What 's the cost of no winter?

[Hoppy]

I have lost my whole fishing season and I'm heartbroken but what about the other costs. The problems for the maple syrup industry was already mentioned in another thread. Now I have seen on the news there is a huge algae bloom in Lake Erie because it didn't freeze. I know a lot of you want to get on with the open water fishing, but there has to be more issues with this none winter.

 

What do you think?

 

 

Hoppy

[NAW]

I'm interested to see some of the replies to this. Good post!

 

As for loosing your whole season.. Your from Inissfill right? There lots of ice if you go an hour north! But I hear ya, I'm realling craving some Simcoe white fish

[pikehunters]

The impact is a + & - . Winter services lost but Companies that pay for winter services make out. Environmental impact will yet to be seen. I think it's once every 10 yrs that lake Erie freezes over & the water has been in the low 30's. For the past 20yrs I've worked in the commercial snow removal industry & have had bad years but never this bad. Hopefully the people on the downside will just buckle up & hold on. One thing about mother nature, she has an odd sense of humor!! & we still have along way till we are out of winter. March in Erie can be a brutal month with storms dumping 20" ~ 30" in the belts.

[Roy]

Snow removal for the island of Montreal alone is $145,000,000.00 per year. Tally up all of the towns, cities, villages and roads in Canada and you'll arrive at a number that's still a tiny fraction of what winter costs.

[SBCregal]

i can tell you the automotive repair places have been affected by the weather. no real cold nights means fewer batteries dying, not as many no-start problems. the lack of snowy/icy roads means less fenderbenders and front end work from people sliding off the road and into curbs etc. also, take a look at how many snowblowers you see out front of places like canadian tire and home depot, lowes etc.

[Bob]

All kinds of pros and cons. Sledders hate it because there isn't enough snow to make a good trail. Homeowners save big-time on heating costs.

Not bothering me because I've gotten old and arthritic so I don't think much about ice fishing anymore, too hurtful.

It's not anything new, I've seen too many winters go by to think they should all be alike. Quite a few years back, we had one that didn't have safe ice to venture out on until mid February. Back in '81 (I think), I was trolling Elliot Lake on the 15th of April. A few years later, not until almost the May long weekend. One year, some clown was water skiing on Elliot Lake on Christmas day. Most years, you couldn't do that. Every winter is different.

[Headhunter]

There have been a number of invasive species that have not made their way to Canada or have had their path into this country, slowed by our cold weather winter. Some kind of boring beetle comes to mind. Well, this year our winter will not stop the migration, be it from the south or east or west.

There may be a gradual change in our north, specifically the tree line as saplings are able to withstand our “warmer” winter.

Those are just a few, off the top of my head…

 

HH

[BillM]

There will be lots of discount ice fishing tackle/gear this year. I'm sure a lot of shops are upside down on augers, shelters, etc.

[trevy727]

What about spring thaw? There may not be any thing to melt. No flooding, low water levels? But every winter is different. Next year we'll probably see record cold temperatures.

[kickingfrog]

Yep, good chance there will be more grass fires this spring.

[cynmar]

That's my main concern, the influx of invasive species who haven't been killed off by the cold weather or freezing conditions. I imagine that water levels will be down on Nipissing for my vacation in July as well.

 

Bill

[torco]

I have been wondering the same thing environmentally. I have to think this will put some stress on certain fish and fisheries.

[kickingfrog]

It will be good for some, bad for others.

[jedimaster]

I would think the mosquito season will not be that bad this year.

[BillM]

Steelhead fry aren't going to take very well with low/warm water conditions (Depending on the trib of course)

[misfish]

Hi ya Hoppy

 

I would think with the main lake being open all year,the amount of oxygen in the water has to be a total bonus for the fish.Will be interesting to see the kill off from years past. Always seem to see small fish and the odd smallie laying dead on the bottom around the marina and surrounding area.

