Ice Fishing Mansions

This was another interesting assignment. A glimpse into another culture very different from mine. I am neither a northerner, nor a fisherman, so the "sport" of icefishing is lost on me. But in northern Minnesota, this is good clean fun. And in the case of the people we met, it is also somewhat luxurious. A lot of ice fishermen sit on a bucket with a pole or two in the water. An easy upgrade is some sort of shelter from the wind -some are cloth covered frames, other are more like outhouses with room for one or two inside.

They day we went out was bitter cold. I think the high for the day was -10'. We headed to Lake Milacs in north central Minnesota. A string of very cold weeks had built the ice up to about 16" - just enough to hold the weight of a ridiculously large ice fishing house.

The focus of our story was ice houses that sleep several people, have satellite tv's (multiple usually), bathrooms and kitchens. They are much like a mobile home on ice, but the ones we visited were a notch above mobile home quality. I am not exaggerating when I say that a number of these ice homes were nicer inside than my own home. I do not have a parquet, inlaid wood floor in my home - one ice house did though. My home also does not have holes in the floor with underwater (and under-ice) cameras that can watch the fish come by to inspect the bait on your line and then take it if it so desires. The ultimate fish finder!

So, these are nice places to get out of the wind if you happen to be sitting on a frozen lake. That is the biggest need that they fill however. I'm told that if you really want to catch fish you need to be mobile, able to move where the fish are. These large houses were not mobile. They are pulled onto the ice and lifted onto skids so that the ice does not melt beneath them. Inside they remain toasty and warm with antique rifles above the doors, taxidermy on the walls and your favorite television shows beamed in from space. There might even be a big pot of venison chili warming on the mini-stove. Now you're living the northern Minnesota good life.