac River outlet into the lake. The water in the area is about 8-10 feet deep.
Fond du Lac County Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt said on Tuesday that the men managed to maintain cell communication with 911 dispatchers for about a half hour, calling at first while still on the canoe and maintaining communication after they were ejected into the water. He called the conditions on the water at the time “extreme”.
“The three boat operators that we had on our vessel yesterday just by coincidence happen to be our three most experienced boat operators. They are not just longtime veteran boat operators from the sheriff’s office, but they’re fishermen. They’re well versed in Lake Winnebago, and when they got back in, they said this was the worst conditions they have ever been out on Lake Winnebago experiencing,” Waldschmidt said. “The closest shoreline that [the victims] would have been able to get to is the west shoreline, but even that would have been a heck of a swim to make it that far from where we located the vessel and where they were calling 911 from…With four to five foot waves, unless you’re a superior swimmer athlete, it would have been really, really tough to just tread water – much less try to swim in any direction in those conditions. It was hard controlling a boat with twin 200-horsepower engines in those conditions.”
At the time of the search, the water was 42 degrees. Sustained south winds of 25 mph, gusting to 40 mph, caused waves reaching four to five feet high. A combination of waves and low water levels on the lake caused the rescue boat to hit bottom several times in areas that usually would not be of concern.
Rescuers have not been able to locate two missing men, they are said to both be in their 20s and from the Fond Du Lac Area. Neither man was wearing a flotation device. The canoe and other debris was located, but investigators believe the strong winds may be pushing any other evidence north.
He characterizes the operation as a “recovery” effort at this time. Crews have been using boats with side- and bottom-scanning radar to try to find the men.
Additional search teams will be on scene today.
The victims’ names have not been released.
