When should you remove your ice fishing shack in Sask.

With the calendar turning to March, many are thinking of spring and with that time of year comes the end of ice fishing season.

Fishing expert Jason Matity said the provincial government has a guideline ice fishers need to follow when it comes to removing shacks off of bodies of water.

“There is this line the province has made that’s sort of follows how the weather changes. So basically south of Highway 16, so we’re talking south of Saskatoon, Yorkton, North Battleford and south, people have to have them [shacks] off the ice by the 15th,” Matity said.

North of Highway 16 people have until March 31 to remove ice fishing shacks.

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“Obviously though if it’s starting to melt and things are getting rough out there you want to get it off because what happens is that snow will push down and force water up the fishing hole into your shack and it will freeze it in and it becomes a mess,” Matity said.

Matity said the deadline was bumped up to the 15th in parts of the province because people were not removing their shacks in a timely manner and local conservation officers had to take time to go and pull shacks off.

“You’ll get fined for leaving them out there and people will say, ‘well what if I don’t put my name on there?’ you are supposed to put your name, place of residence and a phone number on there so people know how to contact you.”

Matity said usually first-time offenders are left with a warning but shacks have been known to be confiscated.