This is definately a Moose type question LOL.
The news organization CNN says this is the warmest winter on record.
Global Warming? You better believe it. Glaciers are melting and the sea levels are rising. Have they done this in the past? You bet! But back then we didn't have millions of people and billions of dollors worth of property in the danger zone.
Two things going on here. One is the increase in green house gases in the atmosphere. CO2 which would normally be locked up in the earth in the form of limestone or coal is being released in record amounts globally. Unlike a one time a 1000 years volcanic erruption this occurs ever hour of every day all day long 365 days a year for the last 100 years.
Second thing going on is the depletion of the upper atmopsheric Ozone Levels. This allows more of the sun's energy to get down to the earth.
Ice caps are getting thinnner every day at the North and South Pole. In fact it may be possible to one day go around North American to get from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. (famous Northwest Passage may actually reappear)
As for how this is effecting the fish? I would start talking to all the professional guides or the guys that fish year round and see how they are doing. They each will have a bit of information that when all added together would help show the true picture of what the fish are doing.
Here is one thing you can do. Check the water surface temps over the last few weeks and see how much they have changed. That most of you all can do. Now if you have some temp gauges that can be lowered down into the water column you can also check to see how the deeper waters is effected by these warmer days. Those deeper water will take a longer time to warm up. Shallow waters that are exposed to longer periods of sunlight and sunlight from a higher angle will warm up faster especially if they have wood on them and or dark bottoms.
Remember that this time of the year there is not much food in the form of new fish. Fish spawned last spring and those fish have grown and or died and they may not be the right size now to be forage for prey fish. So the prey fish have to eat something else. Little insect life is available to the fish now. Fish may have to depends on worms that borrow into the muck to survive. The algae has all but died and fallen to the lake bottom to rot. As the surface waters in the shallows warms up the algae can start to grow again.
The timing of the warming depends on what latitude you are located. I suspect that guys that live in Lousiana and Florida and South TX are getting ready to start fishing the spawn much sooner than those of us in IN.
I wish that the government would do more research on this stuff for us fishermen. But the budgets are tight and being cut as I type this.