Edited February 22, 2012 by Misfish

[fishindevil]

the bad winter low snow levels will have a huge impact,not only on resorts,and snowmobiling business the water tables in the forest,disease,low water,forest will be dry lakes will be lower,spring will be earlier,there is massive impacts and yes global warming is here for sure,.....i was watching a segment on the news the other day about just this topic in ontario and what will and has happened even if we get alot of rain in the spring it wont be enough 70% of the great lakes water source is the snow pack !!!! i didnt even know that till they said that on the news and levels were almost record low last year it will be alot worse this year for sure,the asian bettle will survive and the insects will be insane this year as the winter kill will be alot less,it went on and on ....outlook is get used to it cause it will soon be the norm !!!!!!

[BillM]

There have been low precipitation winters before and there will be in the future.

Edited February 22, 2012 by BillM

[COUNTRYBOY]

YA THE WINTER SUCKS FOR SURE, ONLY ONCE ON SIMCO AND A FEW TIMES UP PARRY SOUND AREA. I'M THINKING THAT THE WHITFISH POPULATION SHOULD BE GOOD NEXT YR...JUST THINKING BECAUSE WE AIN'T FISHNG FOR THEM OR NOT TOO MUCH ANYWAY...GO WHITE'S GO

[Roy]

Look up the Great Lakes water levels at the present time and they are in very good shape. I don't think there'll be any drastic changes from years past.

[Joeytier]

the bad winter low snow levels will have a huge impact,not only on resorts,and snowmobiling business the water tables in the forest,disease,low water,forest will be dry lakes will be lower,spring will be earlier,there is massive impacts and yes global warming is here for sure,.....i was watching a segment on the news the other day about just this topic in ontario and what will and has happened even if we get alot of rain in the spring it wont be enough 70% of the great lakes water source is the snow pack !!!! i didnt even know that till they said that on the news and levels were almost record low last year it will be alot worse this year for sure,the asian bettle will survive and the insects will be insane this year as the winter kill will be alot less,it went on and on ....outlook is get used to it cause it will soon be the norm !!!!!!

Mainstream media feeds on fear and worst-case scenarios, and more often than not their stories are far from 'scientific'. I do tend to agree with most of what you mentioned though, and I'm sure most that spend anytime outdoors would agree as well. People need to realize that warming trends and weather patterns on even a 100-year scale are minute in terms of geologic patterns.

[Spouph]

Get ready for some record breaking salmon to come from our lakes in the next year to five, based on the warmer temps all around of the great lakes, smolts in the rivers will be larger based on temp units and the fish in the lake shold keep feeding more agrresively and watch for an over lap of musky and pike spawning, pike generally spawn earlier, the warmer water temps may prompt the musky to spawn eariler and thus the pike fry won't have an advantage of size and eat the majority of musky fry. Good for musky stocks, and the best part is the water levels will not fluctuate dramatically so spawning fish wont spawn on locations that will be high and dry before the eggs hatch. Also spawning walleye will not have to deal with huge amounts of pollutants stored in the snow melt that attack walleye eggs every spring. I am an eternal optomist, lets just hope there is enough rain to get the rainbow up thos rivers this spring. The down fall is I fear the river boys have been hammering the good spawning bows and eyes this extended season. Great thread I will ponder this for a bit

[express168]

Yes it is an odd winter but how quickly we forget. Many areas of Ontario experienced record if not close to record snow falls last winter, London received over 1 meter of snow in 3 days last year and the highway leading to Sarnia had vehicles stranded for weeks. Here in Hamilton my snow blower got quite the work out from a couple of large dumpings of snow as well. There will be some early spawns and the growing season will likely be a little upside down this year but it is a blink of an eye as far as the earths weather patterns are concerned.

[OhioFisherman]

I am still waiting for winter here, it has been a very unusual one. The snow we usually get has been mostly rain, and after last years record rainfall it`s not like we needed more.

 

Last winter we got snow right around Christmas, and it never left the ground until March. My Maple trees have buds on them, a severe cold might do some damage?

 

Last year the cities here were scrambling to find more road salt, they still have 50% of their supplies this year.

[Kingsalmon]

One thing that comes to mind with this mild winter, is big 40lb+ chinooks that will cruising around lake Ontario. Believe it or not this is not a record winter yet. I heard on the news that 2000-2001 was milder than this one.