NAMUR, Wis. – Twelve ice fishermen were stranded for hours on a huge chunk of ice that broke off from shore Thursday and floated into Green Bay, but rescue crews plucked them all safely from the large ice sheet, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Three groups of fishermen had ventured onto the ice, bringing pickup trucks and all-terrain vehicles. But a large fissure ripped through the floe when a freighter passed through the bay, creating ripples that combined with high winds to break the ice.

The pickups and ATVs remained behind, and though there’s a good chance they’ll be recovered if the ice re-freezes, one wonders how insurance agents in ice-bound waters feel about this sort of thing.

As always, the Underground remains ever-steadfast in its support of those who choose to fish atop frozen bodies of water, though we draw the line at anything that might increase our auto insurance rates.

See you on the ice floe, Tom Chandler