Ice fisherman dies after apparently falling, DCNR says
Authorities on Friday morning recovered the body of a fisherman who apparently fell through thin ice at Beltzville Lake during Thursday’s unseasonably warm day, according to the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
Spokesman Terry Brady said the 70-year-old man was from Bethlehem, but authorities had not released his name. The Carbon County Coroner’s Office will perform an autopsy Monday morning.
Brady said divers recovered the body at about 11 a.m. Friday near a patch of ice where crews found his fishing equipment late Thursday. Some of the gear the man was using to bait the fish was floating in the water, as the ice where it had been secured had already melted, Brady said.
State police were called to assist the DCNR at 8:12 p.m. Thursday, when the fisherman’s wife alerted police that he had not come home from his fishing. Authorities found his vehicle parked at the Preacher’s Camp parking area before heading out onto the water. The search began around 8:30 p.m. Thursday and involved the Towamensing Fire Company and Lehighton Fire Department’s Search and Rescue Team. It lasted until about 11 p.m. and resumed Friday morning.
Temperatures on Thursday were around 70 degrees in the area, shattering records in the Lehigh Valley to the south. Water temperatures at Beltzville Lake have recently been hovering around 38 degrees.
Brady said portions of the lake are still covered in ice at Beltzville, but it’s not clear just how much remains.
During the winter months, Pennsylvania state parks post advisories about snow totals and ice thickness where applicable. The latest update at Beltzville indicated that the ice was not being monitored, but warned visitors that ice must be 4 inches thick for an individual, 6 inches thick for ice boating and 7 inches thick for a small group. Visitors should bring safety equipment and be prepared to test ice thickness with an auger, according to posts on the park’s website.
Brady said state officials “avidly and actively” warn would-be fishers about going out on the ice in the springtime.
“We try to educate ice fishermen about the dangers of spring ice,” he said. “It’s very unreliable. Pockets of water can form within it and it becomes porous and weak.”
Brady said the thickness of the ice can change overnight or over the course of a few hours in the daylight, creating an unpredictable danger to anyone recreating on the lake.