Newspaper article about Adam Laporte
Adam K. LaPorte’s friends remembered the Superior resident this morning as a helpful, friendly man passionate about fishing and the outdoors.
LaPorte, 37, drowned in the St. Louis River Saturday after his vehicle broke through the ice near Kilner Bay, off the Superior Municipal Forest south of Billings Park.
LaPorte, a professional muskie guide during the summer, was leading three men in separate vehicles to a crappie fishing spot in Kimballs Bay when his Jeep broke through the ice, friend and fellow muskie guide Dustin Carlson said.
The men following LaPorte reported the accident shortly after 7 a.m.
“He knew the St. Louis like the back of his hand,” Carlson said. “He was in that exact same spot, driving, a week before.”
Carlson visited the site of Saturday’s accident with LaPorte’s family on Sunday.
“There’s over 2 feet of ice, and literally 3 feet away there was just a skim of ice and you could see the water underneath,” he said.
Rescue personnel reached the spot where LaPorte’s SUV broke through and sank in 12 to 14 feet of water about 8 a.m., after having to shuttle divers to the location using ATVs and snowmobiles.
“One of my sergeants was the first one in the water, and he could only get within 20 or 30 feet [of where the vehicle broke through] because the ice was only an inch thick there,” Superior Police Department Capt. Chad La Lor said. “A lot of times the divers will go right through the hole the vehicle made. He could not get anywhere near that close.”
Visibility at the river’s bottom was zero, forcing the divers to work totally by feel as they recovered LaPorte’s body.
The accident also killed LaPorte’s dog, Bailey.
“She fished every day with him,” Carlson said.
A licensed guide for more than 17 years, LaPorte grew up in Vilas and Oneida counties in Northeastern Wisconsin. He had lived in Superior for several years. Last year he joined forces with fellow muskie guides Carlson of Duluth, Pete Brzezinski of Superior and Bob Benson of Chetek, Wis., to form Northland Muskie Adventures last year to guide anglers in Northeastern Minnesota and Northwestern Wisconsin.
“He would do anything for you,” a shaken Brzezinski said of LaPorte, who had been over Thursday to help hang drywall in Brezinski’s basement. “He would work a full day and then come over and help.”
Brzezinski said LaPorte worked well with people.
“He was second to none, top-notch” when guiding, he said.
“Part of guiding is educating people,” Carlson said. “He was a great instructor. He loved teaching people about the outdoors in general, not only about muskie fishing, but just about anything. ”
“You don’t like to think about it, but if Adam was going to go out and pass away, he was doing what he loved to do. He was going out fishing,” Carlson said.
Authorities are reminding people to be extremely cautious when deciding whether to drive vehicles onto ice. Ice conditions — especially on rivers and areas with springs and currents — can be very unpredictable.
