It did not take long for the Wednesday ice storm to knock out power in the entire Bancroft area. Power went out around 9AM Wednesday. As of late Thursday afternoon, the large 3500-person outage has been restored, but the 172 customers around Limerick Lake are still out and now show Friday at 2PM for restoration. EC has us under a weather advisory for 15-20cm of new snow starting Friday morning.
The ice-out contest is back. If you click on the webcam page and then click on VIEW 1, There is an 8 foot pole with a Canadian flag on top of it sitting off the shoreline. Sorry, this is strictly for the fun of it. No monetary prize, just bragging rights. My guess is this pole will take about 3 days longer to topple than the one at the marina used to, meaning the statistical average would be around April 17. My guess is April 8 at 16:00 hours. E-mail (george@limericklake.com) me with your guess. Contest closes for guesses on March 29th.
Attended the FOCA AGM in Thornhill on 3/7. The day had six presenters providing information on a wide range of topics from clean drinking water to tips on how to get involved in the municipal election this October. The organization has set aside significant funds to revamp their website making it easier for us to become members (every member of the LWRA is automatically a member of FOCA, but it is somewhat complex on how that gets verified) and retrieve "member only" information. Someone in the audience tried to bring forward a discussion and motion about the high speed rail project but correctly adhering to ONCA (Ontario Not-for-profit Corporations Act) rules, the subject was not discussed as it was not on the agenda. A cottage association from the Muskoka area won the association of the year award for getting provincial legislation enacted to regulate floating houses. (LWRA won that award in 2006 for our work on Limerick Estates). Lots of invasive species information. That is definitely the #1 topic of discussion these days. I sat with a cottager from Crowe Lake in Marmora who described how awful the lake is now that it has zebra mussels. Your boat comes out of the lake after 30 days looking like it has 5 years of barnacles on it. And yes, they grow on the INSIDE of your plumbing if you use lake water. Other topics at the top of many associations projects are STA and noise by-laws.
Next Limerick council meeting is Tuesday, March 24. A budget meeting is in the morning at 10AM followed by Council at 12:30.
Transport Canada is digging into our pocketbooks as of January 6, 2026. Most of us will now have to renew the registration of our boats every 5 years. Pretty much applies to every boat that has an engine of 10hp or more regardless of age. More information here:
https://tc.canada.ca/en/marine-transportation/vessel-licensing-registration/licensing-pleasure-craft/apply-manage-pleasure-craft-licence-pcl/apply-manage-pleasure-craft-licence-pcl
There is a $250 fine if you get pulled over for a safety inspection this coming summer and your registration is not up to date.
On a related subject, I received notification from both OFAH and FOCA that 3rd party boat registration services have popped up. Some have misleading names that lead you to believe you are dealing with Transport Canada but are not. I do not mean to imply that these 3rd party services do not provide the service promised, but instead of your registration costing $24, they charge between $50 and $150 for their assistance.
The Spring Cottage Life Show is March 26–29 at the International Centre, Mississauga. Last chance for discount tickets. Use code: MAINSTAGE at checkout. I plan to attend on Thursday. I learned from doing trade shows that exhibitors are most informative and talkative the first day of a show. By Sunday they just want to go home.
The Rogers / FOCA special pricing plan for internet service remains $60 per month. (unless you have a Rogers phone in which case it remains $50 per month) Even at the $60 price it is the best internet service for many of us on the lake. It appears they throttle the 5G connection to 40MBps down, and 10MBps up. That is plenty of bandwidth for any single-family use. I have used the service for two full seasons and grade it an A-. If the service keeps working through power outages in the future I will up their grade to A+.
We are now on winter burn rules. Fires are permitted 24/7 through March 31.
The dump is on winter hours through April 30. It is open Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday and holiday Mondays from 11AM to 4:30PM.
The 2026 fishing regulations are on-line. Copy and paste this URL into your browser to navigate to them:
https://lwra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2026-fishing-regulations-summary-en-2025-12-08.pdf
The seasons and regulations for this area (zone 15) remain the same as 2025. They are on pages 104-114 of the regulations book. Bass starts June 27 and ends November 30. Trout starts January 1 and ends September 30 with the slot size of 16 to 21 inches to be returned to the lake. It is a one-line lake for ice fishing. Fish huts have to be off the lake March 31 in zone 15.
