Winter has provided more cross country skiing than ice fishing opportunities, which doesn’t say much.
“During the 10 days of winter, we groomed about every other day, and it was great,” said Kerry Kelly, chairman of the Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes organization that maintains the Heritage Trail through volunteers. “But we didn’t have that many people out. It was colder, so that may have been a reason.”
This week area trails turned bare, reserving their fun for walkers and bikers.
Kelly’s reference to counting the days of winter on fingers rather than a calendar goes a long way toward describing lost opportunities for wintertime sports aficionados. Conditions have been so poor that some of the heartier ice fishers in the county have given up hope of even wetting a line.
“I haven’t gone ice fishing once,” said Mike Shimek, who in past seasons has taken perch through the ice from Glen Lake, Lime Lake and Little Traverse Lake since a kid. “I don’t trust it. Little Glen and Little Traverse have rotten ice on them. I don’t think it matters how cold it gets now, that won’t turn into good ice.
“I’ve been wet before and I don’t want to be again.”
Shimek was referring to an incident in late winter a few years ago when his snowmobile broke through an upper layer of ice that crusted over a pool of water melted from early ice. Through no small task he was able to get his sled back on a solid surface, but he plans on avoiding a repeat.
“The next time I go will probably be in my boat. I’m sort of writing off the winter,” Shimek said.
He didn’t get completely shut out, though, having netted a 5-pound walleye and several nice perch during a boat excursion in December on Little Traverse Lake. Shimek earned those fillets through trying conditions.
“It’s hard fishing in a boat when it’s 32 degrees,” he said.
All inland lakes in the county except big Glen Lake froze in mid-January. During a sevenday period starting Jan. 15 temperatures never rose above 17 degrees at the Maple City volunteer weather station sanctioned by the National Weather Service. More than 30 inches of snow was recorded over an eight-day period.
County folks were snowmobiling, fishing, snowshoeing and skiing. All seemed right — cold but normal — on the peninsula.
Then spring-like weather settled in, and but for a few jolts of winter has curtailed outdoor conditions.
That’s unfortunate, opined county charter boat captain Bill Winowiecki, who likes to carry his favorite sport through winter by hanging out in ice shanties.
“Nobody can get out there. It’s the first time in my lifetime that we haven’t had safe ice in Leelanau County. Last year it froze enough that you could fish all winter. This year even when it got cold, lakes were covered with snow. Once you get snow, that insulates the lake and it doesn’t make ice,” Winowiecki said.
Controlled by his habit, Winowiecki has nonetheless been fishing a couple days each week in Grand Traverse Bay, jigging for lake trout in his 17-foot Sea Nymph aluminum boat in 140- to 200-feet of water. Usually he and a companion will catch their limit of four lake trout that average three-tofi ve pounds.
Earlier this month Winowiecki and buddy Ryan Noonan jigged up a 15 pounder from West Grand Traverse Bay.
Ice fishing — or lack of — has been so sporadic that business owner Greg Alsip said he may not open the Lake Leelanau Narrows Resort Bait and Tackle shop next winter. It’s the only place to buy minnows in Leelanau County.
“I got one batch in early when a few guys were going out, but nothing since,” said Alsip, a guide who has also cancelled ice fishing trips he had on the books. “That’s been the story across the state. We usually go up to the U.P. when we don’t have safe ice here, but their ice is unsafe, too.”
He looked around at displays of ice fishing equipment. “A lot of this is left over from last year. We’re contemplating whether to open for next winter. Spring, summer and fall are great. Having the only minnow tank in the county, it’s hard to close down. On a normal year it’s OK in winter. I’m 35, and this is the first time I ever remember not getting out on Lake Leelanau in the winter. Last year we got two-to-three weeks.”
Recent events and the National Weather Forecast indicate that winter hasn’t completely estranged Leelanau County, but the two don’t act married.
High temperatures were anticipated to hover around 40 degrees Monday through today, then fall to highs of 30 and 32 degrees Friday and Saturday. “Slightly more normal temperates” are anticipated in late February, the forecast states.
Nearly four inches of snow was recorded in Maple City on Saturday when the temperature struggled to 23 degrees behind a strong wind. By Monday spring returned.
“It’s been a weird, weird season,” Alsip said.
