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Battle slush, water to meet ministry deadline to get structures off river
Denis Piché and his brother, Marcel, raced against the clock yesterday to free their ice-fishing trailer from a thick layer of ice and slush on the frozen Ottawa River and get it off the ice before a midnight deadline.
They were among several dozen Petrie Island ice fishermen who parked their vehicles along Trim Road yesterday morning in an attempt to get on the river. The Ministry of Natural Resources set a deadline of midnight last night to have all huts off the ice; anyone who didn’t remove their structure could face a $150 fine.
Steve Aubry, enforcement supervisor for the ministry’s Kemptville district, said the deadline is the same every year in an effort to ensure that people get their huts off the ice well in advance of the spring thaw.
While the ministry will not have officers standing by “ready to pounce” one minute after midnight, Mr. Aubry said it wants to see people obey the rules.
“As soon as they are removed by midnight (on Saturday), there’s not an issue.”
The Piché brothers’ trailer was parked near Petrie Island, where they used it throughout the winter. Close to noon yesterday, it was sitting in a pool of water Denis, 45, estimated at 25 centimetres deep.
“It’s very bad,” he said as Marcel, 55, hacked away at the ice and slush with a piece of concrete rebar.
The weight of this year’s collective snowfall has pushed the ice surface down into the river. For people like the Pichés, it made the last day of the ice-fishing season one to remember.
Close to shore, Rick Boivin, 34, and Louis Gravel, 27, seemed to have a good shot at getting their hut back on land ahead of the deadline, despite the condition of the ice surface.
“There’s usually no slush here,” Mr. Boivin said, taking a momentary break from clearing the gunk from under his hut. “It’s never like this.”
But Mr. Gravel pointed out it could have been worse: One of their neighbours had to buy a pump to clear the water out of his hut.
Further out along the river, Trevor Roberts, 29, was using a small, square shovel to clear a path to his own hut. He remained optimistic about meeting the deadline, even though he had a long way to go.
“Last week it was bad,” he said, noting that four vehicles got stuck on the ice after half a metre of snow fell.
Yves Grandmaître, 43, owns the bait and tackle shop, and the land, where members of the local ice fishing community launch and retrieve their ice huts. He said it would be impossible to get all the huts—which he believes total 40 or more—off the river in one day, even though he rented a snow grooming machine to make things easier.
“The ice is real thick, but there’s a lot of water on top and snow on top,” he said between runs on the machine.
Mr. Grandmaître, who described this year’s ice-fishing season as “short and wet,” said it will be a couple of days before everyone is off the ice.
Richard LeBlanc, a 51-year-old veteran ice fisherman from Orléans, was one of the first to get his hut off the ice yesterday morning.
The fishing was “not the greatest” this year, but Mr. LeBlanc said he still enjoyed it.
“It’s a challenge,” he said. “It’s fun, that’s why we come out for it.”
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008