WILLIAMS, Minn. — Curt Quesnell was fishing east of Long Point on the south shore of Lake of the Woods on Monday afternoon when he got a message with a short video from a buddy that a large crack had opened up less than a mile off Long Point, and several anglers were stranded on the north side of the crack.

While Quesnell wasn’t far from the crack, he was on the shoreline side of the fissure set up over about 25 feet of water. It wasn’t where he wanted to be fishing, Quesnell said, but the crack that opened up at about 3 p.m. Monday, driven by strong south winds, had prevented him from fishing where he wanted to fish pretty much all winter.

“I put the phone down, and then I got another message saying that a crack opened up, and people are stranded on the other side,” said Quesnell, who lives near Long Point and fishes the big Canadian border lake nearly every day, posting regular updates on his popular NCOR Outdoors YouTube Channel.

In a news release issued late Tuesday afternoon, the Lake of the Woods County Sheriff’s Office said it was notified shortly before 2:30 p.m. Monday that a male had gone through the ice with his ATV about a mile off Long Point but was able to get out with no injuries.

Shortly before 3 p.m., the sheriff’s office received a report that 20 to 25 people were stranded on the north side of the crack in the ice. At that time, Long Point Resort was using a 16-foot boat to shuttle people across the open water to the shoreline side of the crack, where they then were taken to shore by snowmobile or light utility vehicle, the sheriff’s office said.

Personnel from the Lake of the Woods County Sheriff’s Office, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Baudette Fire and Rescue and Lake of the Woods Ambulance responded, the news release said. Sheriff’s office and DNR rescuers then used airboats and UTVs to assist in returning the stranded anglers — about 50 in all — to shore.

“You know, you hear about these ice rescues all the time, but it was actually a pretty relaxed deal,” Quesnell said of Monday’s rescue effort.

The crack, also known as a “pressure ridge” in the ice fishing lexicon, should seal back up as soon as the wind switches to the north, Quesnell predicted. Based on photos of the rescue circulating on social media, Quesnell said he estimates the crack was about 100 feet wide in the area where the boats were crossing.

Pressure ridges aren’t unusual, especially on large bodies of water such as Lake of the Woods, as ice sheets are constantly moving. It’s best to avoid pressure ridges where they occur, however.

Quesnell, who is also a fishing guide, said he has canceled all of his winter guide trips so far because he hasn’t been able to safely get to the area he wants to fish.

Satellite imagery on Monday showed a crack extending all the way from the west side of Lake of the Woods near Springsteel north of Warroad and northeast past Long Point nearly to the Ontario border several miles north of Lighthouse Gap. Another large crack could be seen in Buffalo Bay in Manitoba waters and from Stony Point at the southern tip of the Northwest Angle and east past Garden Island to the Ontario border.

The ice in the area where he was fishing, which is within a couple hundred yards of the crack off Long Point, was about 12 inches thick, Quesnell said.

“We haven’t gained any ice for three weeks,” he said. “And the ice is actually starting to get a little chunky when you drill it out. It’s not all powdery like ice should be when you’re grinding it out of (the hole).

“It’s not real good — it just has to get cold, that’s all.”

Monday’s rescue is the latest in a string of ice-related incidents that have occurred in recent days, the result of unseasonably warm temperatures and late December rain that further deteriorated ice conditions.

On Friday night, emergency crews using boats and airboats rescued 122 anglers from an ice floe on the southeast side of Upper Red Lake in Beltrami County after the ice detached from the main shoreline. The rescue, one of several so far this winter on Upper Red, prompted the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office to issue a bulletin later that evening prohibiting motorized vehicles from going on the ice until further notice.

Thursday morning, a 78-year-old Wisconsin man drowned when the Bombardier tracked vehicle in which he was riding broke through about 12 inches of ice near Flag Island on Lake of the Woods’ Northwest Angle while en route to a fishing spot. The driver and six other passengers were able to escape the vehicle.

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