Ice fisherman from every corner of our region are calling this a year for the record books.

“I haven’t seen a season this good in 25 years,” said one fisherman on Thursday. There are still a lot of people on the move out on our lakes and a lot of huts as well. Don Lunchkiw was out on his ATV on Thursday moving his huts. He has 20 ice huts on Lake Simcoe and expects them to stay there until the bitter end. “We are still making ice. Every night we are making ice.” But the season is slowly coming to an end. Ice huts south of Severn River must be removed by March 15th. Huts north of that can stay out until the end of March.

Robert Wise owns a bait shop in Gravenhurst and he expects to see people fishing much later than we’ve seen in years. But he says even though it’s still cold and the ice is still thick in many spots, people need to keep in mind the conditions can and will change quickly. “If you see ice thinning by the shore you should take that as a sign that the ice is starting to change. If you have trouble getting out onto the ice it might be a sign.” And remember police say that even though there is still ice on area lakes and rivers – you need to use caution as no ice is safe ice. Over in Collingwood Harbour ice hut operators tell us there is still two feet of ice out here and lots of big fish too. The other important deadline for fisherman covers what kind of fish you can catch. The whitefish and trout season also close March 15th. Even though whitefish and trout will be off-limits and permanent ice huts must be removed you can still catch perch after the imposed deadlines by the province.