The New York Times-20080126-Where the Ice Bowl Meets the Ice

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Where the Ice Bowl Meets the Ice

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The home of the Otter Street Fishing Club is Jerry's Bar, family owned since 1911, nestled in a neighborhood a few blocks from frozen Lake Winnebago.

This is where two passions intersect, where ice fishermen love the Packers and football fans fish in frozen waters.

The club counts about 1,000 locals among its membership. Almost all of them are Packers fans, and last Sunday they had to choose between frozen tundras, between catching fish or catching the Packers' playoff game on television.

One contingent made its way to Jerry's Bar. They wore Brett Favre jerseys, and green and gold beads, and consumed adult beverages while the pregame show played on a flat-screen television.

This is a neighborhood bar, Andrew Haskins, a 24-year-old bartender, said. Everyone talks ice fishing. And Packers football.

Folks here pass both passions to their children, placing fishing poles in cribs with Packers logos on the side. Ask local ice fishermen when they became Packers fans, and they answer almost universally: At birth. Ask local Packers fans when they became ice fishermen, and they answer much like 28-year-old Chad Unmuth.

Since my dad could drag me out there, Unmuth said. That's my church.

Last Sunday, a few blocks from the bar, two ice shanties dotted a white horizon that stretched for miles. They belonged to Bob Corey, 43, and Eric Grundman, 23, both ice fishermen with minimal interest in the Packers.

Inside tents heated by generators, they drilled holes through the ice and searched for perch. They can each catch up to the limit of 25 each day, and by noon, they had five perch inside a bucket in Corey's tent.

They told stories of other fishermen who took televisions to their tents, hooked them up to generators and watched the Packers on TV. They noted the lack of neighbors on that Sunday afternoon.

You look around, there will be thousands of people up here on a normal day, Corey said. Just thousands. It slowed down around here.

The crowds should return this weekend and the next, when the Giants and the New England Patriots play in the Super Bowl. Everyone here expected the Packers to be playing, but the Giants ended their season with a surprise victory at Lambeau Field.

While N.F.L. fans across the world will turn their attention to sunny Arizona, the football fans at Lake Winnebago will turn back toward their other passion, the frozen-fishing kind.

Like the Dumke family. Their house is on the shore of Lake Winnebago, and on the perfect Sunday, Art Dumke can set up fishing equipment beyond his backyard and watch the Packers inside on his big-screen television.

When the Packers played host to the Seahawks in a playoff game two weeks ago, Dumke did exactly that. He was interrupted by a knock at the door and could not help but wonder who in the world would be stopping by during a Packers playoff game.

It was the warden, Dumke said. Turns out he was a Bears fan.

Dumke became an ice fisherman and a Packers fan at birth, same as most folks around here. His ice shanty measures 8 feet by 14 feet, and has a wood-burning stove on which he grills bratwurst.

When you go out there in the middle of the lake, it's like you're on the moon, Dumke said. It's complete solitude. I love the nature buzz. You're hooting and hollering and nobody can hear you.

His wife, Julie, and daughters Hannah, 14, and Maddie, 12, spent last Sunday at the house, preparing for the game. They wore Packers jerseys and hats and sweatshirts. They tossed a football in the snow.

They also played a family game involving the jersey numbers of Packers players. Dad called out a number, and his daughters guessed the player. An incorrect answer earned them 30 seconds outside, barefoot in the snow.

I've got a Packers story for you, Art Dumke said. My daughter was about 4. I come home from work, and I'm like, 'Who's the greatest guy in the world?' I was hoping she would say Dad. She answered first Jesus, then Santa Claus, then Mike Holmgren.

Holmgren is the former Packers coach, the one with the street named after him near the stadium in Green Bay. To Packers fans, Holmgren sometimes walked on water. Much like fans at Lake Winnebago, since it is frozen.

Every year, folks have a party on the ice on March 1. The lake melts around St. Patrick's Day. Both passions are shelved then, at least temporarily.

But at least we have the Packers' off-season, Dumke said.

[Illustration]PHOTOS: Eric Grundman, far right, and Bob Corey were two of the only ice fishermen who set up shanties on Lake Winnebago, above, during the Green Bay Packers' playoff game last Sunday.(PHOTOGRAPHS BY EROL REYAL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)MAP: Lake Winnebago is a favorite ice fishing spot in Wisconsin. Map details area of Lake Winnebago, WISCONSIN.