Wisconsin’s annual Governor’s Fishing Opener will go on without the governor.
The kickoff event, Saturday, May 4 at Lake Namakagon, just east of Cable, marks the beginning of the fishing season on the state’s inland waters. But the snowstorm that pummeled northern Wisconsin this week – and the forecasts calling for more snow and freezing rain today and tomorrow – forced Gov. Scott Walker to postpone his trip.
Many area lakes are still frozen after the coldest March on record was followed by an exceptionally snowy April.
“It’s the latest ice-out in history, following the earliest ice-out last year,” says James Bolen, who directs the Cable Area Chamber of Commerce. He says there’s about 10 inches of hard-packed snow on the ground in Cable.
Still, the opener and its festivities will otherwise continue as planned. “Guides are going around finding spots to fish” on the partially open Lake Namakagon, James says. Some activities, like the fly fishing workshop, will move indoors.
“[The governor’s] office said he wants to spend some time up here fishing,” says James, so the governor will visit the lake and surrounding communities in a few weeks – when, one can only hope, winter has finally released the region from its grip.