Police issue ice warnings as ice fishers set up on Kingston, Ont. region waters

Now that the weather has gotten a bit milder, you may want to get outside and do some outdoor sports like ice fishing.

But even though temperatures dipped below – 20 C late last week, Ontario Provincial Police say that wasn’t enough to make every ice surface on bodies of water safe to walk on.

“‘No ice is safe ice’ is a common term you’re going to hear quite a bit,” says Const. Art Witkowski, media relations officer for the OPP.

“Different bodies of water obviously have different freezing points. Currents play a very big factor in how thick the ice is going to be.”

But it seems that despite these warnings, people are still gearing up and heading out on the lakes to go ice fishing.

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After the warm start to the winter season, business at local outdoor stores is picking up.

“It started off a little slow because we did have a lot of mild weather,” says Jeff Fardella, a sales clerk at Bronson & Bronson, an outdoor gear store in Kingston.

“It’s been a weird winter this year. But the last three to four weeks it’s really picked up. More and more ice keeps forming out there. A lot of guys are saying that on some of the lakes north, there’s upwards of 15 inches.”

One of those lakes to the north of Kingston is Loughborough Lake, where some people have bored holes in the ice and started fishing.

Even Fardella himself is planning on going ice fishing soon, on ice that is safe to do so.

“I’ll be heading up to Thirteen Island Lake next Wednesday,” says Fardella.

“I’ve heard there’s 14 or 15 inches up there. So I’ll be all over that.”

So if you are planning on doing some ice fishing, or other activities that involve going out on the ice, police say to be sure it’s safe, to avoid any need for rescue calls.