Wrong, NBC News, Climate Change Doesn’t Threaten Minnesota Ice Fishing

[rangerrebew]

Wrong, NBC News, Climate Change Doesn’t Threaten Minnesota Ice Fishing
 
By
Anthony Watts
March 18, 2024
 

A broadcast by NBC News, titled “Ice fishing threatened by climate change,” claims that warmer winters, particularly the 2023/2024 winter, is affecting the ice fishing season due to supposed influences from climate change. This is false. Climate change does not make such localized effects in a short time, and it is well established that the warmer weather pattern this winter is a result of El Niño patterns in the Pacific Ocean.

The story begins stating:

NBC News’ Jesse Kirsch explores how warmer temperatures are impacting a winter tradition. Business owners near Minnesota’s Mille Lacs Lake who rely on the cold weather say they’re having a slow season.

The video then proceeds with interviews of ice fishermen and local business owners who are the bemoaning the fact that they are having a slow season. In the video they say “over the past 50 years Minnesota has lost 10 to 14 days of lake ice” but they did not back that up with any scientific citation.

First, it has to be said that any single winter having warmer than normal temperatures and the resultant less ice is in fact due to short term weather patterns not long-term climate change. It is well defined that climate change takes place over 30 years. As discussed in Climate at a Glance: Weather vs. Climate:

https://climaterealism.com/2024/03/wrong-nbc-news-climate-change-doesnt-threaten-minnesota-ice-fishing/

[Smokin Joe]

Punched holes in Lake Sakakaweja just a couple weeks ago,and despite the first tracess of spring and a mild winter by local North Dakota standards (only a few days of -30 weather) there was still 3 ft. of ice on the lake. Plenty thick to drive a pickup out on the ice without worry, as long as you avoid pressure ridges.

Not sure what panic they are pimping, but I'm not seeing cause for alarm.

[GtHawk]

Wait, if there was no more 'ICE' fishing there would still be fish, right? and people would still be able to go out on boats and fish, right? I just don't get who they are trying to panic with this, guys who won't be able to sit in a heated shack drinking while their lines are in the water through a hole? but they could still sit in a boat drinking while their line is in the water but not through a hole?

[LMAO]

We have had early ice out this year because of the super El Niño. Some of it has broken the old record.

Yet not terribly long ago, the ice just went out the week before fishing opener

We have had normal to late ice out dates the last 10 years. We really have a stupid news media.

[LMAO]

From the article…..

 In the video they say “over the past 50 years Minnesota has lost 10 to 14 days of lake ice” but they did not back that up with any scientific citation.



Being a fisherman that fishes in northern Minnesota, and northern Wisconsin, I’m always interested in when the ice is going to come off the lakes

The data is scattered. We had a decade long stretch of hard winters. The winter of 2014 and 2015 was so cold that there were still ice chunks on the beach of Park Point  on Lake Superior till about June 10.

Admittedly, this winter was extremely mild. But we also had the benefit of a very strong El Niño. Last year we still had lots of snow on the ground well into April.

Lake Superior has been warming since the 1950s. But so what? We had a local writer who breathlessly wrote an article of how Lake Superior has been receding. Lake Superior has been receding since the end of the last ice age

[roamer_1]

Punched holes in Lake Sakakaweja just a couple weeks ago,and despite the first tracess of spring and a mild winter by local North Dakota standards (only a few days of -30 weather) there was still 3 ft. of ice on the lake. Plenty thick to drive a pickup out on the ice without worry, as long as you avoid pressure ridges.

Not sure what panic they are pimping, but I'm not seeing cause for alarm.

Me neither.

There's been a handful of winters with no ice in my life. A handful more with rotten ice.
But nowhere near enough to cause any grief.
The truth is still the truth.

the ICE will come.
The loveliness will go away. The balmy days of shade trees and sweet tea will suddenly be gone.
The ICE will come.

Man will not change that.

[roamer_1]

Wait, if there was no more 'ICE' fishing there would still be fish, right? and people would still be able to go out on boats and fish, right? I just don't get who they are trying to panic with this, guys who won't be able to sit in a heated shack drinking while their lines are in the water through a hole? but they could still sit in a boat drinking while their line is in the water but not through a hole?

Well, being from California, I'll forgive you for your lack of understanding...

The difference is farts.
It's pretty hard to stink your buddy out of the boat... especially when his only option could be considered bathing.

But ice fishing... Particularly ice shack fishing, what's on the stove in that shack? Well beans, of course. Maybe chili... Maybe franks and beans... And what are the snacks? Prolly Slim Jims... For sure them little cheese-stuffed sausages... Maybe a thuringer and crackers and cheese.

I can single-handedly keep my fishing buddy out on the ice for hours, while I fish in perfect comfort. And I can wreck him again when we get back to the pickup - Just by zipping open my Carhartts.

There's power in that.
Real power.
Power you can damn near see.
and probably can taste.
It'll stick to your teeth.

[Hoodat]

Ice fishing is like duck hunting through a chimney.

[GtHawk]

Well, being from California, I'll forgive you for your lack of understanding...

The difference is farts.
It's pretty hard to stink your buddy out of the boat... especially when his only option could be considered bathing.

But ice fishing... Particularly ice shack fishing, what's on the stove in that shack? Well beans, of course. Maybe chili... Maybe franks and beans... And what are the snacks? Prolly Slim Jims... For sure them little cheese-stuffed sausages... Maybe a thuringer and crackers and cheese.

I can single-handedly keep my fishing buddy out on the ice for hours, while I fish in perfect comfort. And I can wreck him again when we get back to the pickup - Just by zipping open my Carhartts.

There's power in that.
Real power.
Power you can damn near see.
and probably can taste.
It'll stick to your teeth.

I meant no disrespect or demeaning of you impressive abilities



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn34LEnHOMw

[bigheadfred]

Ice fishing is like duck hunting through a chimney.

When I was a kid my dad and one of his friends triangulated a spot in an inlet at American Falls reservoir where there is a natural spring. He would take us kids out ice fishing there and you could catch so many crappie you got sick of catching them.

[roamer_1]

Ice fishing is like duck hunting through a chimney.

I've done that.

[roamer_1]

I meant no disrespect or demeaning of you impressive abilities

 

No offense taken... Just trying to translate a regional difference in simple terms. For more advanced ice fishing, throw a couple Huskies in that shack with you... Then you're doing something. But I would not recommend that for a beginner.

[Smokin Joe]

Ice fishing is like duck hunting through a chimney.

[Smokin Joe]

No offense taken... Just trying to translate a regional difference in simple terms. For more advanced ice fishing, throw a couple Huskies in that shack with you... Then you're doing something. But I would not recommend that for a beginner.

Just feed them some scraps from butchering deer the day before...

Oh, and dress warm while you are checking the tip-ups.

[roamer_1]

Just feed them some scraps from butchering deer the day before...

Yup... That's the stuff... If you're lucky, they'll find  rotten carcass on the way in. It's all fair game till someone barfs down the hole. Then it's time to go home.

Oh, and dress warm while you are checking the tip-ups.

At least three layers. 

[Sighlass]

Two things mentioned today I have never partaken of... Snow Blowers and Ice Fishing... Only once in my life have I had enough snow to use a snow blower and the thickest ice I have seen here was around 7-8 inches.