Winter commercial fishing is an important economic driver in Northern Saskatchewan. (ID 30384796 © Steven Oehlenschlager | Dreamstime.com)

By Derek Cornet

weather patterns

Exceptional weather leading to unpredictable winter commercial fishing season

Nov 7, 2024 | 4:13 PM

Northern fishermen are facing uncertainty due to unpredictable weather.

That’s according to Air Ronge resident Gordon Stomp, who has been a commercial fishmen for decades. Meteorologists are calling for a delayed winter in 2024 with the temperatures in the region as much as 10 degrees above normal for the rest of the work week.

“Typically, we would see enough ice to go out on to small lakes and then of course it depends on snow for sliders and stuff for your equipment, but usually by Nov. 20 to 25 we were out but we certainly won’t be there this year unless we get –50 C and I don’t think it looks really good in the forecast for cold weather,” Stomp explained.

“It’s quite frustrating because we are just not prepared to follow this kind of schedule.”

Since Stomp started commercial fishing many years ago, he and others in his line of work have never really had to deal with such late falls. He called the weather quite exceptional with frost not arriving in the area until October.

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Stomp noted it is important for fishermen to be back at work at a certain time in the year because their unemployment benefits only last for so long. He said it is even more so important for fishmen on the west side of the province who have winter limits available to them.

Last winter was also an exceptional year due to the warm weather present because of El Niño. Stomp said the fall of 2023 started out similarly with not much ice at the beginning, which was followed by slushy conditions. He added the last winter fishing season, however, turned out fairly good as there were ideal conditions headed into the spring.

“It’s just a wild guess,” Stomp said whether the 2024-2025 season will follow suit as the previous one.

“It seems like that might be it, but I remember because of the El Niño, the weather forecaster said it was supposed to be a colder than normal winter and a lot more snow than usual, and now that all changed through the summer. Now it is probably going to be the third mild winter on record.”

Environment and Climate Change Canada has acknowledged it is slightly unusual to have such warm temperatures at this time of year.

“We just finished an El Niño season and that indicator is slowly dipping into a weak La Niña, so typically that means the winter will be colder and snowier than average, so we are kind of in this transition period over the next month or so,” said meteorologist Danielle Desjardins.

“I can’t say with certainty exactly when that flip to cooler weather will stay and remain, however, a good indicator of it is that signal is going to come into effect by December.”

– with files from Cam Lee

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com