Fishers killed after sudden snowstorm on Moose Lake

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This article was published 14/10/2018 (2019 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A remote Manitoba Cree community is coming to grips with the death of two men caught out in a storm on the lake they had fished for years.

A sudden, unseasonable snowstorm turned northern Moose Lake treacherously turbulent this past weekend, Mosakahiken Cree Nation Chief Jim Tobacco said Monday, in the wake of an RCMP news release on the incident.

He described the community as sombre and subdued in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Local residents conducted a search and found the pair, described as close friends, dead in a partially submerged, 22-foot boat pulled up on a gravel shore Sunday afternoon.

One man was 39, the other 49 — both were experienced fishermen who had fished the lake many times before, officials said. One man left behind a family with eight children.

“The community is kind of quiet,” the chief said in a phone interview, adding the mood in the community was understandably sombre.

“It’s a community tragedy,” he said. “All the community feels the loss.”

Tobacco said Mosakahiken is closely knit, and everybody knows everybody else. The community has a population of about 2,300, and is located 475 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

According to police, two boats headed out to a local fishing camp Saturday afternoon on nearby Big Island, about 10 kilometres southeast of the community. One boat carried three fishers, and the other carried the pair who were later found dead — all experienced boaters.

The lake was hit with an unseasonable storm that night. Weather reports showed high winds and blowing snow.

Community members called RCMP on Sunday to say both boats were overdue. The three fishermen turned up safe but the other boat never made it to the camp.

It — and the bodies of the two missing fishers — was found later Sunday afternoon. RCMP said they were alerted to the discovery shortly after 4 p.m., and are investigating the deaths. Autopsies are scheduled for both men.

The chief said it appeared the boat ran into trouble on the lake in the rough weather and tried to make landfall.

“They were so close. All I know is they went out (on the lake), and they ran into trouble,” he said, adding hypothermia was the likeliest cause of death.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca