Two anglers have fallen through the ice at Lake Darling State Park in the last couple weeks.

Fellow anglers and Department of Natural Resources staff assisted in getting them out of the water and they are okay. The recent warm temperatures and precipitation have deteriorated the ice, making it unsafe for ice fishing. Iowa Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Biologist Chad Dolan says the ice thickness at Lake Darling is extremely variable, “I can’t say definitively that our ice fishing season is over but there are strong indications that that is probably true. We are going into a situation where we’ve got some colder weather forecast, but again it may refreeze things but the damage has already been done to the ice. And refrozen ice, that’s already been degraded, usually is suspect and weak as well, and not really conducive to ice angling.”

Dolan says ice conditions this season have been better than the last several years, though it’s come with the price of cold wind conditions. Dolan urges anglers not to go out on the ice at this time, and to look forward to the spring fishing season.