The ice-fishing season on Lake Manitoba ended at the end of March, and 2016-17 goes down in the books as a great year.

That's from Allan Gaudry, who's the Lake Manitoba Commercial Fishermen's South Basin Chair. He admits the year didn't start well, with a spate of bad weather, which made for poor ice conditions.

"With the tough start we had, a lot of fishers were thinking about packing it in," he says, "But they persevered, and after February, the weather broke, everything picked up, and finished well in March. Everything looks great for next year -- they're saying the (fish) stocks are up, and everybody's optimistic now."

Gaudry adds the last two weeks of the season were quite profitable, which is kick-starting 2017-18.

"The fishers are excited, and I notice a lot of younger fishers are looking for licenses out there, they want to get into the fishery," he says, "The future is promising, and there's lots more excitement in the communities, and younger fishermen are looking to come back into the fishery. Things are looking up."