BRUSSELS, Wis. (WFRV) – An ice fishing guide in Door County is canceling his services after an unseasonably warm winter in Wisconsin.

J.J. Malvitz has been taking people out on the ice for 13 years and has not been able to do his job because of above-average temperatures.

He says, “We need those arctic air temperatures, those single digits, those below zero temperatures are really what lock in the bay of Green Bay. As we were going into the end of January, we were just not getting the ice formation that we needed.”

The conditions not only have an economic impact on him but on the Sturgeon Bay area as well.

“We take people from across the Midwest, across the country, even some people from across the world come here to do this fishing. All the hotels, resorts, restaurants, and everything in-between are definitely going to feel the squeeze, especially in a kind of leaner time of the year,” Malvitz says.

According to Malvitz, the ice needs to be at least a foot thick to take his customers out on the ice safely, but that has not been the case.

Despite not being able to do what he loves, Malvitz prepared in the event of warm weather.

Malvitz says, “I can think back to 2012 when it was a very similar winter like this, so those previous experiences of going through situations like that really help you learn to anticipate things like this.”

Even though he won’t be guiding people on the ice this year, he is looking forward to having some time off.