Ice fishing operators feeling the heat
Article content
One of the Long Point area’s ice fishing operators was busy welding in Toronto on Friday.
Another was laying bricks.
And in between, both had one very interested eye on the five-day and extended weather forecasts.
“The weather app on the phone gets looked at a lot,” said Darren Propper, who works for Granger’s Ice Fishing. “A lot.”
“It hurts, it hurts bad,” added Jim Granger, along the shoreline adjacent to his business office Friday afternoon. “I have other work and stay busy – if I didn’t have other work, I’d be on the welfare line.”
“It’s challenging and tough on business,” said James Carroll of Jimmy Riggin Fishing Charters, via cell phone. “It’s frustrating as all get out, but what can you do? Keep plugging away and hope it gets better.”
“Got no choice,” said Granger, in response to a similar question. “You can’t change it – believe me, if I could, we’d have a month under our belts already.”
Area ice fishing operators have essentially experienced a one-day season in 2013, finally getting going last weekend on some of the best and clearest ice ever seen in the area before Mother Nature’s hat-trick of destruction rained down – literally. Existing ice can withstand warm temperatures and even a certain amount of precipitation. But not last week’s combination of double-digit thermometer readings combined with torrential rain – compounded by high winds.
“The wind smashed it all up,” said Carroll, who operates out of Old Cut. As of Friday, there was an existing slab of old ice he said, linked to shoreline by a tenuous two inches of new material.
Granger was facing a similar scenario over at St. Williams. The ice was hanging in despite the warm rain, he said.
“And then those big winds came – other than that, we would have limped through it and kept going.
“Mother Nature can be a mean, old girl.”
Granger gazed hopefully eastward, where a portion of old ice remained tucked in against the bulrushes.
“We’ve got this corner of old ice,” he said, “but here, (indicating unstable intervening territory), there’s an inch of ice here and we can’t get to it right now.”
Granger had 10 huts in operation last Sunday, which represented only a fraction of demand.
“I could have run 30,” he said, noting his phone was ‘ringing off the hook,’ with fishers eager to finally open a winter tradition on Long Point’s inner bay.
The season has been brief thus far, says Propper, but did kick off with a comparative bang.
“Big fish, monster fish,” he said, alluding to ‘three or four 15-inch perch caught. “The guys who were out didn’t get many fish, but everybody had big fish.”
Granger’s 10 operational huts are currently sitting in the parking lot, silent shells of discouraging testimony to the state of ice fishing affairs.
“I don’t even like to come down here,” he said. “You come down here, look at the bay and it’s right in depression mode.”
Ice fishing operators face expenses including insurance, machinery, maintenance, equipment and firewood, whether or not they actually get out to recoup on their investment. Granger’s shacks were not making any money sitting in the parking lot, and the fact this year’s challenges go back-to-back with a complete shutout in 2012, exacerbates the problem.
“That sucks, that’s a big hit,” said Carroll, noting the lack of ice means operators essentially work all year for nothing. “Ice is like your gravy money.”
“One thing for sure, we’re saving on fuel,” Granger managed to quip, before adding more seriously, two bad years in a row may prove catastrophic.
“One year, you can survive, you can deal with,” said Granger. “Two years in a row, it’s going to hurt these businesses bad.”
Ultimately, he fears ice fishers will look further north to get their winter fishing fix.
“We’ll lose clientele.”
The pain, he added, is not only felt among operators.
“Ice fishing is a big spinoff,” Granger said. “It impacts us the hardest, the biggest, but there’s more people suffering than just me.”
Gas stations, restaurants and bait and tackle suppliers are among those feeling the heat from an unseasonably warm winter, agreed Carroll.
“Everyone in Port Rowan likes the ice.”
Despite Granger and Propper’s palatable disappointment, they remained optimistic an extended return to winter temperatures, cold nights that are made for ice making, may salvage something of the season.
“We’re down but not out,” Propper declared.
This weekend brought the kind of cold nights ice fisherman and ice fishing operators are praying for, and the forecast suggests similar temperatures will continue into midweek.
“Wishing and hoping,” agreed Granger. “Maybe by midweek, if it stays cold, we can get out there.”
“It’ll harden back up, possibly for next weekend, we’ll go again,” said Carroll hopefully.
Even at a best-case scenario, getting out a week into February means a significant chunk of the season has passed. But at this point, Granger is more-than-prepared to take what Mother Nature is prepared to give him.
“I’d take anything - a week to recover start-up costs. Sure, you’re not going to make any money, but when you start to go backwards, that hurts.”