FARMINGTON – Two ice fishermen moving a shack from one lake to another became lost in a snowstorm Wednesday night, drove onto thin ice and sank into Webb Lake near Weld.

Craig Coulombe and Willfred Gagne, both of Farmington, were in a pickup truck pulling an ice shack on a trailer from Embden Pond to Webb Lake when the mishap occurred, according to Deborah Turcotte of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

Coulombe, who was driving his 1999 Dodge 1500, was traveling on the north end of Webb Lake to the Dummers Beach area where he dropped off the shack, Turcotte said.

When leaving, the men became disoriented by the snowstorm. They later told Game Warden Kris MacCabe that they believed they were driving north when they were heading south.

Warden MacCabe said the men drove the entire length of the lake before going onto thin ice and open water at the narrow part of the lake near Webb River.

The front end of the truck crashed through the ice and sank. Wardens MacCabe and Josh Smith responded to the ice anglers’ call for help and helped get the men to safety. Neither fisherman was hurt.

On Thursday, as the first attempt to retrieve the truck was made, it sank farther when the trailer was removed from the back, Turcotte said. Water rose halfway up the doors on both sides of the pickup.

Tow-truck operators were hampered by ice breaking around the pickup but by nightfall, it was successfully hauled off the lake. The amount of damage was not known. Coulombe and Gagne could not be reached for comment.