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Ice House Removal Deadlines Approaching In Minnesota, Wisconsin

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Time is running out for anglers. Ice houses must be off the lakes in the southern two-thirds of the state by end of the day Monday.

Despite cold temperatures and solid ice, the Department of Natural Resources says it's important to meet the March 4 deadline.

The waters of Lake Minnetonka are tightly concealed by three feet of snow and two 1/2 feet of ice. A minus 13-degree morning made for ideal indoor fishing conditions. Victor Awosika enjoyed fishing with a friend on Sunday morning.

"Oh, no, I don't think I can do the outside. I'm not Minnesotan enough," Awosika said.

Victor squeezed in two edible catches on the last ice fishing day of the season, a season that his fishing guides like Jeff Henrichs call quite busy.

"It was a long season. Dec. 8 was the earliest I've been out with houses, so it was a very long season," Henrichs said.

The Ice Fishing Warrior says he was able to rent out houses for an extra month this year. But by the mandate of DNR, and on the grounds of safety, that season is coming to a cold hard end.

"I'm ready to be done. Tonight, tonight I'm done so I'll be popping these up about 9 o'clock and get them off the lake, and I'm heading somewhere I don't know where. Somewhere warm, somewhere warm," Henrichs said.

But removing the houses requires removing major amounts of snow. Some houses were iced in.

The shores of Minnesota were ice heavy, too. Ben Osowaski is a staff member at the Ice Castles of Minnetonka.

"The growing process, the colder it is the more ice you can actually grow," Osowaski said.

The Ice Castles in Excelsior were in full form. Staff members say the extra cold winter has meant about half the crowds, but some did turn out, rising above the below zero day.

Soon, the castles and ice houses will be gone, and maybe just one day that water will reappear.

The ice castles in Excelsior are open through next Saturday night then they'll start breaking things down. The staff estimates that if they didn't break things down, this place would be intact until June.

Ice anglers in the northern third of Minnesota don't have to remove their fish houses until Monday, March 18.

In Wisconsin, the deadlines are a day earlier than in Minnesota.

Ice houses south of Highway 64 need to be removed by the end of the day Sunday. North of the highway, they need to be off the ice two weeks from Sunday on March 17.

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