It was late in the day on Feb. 11, and Jake Drahota had just set up his ice-fishing gear on Big Elk Lake. The lake, part of the Briggs Lake Chain in Sherburne County, Minnesota, is near Drahota’s hometown, but he’d never fished it previously. He was hoping to catch a few pike.
“It was a pretty warm, sunny day, and there was slush on the ice,” Drahota tells Outdoor Life. “The ice was two feet thick, but the sun made the surface sloshy and slippery.”
After fishing for a bit, Drahota heard distant shouting. He looked in that direction and spotted a parked truck, not far from open water. Then he noticed a canvas shanty on the ice that was askew.
“Most of them are square shaped, but this one was cocked,” the 21-year-old engineering undergraduate says. “I thought that was odd, so I went to check it out.”
The closer he got to the shelter, the louder the shouting became. Drahota realized someone was in distress.
The ice shelter was partially collapsed. When he looked inside, he discovered a man submerged waist-deep in a square hole cut in the ice. The man, who looked about 70 years old, was holding on to the inside of the collapsed shelter. It was still partially anchored into the ice. But the water was deeper than the man was tall, says Drahota, and if the shelter pulled free, or he eventually tired, the man likely would have gone under and drowned.
Drahota grabbed the struggling man, named Mike, and pulled him out of the icy water. Mike told Drahota he’d slipped and fallen in while trying to spear a pike. He’d been in the frigid water since 2 p.m., or roughly three hours.
“He thought he was going to die after being in the water that long. He was praying someone would hear his cries for help. It was a miracle I heard him yelling when I did because it was almost night, and it would have gotten a lot colder soon.”
Mike was so cold he couldn’t walk, so Drahota dragged the man to his vehicle, helped him get inside, and started the engine. He took off Mike’s boots to help his feet warm, the truck’s heater blasting on high.
While he warmed up, Drahota retrieved Mike’s cell phone from the shelter and called his family members to come collect him. Mike said he didn’t want medical assistance.
“Several people in a few cars showed up, and they took over from there. I shook Mike’s hand, he thanked me, and they left.”
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Drahota says Mike’s daughter phoned him recently to thank him again, and to say that Mike had fully recovered.
“It’s a miracle that I was nearby to hear his shouting for help. I’m just glad I was able to help him. Otherwise, I don’t know what could have happened.”