An ice shanty (also called a fishing shanty,fish house,bobhouse, or ice hut) is a portable shed placed on a frozen lake to provide shelter during ice fishing. They can be as small and cheap as a plastic tarp draped over a frame of two-by-fours, or as expensive as a small cabin with heat, bunks, electricity and cooking facilities. Ice fishing in the Finnish Miljoonapilkki fishing competition. ...
Many northern communities have developed bodies of laws about the operation of ice shanties - frequently including dates by which they must be removed, even if the ice can still hold them.
Folklore
In northern climates, ice shanties are the center of a large, often humorous, folklore. Fishermen often decorate their ice shanties in humorous ways (toilets are a popular joke addition), while others studiously work on ways to make their ice shanties more comfortable and efficient. Much of the folklore involves the inherent danger of erecting a structure atop a frozen pond. A common saying goes that every pond and lake has at least one bobhouse on the bottom (at least one snowmobile, too). A snowmobile tour at Yellowstone National Park, note the snowdust in the air (NPS Photo) A 1997 Arctic Cat ZR 580 Snowmobile A snowmobile (or snow scooter, often referred to by enthusiasts as a sled and in the Canadian north and Alaska as a snowmachine) is a land vehicle propelled...
Dragging their batteries and radio gear out onto the ice atop their collapsible iceshanties, they set about the business of assembling antennas and getting the shanties up and the gear out of the weather.
One shanty, a clamshell design, was only big enough for its single occupant Mike Culberson, KC8PUT, (a recent upgrade to General), a battery, and an HF rig supported on a milk crate (milk crates and 5-gallon buckets seemed popular pieces of shack 'furniture' in all of the shanties, with room at a premium).
The fishermen eventually wandered back to their own shanties, to get on with their fishing, but I had to wonder what they thought of a group of guys and gals who'd sit out on the ice in a freezing shanty for half a day, just to play radio.
With temperatures hovering around the 45-degree mark, ice fishermen who were out on Lake St. Clair and Anchor Bay on Thursday were warned to get their shanties off the ice or risk them falling into the water.
Garside said most of the people who do have iceshanties on Lake St. Clair are about 500 yards from shore.
He said the officers won't go out into the lake unless the ice is thick.His deputies have the authority to remove shanties that do not display the name and address of the owner on three sides.
Feeds |
Contact