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Fish House
Brad Shults' fishing hut can be mistaken for a fancy travel trailer that has lost its way. Fish House inside, an electric fireplace adds a soft, warm glow to the tongue and groove-cedar-paneled walls. At the touch of an electric button, a bunk bed comes down from the roof, ready for a tired snow fisherman at the end of a cold day.
But even when it is 20 below the outside, it can still be 70 degrees inside the $ 41,000 fish house that is a hotel room on ice - wired for satellite TV. The ice fishing season should start just a few weeks. And with it is the renewal of a pastime that is as high about fishing as it is about fishing.
For many, the time spent in ice fishing houses is to nurture, whether it is alone or with a crowd. And the houses themselves are as personal as the people who take refuge in them. Fantastic ice fishing houses have become more popular in the high Midwest over the last two years. Ice Castle makes several models with names such as Fish House Stinger, Otter Tail, and Wallay Tracker, but Shultes' 21-foot Ice Castle "Shanti" is something else.
Ready to get things ready?
Ready to get things ready? Turn on the LED party lighting and crank your speaker to the outdoor speaker. Getting closer to spring? It has a screen door to keep out mosquitoes. But in January, on a frozen lake, that shouldn't be a problem.
For fishing without going outside, Shanti's marine-grade plywood floor has seven illuminated holes with eyelids. Drop an electric auger in the ice and drill away. Then watch an underwater camera floating in a hole and, on a large-screen TV, the fish swimming.
Read More: Fish House - Party on ice: Fishing houses go to high tech to bring all the comforts to the lake in winter
Some ice castles also have an aquarium built into the inside wall so you can see your bat minnows before swimming. All this, and more, from the comfort of a fishing hut that sleeps six and a forced-air furnace, double-pane windows, ceiling fans, a bathroom with a full-size bath, three-burner stove and Oven, microwave, refrigerator and double sink.
In the spring, the fish house can be taken out of the frozen lake and used as an electric awning, roof-conditioned air conditioner, camouflage curtains and a posh hunting hut with mattresses. Weighing around 6,000 pounds, you won't want to leave this deluxe parked on thin ice. "It weighs a bit more than a pickup truck, so you got to see it," said Schultz, an outdoorsman.
In the dead of winter, when the snow
In the dead of winter, when the snow is several feet thick on some lakes, Shultes and his family head to northern Minnesota, where the lakes are dotted with a wide range of ice castles and other huts. Minnesota-based Ice Castle general manager Brett Drexler said it was the company's best season yet. He said, "We are raising slogans right now ... People want their fish houses. I am very tense."
The more modest hut is still the norm
Small, traditional ice fishing mats still rule hundreds of Wisconsin's frozen wetlands covering waterways, including Lake Winnebago, starting in January. Many are made up of old travel trailers that last checked out of the campground decades ago. Picture wall-to-wall shag carpeting and beer posters from the 1980s, and you get the idea.
"It's like a small village," said Dan Brockiewicz, settled in his homemade hut on Lake Shawano in Cecil, Wisconsin. He paid $ 100 for the small shed 18 years ago and has since added a wood-burning heater that doubles as a cook stove.
The wood fires extinguish, and the hut quickly heats up.
"That thing will cook you right here," Brockiewicz said, adding that she has also cooked grilled cheese sandwiches and chilli pots on top of the stove. This is not a fancy hut by any means, but a little ice fishing hut serves its purpose of keeping the documentary Broquique and his friends at ease while they fish, play cards, wall hang little ones AM-FM listen to the radio and swap stories.
"There are a lot of good memories," Brockiewicz said, ranging from catching a 32-inch walleye to watching the hurricanes coming across the lake just to share life with people he has met over the years.
The types of shanty vary widely, from aluminum frames and light fabric stones, to heavy wood shaking, which, once parked on snow, do not move throughout the winter. "You can see that a man can be found from every piece of scrap wood," said fishing guide Brett Jolly.
Village on ice
Some people like to hang out with a crowd on the lake, hoping that large amounts of bait are dumped into the school of fish. An ice fishing resort in northern Minnesota has 80 miles of roads on Lake Mills, with street signs and speed limits. There are hundreds of huts, inhabited in the neighborhood, and local pizza places do a great business on the lake. During the fishing tournament in February, 6,000 people are out there, said Scott Peters, manager of Nitty's Hunters Point Resort in Nestle, Minnesota. "People come here from all over the Midwest and Down South," he said.
The resort has 14 plow trucks to keep snow roads free of snow. Some people spend the entire winter at the lake, bringing their laptops and a mobile hot spot with them so that they can work from the hut or simply stay connected to the outside world.
Danger and death rarely
Sometimes tragedy strikes the winter fishing scene, with fishermen falling through the ice and drowning or having a heart attack. Experts say that a frozen lake should never be considered completely safe.
In February 2012, 36 vehicles broke into the ice during a fishing tournament on Winbago Lake. A year ago, in one day, a man drowned on the lake and more than a dozen vehicles took icy shocks. Fish House; brockiewicz said he knew people who died in Lake Shawano. He carries two short, sharp spikes on the rope with him, should he ever fall to pull himself back onto the ice.
"If you're going to do that, you'd better be ready," he said.
There is no cheaper way than ice accidents. If your hut or vehicle sinks at the bottom of the lake, it can easily cost thousands of dollars to recover. State law says that you cannot leave vehicles or shunts deep, although some people try.
In northern Wisconsin, ice fishermen
In northern Wisconsin, ice fishermen have been on small lakes this autumn and winter for more than a month. Snow is not necessarily safe enough for vehicles or permanent shunts yet, if it ever is, but people are sloping down on shallow bodies of water on foot and closing portable huts. Fishing guide John Andrew said that he would not take people out of the ice until he was at least 6 inches thick. He said, "This is my personal rule ... but there are fishermen."
And then those are the ones for whom the label "Fisherman" is a stretch, at least part of the time. For them, a fishing hut is just a man's cave on the ice, a place to slide away for a few hours, put your feet up and relax.
Jolly said, "I've never spent many days without a hole in an ice digging hut."
"It's just great, having a cold beer, playing cards and walking around with people. Sometimes a fish interrupts the fun," he said.
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