VALLECITO – It’s late February, and already the tenuous sheet of ice that blankets Vallecito Lake is breaking, again causing a premature end to ice fishing season after another unusually warm winter.
“It has been quite a bit shorter of a season the last several years compared to what it used to be,” said Jared Hansen, president of Vallecito Conservation and Sporting Association. “It just hasn’t stayed cold enough to build that safe ice.”
Last week, Hansen canceled this year’s Vallecito Lake Ice Fishing Tournament, marking the second time in five years the event was impacted by an unsound base of ice.
“It just wasn’t worth the challenge of trying to keep everyone safe,” Hansen said of the event, which drew about 180 participants last year.
Warmer winters resulting in shorter seasons for ice fishing, a long-held tradition in many states, are another by-product of global temperatures rising.
“There are plenty of variables, but we know the building of ice is explicitly tied to temperature, which is beyond a doubt rising,” said Mountain Studies Institute’s Rory Cowie.
According to a study in the Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research journal, the average winter temperature in Colorado has increased 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 50 years, with most of that occurring in the mid-1990s.
The study concludes that in the San Juan Mountains, temperatures have experienced a “rapid warming trend,” especially during winter evenings, the most important time for ice to build on lakes.
And with a projected increase of 2.5 to 5 degrees by 2050 – based on low-emission projections – a question looms among the niche group of outdoor enthusiasts whether there will be a return to the glory days of ice fishing.
“I’ve definitely noticed the past couple years the lakes are cracking sooner than normal,” said Kevin Muirhead, a 31-year-old Pagosa Springs native who works at Ski and Bow Rack.
Historically, Muirhead said, ice fishermen could head onto lakes in Southwest Colorado by early December and continue until late March/early April, depending on the given year.
Yet in the winter of 2015/2016, for instance, the season didn’t start until January, and by the first of March, “you didn’t want to go out there,” he said.
For a stable layer of ice to build, conditions must remain in the teens to single digits. The less wind and snow the better, Hansen said, as those factors disrupt the formation of ice.
The layer of ice starts at the edges of the lake and slowly works its way toward the center. By the time it’s reached 3 to 4 inches thick, it’s considered safe to walk on.
Robbie Richardson, owner of Sport Fish Colorado, said this is the first season where only 35 percent of Blue Mesa Lake in Gunnison has safe ice, as opposed to a typical year of about 70 percent.
“And that’s probably all we’ll get this year,” said Richardson, adding that in the last four winters, the ice season has been cut short at Antero, Tarryall and Eleven Mile reservoirs.
According to a University of Colorado long-term study of the mountains west of Boulder, researchers found a progressive decline in lake ice, as well as glaciers, permafrost and subsurface ice over the past 30 years.
The issue is not exclusive to Colorado. Ice fishing strongholds in Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Wisconsin have experienced chronic ice loss on lakes, leading to closures or restrictions.
In Minnesota, for example, event organizer Greg Thomes was forced to cancel for the fourth time in 42 years – but the third time in the last four years – the Maple Lake Ice Fishing Derby, which draws nearly 10,000 ice fishermen to the lake northwest of Minneapolis.
“We’re just in that trend right now where we’re seeing warm weather during December and January,” he said. “We definitely wonder whether we’ll need to change or do something a little different from now on.”
To the east, Wisconsin has lost 30 days of average ice over the last 150 years, said Ryan Finn, producer of Climate Wisconsin, with most of that loss in recent years.
And in Maine, ice fishing season and tournaments across the state have suffered due to warm temperatures. On Wednesday, the Sebago Rotary Ice Fishing Derby was canceled for the seventh time since 2002.
“Climate change is here, it’s hurting our outdoor traditions,” Lisa Pohlmann, executive director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, told The Maine Times. “Climate change is a threat to Maine’s economy. Hunting, fishing and wildlife watching support thousands of jobs and generate $1.3 billion in economic activity every year, and snow-dependent sports contribute too.”
While climate change is a global issue, the loss of recreational mainstays, such as ice fishing and skiing, is an unintended casualty, Mountain Studies’ Cowie said.
“There’s been a shift of when people can do these activities because of changes to the snowpack and the climate,” he said. “And warmer temperatures are going to limit and likely shorten the window.”
Ice fishermen are left to adapt, and embrace an early start to open water fishing. Hansen said in lieu of the annual competition, organizers will hold a pike fishing tournament in April.
As for ice fishing season on Vallecito Lake, which hasn’t experienced a cold snap since mid-January, Hansen said if colder temperatures persist, fisherman maybe have two weeks left.
“It’s been a hard year,” he said.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
