Ice fishing is a Maine tradition that goes back centuries. But as temperatures have climbed in recent decades, the ice is melting earlier and earlier on most of the state’s lakes, and that’s carving into the ice fishing season.
Gregory Burr, a regional fisheries biologist for the state in Hancock and Washington counties, said that Acadia National Park’s Jordan Pond, once a popular destination for ice fishermen, hasn’t frozen solid enough to support them for several winters, for instance.
“It’s opening up earlier and earlier (throughout the region),” Burr said Thursday. “We’ve seen some pretty dramatic changes.”
Those dramatic changes can be seen on what is perhaps Maine’s most iconic lake: Moosehead. For the first time since records started being kept in the late 1840s, Moosehead Lake is on pace this decade to have an average date in April for when its surface ice disappears, rather than in May.
The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “Milder winters shaving weeks off ice fishing seasons in Maine,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Bill Trotter, please follow this link to the BDN online.
