How many fish houses are out there? - Pope County Tribune

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Publisher’s Perspective

By Tim Douglass, Publisher of the Pope County Tribune

Has anyone else looked at Lake Minnewasa recently and thought there are many more ice fishing houses out there than usual?

That thought has crossed my mind in the past few weeks as small communities of houses have popped up all over Minnewaska.

Maybe it’s because of the pandemic.  Ice fishing within your small group or “bubble” as we say now, is a safe and fun activity during a pandemic.

Maybe it’s the marketing efforts of fish house manufacturerers like Ice House, Yetti or Glacier.  Or, maybe it’s because of the mild temperatures this month.

Whatever the reason, it seems there are more houses on Minnewaska this season than in seasons past.

Wondering about the situation prompted a call to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Glenwood Fisheries Department.

After a talk with Bill McKibbin, who is the interim fisheries supervisor who has been handling those duties since Dean Beck retired last fall, I found out that the DNR no longer counts the number of houses on area lakes.

It used to, Bill told me.  But it stopped doing it in 2006 or 2007.

Getting an accurate count is difficult and had to be done from the air, which is both an expensive and time-consuming task.  And, it just gives a glimpse of the house population on the lake on one particular day that the DNR leases a plane to do the count.

Cost was probably the main reason the DNR stopped doing it.

Still, the question remains.  Are there more permanent ice-fishing houses on the lake this year than in years past.  The answer can only be anecdotal at this point, but casual observation says yes.

With ice thickness on the lake nearing 14 inches in most areas, many have been driving vehicles out to get to their ice-fishing houses.  There are a number of accesses for vehicles, but the one at the DNR landing near Glenwood is no longer an option.  Apparently,  a truck went through the ice in shallow water just off shore there over the weekend.  The truck was gone by the time I investigated, but “Thin Ice” signs were up and the landing was closed to vehicle traffic.

No problem, Hunt’s Resort, just a few blocks away on North Lakeshore Drive, allows access and has a nice road plowed to an area on the lake.

The Link Lonk


January 18, 2021 at 11:33PM
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How many fish houses are out there? - Pope County Tribune

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