MINNEAPOLIS – Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the ice, the carp have struck.

So far, the finny monsters have almost claimed two vehicles on Lake Elysian in southern Minnesota.

The two trucks broke through the ice last week when it should have been at its thickest during some of the coldest weather of the winter. But the ice had been thinned by the swirling action of carp below, according to Department of Natural Resources and law enforcement officials. One of the trucks had to be towed out after two wheels crashed through the ice, but the other was able to be driven off.

Ice travelers across most of Minnesota aren’t at risk of carp nipping at their boots. Most Minnesota lakes are deeper than Lake Elysian and have diverse fish species, few of which swim in schools as carp do.

Lake Elysian, though it also has a good population of walleye and northern pike, has the misfortune of being shallow, fertile and thick with carp.

“They are extremely abundant,” said area DNR fisheries manager Hugh Valiant.

One man in the area used to do commercial netting for carp on the lake, but hasn’t in recent years, said Erv Halstead of nearby Waterville, president of the Minnesota Dark House Anglers Association. The same is true, he said, on nearby Lake Jefferson.

“I got a call from a guy on Lake Jefferson, and he said the ice was an inch and a half thick,” Halstead said. “I was up on Jefferson in December when the ice was clear and you could see carp schooling in both directions as far as the eye could see – 30 pounds down to 2 pounds. They’re just like agitators.”

Waseca County Chief Deputy Sheriff Brad Milbrath said two ATVs went through the ice earlier this season during warmer weather, but he said he can’t recall any other vehicles crashing through the ice in his 18 years in the office. Because of the timing of those ATVs falling through, it’s unclear how much of a factor the carp would have been.

Milbrath isn’t banning travel on Lake Elysian or other area lakes because of the carp action, but he is advising people not to drive on the ice.

“We always tell people the ice is never safe no matter how thick it is,” he said.

Halstead thinks word has gotten around about the risk on Lake Elysian: “Everybody’s getting scared now.”

Ice-fishing shacks have to be off lakes in the southern half of Minnesota by Feb. 28 and the northern half by March 15.