Mild winters make for an unpredictable fishing season, officials say

By Samantha Reed

BELLEVILLE – Mild winter temperatures could be bad news for fisherman as the fish population decreases in warmer water, according to a government biologist.

Jim Hoyle said the migration patterns of fish change in a lake at any given time.

“The Bay of Quinte is mainly walleye, salmon and trout,” he said. “Walleye, for example leave the Bay of Quinte and migrate to Lake Ontario in May for the summer months,” he said.

Depending on if it’s cold or warm, it will affect the timing of the migration. For example, in a cold summer, Walleye may not migrate back into the Bay of Quinte until a little later in the fall.

This affects the fall fishing season, Hoyle said, as the fish population often decreases in milder winters because reproduction is not as strong.

“We often find that the production of walleye is related to how cold or severe the winter is,” he said. “Walleye spawn in the spring in April, and in cold winters, we usually see that the spawning is more successful.”

Hoyle said they don’t know all of the reasons why they reproduce better in the cold, but the survival of predators could be one.

“The walleye’s main competitors and predators – the White Perch – often die off because of the cold winter,” said Hoyle.

It is not just the winter months that impact fish survival, said Hoyle.

“If it’s a really cold spring, for example, walleye could have poor survival,” he said.

Mild weather isn’t just all bad news, said Scott Walcott, owner of Bay of Quinte Charters.

“It does give the fishery a little bit of a break, because typically speaking the winter, there’s an awful lot of pressure on the ice fishing from anglers,” he said.

The number of fish harvested this season is significantly lower than previous years, putting less pressure on the fishery.

“The Bay of Quinte is world renowned for ice fishing, there are an awful lot of anglers, especially because the amount of equipment you need is so little,” he said.

But neither Walcott nor Hoyle could say how the summer fishing season is going to look.

“It’s a little more predictable if we were having a cold winter, it’s less predictable with a mild one,”said Hoyle. “With a really mild winter, you probably can’t have a really good year of production of walleye, but it might not be too bad.”