BARRIE, ONT. -- Sunday was a cold and blustery day on Lake Simcoe, but commercial ice fishing hut operators had work to do, facing a deadline.
Provincial regulations require all permanent huts to be cleared from the ice by March 15.
Gail Loder had 20 huts to pull from Cooks Bay.
The bay has been relatively unaffected by three days of strong winds that caused glacial shifts on Lake Simcoe's open sections.
Over the weekend, emergency crews were called multiple times to help ice fishers who became stranded by the moving ice.
Images captured by a NOAA satellite Saturday show that most of Lake Simcoe is still ice-covered. But there is open water along the lake's western shore in Oro-Medonte, where some fishing huts are now irretrievable.
At the north end of the lake, anglers reported 12 inches of ice Sunday and that all but one permanent fishing hut had been removed.
Still, fishers continue to test their luck. Sam Barati has been making the trip from Markham for years. He says special equipment, like an amphibious ATV called an Argo helps reduce the risk.
"We switched from snowmobile to Argo just to be on the safe side. We have our suits, we have our safety gear, ice picks,"Barati said.
Even with some cold weather in the forecast, Loder expects ice conditions to deteriorate further as wind and waves errode the edges of the ice.
The March 15 deadline for ice hut removal coincides with the end of lake trout and whitefish season on Lake Simcoe. Anglers can continue targeting other species.
