From many outdoor enthusiasts' standpoint, 2006 was somewhat of an atypical year. There wasn't an abundance of snow. Spring weather came a month earlier than usual, but then faded quickly. Summer was largely a washout that also produced a record flood. Autumn weather was more like that of a normal Spring, and Winter's arrival got stuck out West and remains a no-show here. But the weather was just part of the events that occurred last year that affected outdoor activities.

For angling enthusiasts, a new virus that was presumably ushered in by improperly flushed ballasts of ocean-going ships before they entered the St. Lawrence Seaway was the latest bad news for the Great Lakes system, which has been bombarded by exotic species introduction since the Seaway opened. Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS) is new strain of VHS and in early 2006 was determined to be the cause of a kill of freshwater drum and round goby in Lake Ontario's Bay of Quinte (Ontario, Canada) and muskellunge in Michigan waters of Lake St. Clair. The disease causes the hemorrhaging of the fish's tissues, including internal organs.