Fishing season ramping up in Sask.

Spring has sprung and that means it’s time for a lot of people’s favourite summer pastime – fishing.

Fishing expert Jason Matity said the different zones for the summer fishing season open up at different times in the province. South of Highway 55 and Prince Albert opened on May 5, just up past La Ronge opens on Sunday and the rest of the province will open up on May 25.

“It opens in stages, largely based on weather (and) ice being off lakes, which is a little bit late this year because April really dragged its heels before spring got here. By the time we get to the 25th, everyone is able to go fishing,” Matity told Gormley on Tuesday.

Matity said the sport saw a resurgence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We were desperate to go outside and desperate to go do something fun and something different and angling license sales just blew through the roof,” Matity said. “Across North America and other parts of the world, people rediscovered fishing.

“One thing that has been growing in the fishing industry has been ice fishing over the last number of years. The reason for that is that it has been quite revolutionary with fishing shacks, heaters and electronics. It was that summer thing where people weren’t doing it as much.”

While the ways people fish and who’s going fishing might change, one thing still hasn’t in Saskatchewan – walleye remains the fish of choice.

“It’s our provincial fish and the most popular fish in this country. The reason is they taste good, they are a little bit bigger than average – they put up a good fight – and they are a schooling fish so at certain times of the year you can really stack them up,” Matity said.

But is there a best time to head out?

“There’s certainly a whole lot of research on things like moon phases, low-pressure systems, weather — all of these things absolutely play a factor in fish feeding activity. But I think the most important thing is any time you are available and you’re not working and you can go, just go,” Matity said.

“The only thing that will trump that is if you have really, really bad weather and you’re planning on being out on the water with a watercraft or that type of thing, you want to be very careful, you don’t want to be caught in the wind or a thunderstorm.”

This early in the year, he said you don’t even need a boat.

“The fish are shallow so you can get them from shore,” Matity said.