The warm weather didn't seem to bother fishermen on Lake Manitoba this year.

"It really didn't impact us a whole lot, the ice did get a little soft, but nothing to the point where it was a concern for people getting on or off the lake," says Allan Gaudry, President of the Lake Manitoba Commercial Fishermen's Association. "The Lake ice is still decent ice compared to river ice where there's current and the ice seems to break up and wear out a lot sooner than the lakes. If we get any other warm spells we'll have to keep an eye out, we don't want it to be plus 10 for a long time because that will become a concern. If we stay around freezing, though, the ice stays good."

Gaudry says they're seeing a lot more pickerel this year, which is a good sign for the future.

"There is still a lot of jackfish. Pickeral has definitely made an improvement from the last five years, but there really isn't any perch being caught. We do have a two-year moratorium on fishing for perch, so hopefully, the stocks will rebound in a couple years and we'll do another test then to see how they're doing. This year no sign of perch and we firmly believe that the jackfish in our lake have an impact on our stock on perch."

He says it will be the last season with the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. The legislation changes should kick in for the next winter season and the province will be an open market. He's hopeful the open market will create opportunities for other markets to open up here in Manitoba.

"We're waiting for the change to happen," adds Gaudry. "The province hasn't signed off on it officially, but hopefully that will get done soon."