Minnesota Reminds Ice Fishing Enthusiasts of The Deadline For Ice Houses

“Kind of all over all the area lakes. Little Detroit, Big Detroit here in town had a ton of fish houses on a lot of them started by coming off the lake with the warm weather, so but there’s pretty much all the area lakes have a good number of fish houses on them,” said Nicholas Daniel, Deputy Sheriff for Becker County Sheriff’s Office.

While there are some ice houses that still remain on Detroit Lake, the warmer weather has brought some concerns on the ice conditions.

“As more and more melting occurs obviously your ice is going to get thinner and more water on the top and things like that. So, at this time the ice is still probably pretty thick out there. But it won’t take too much if we continue these above normal temperatures to continue making that thinner and thinner and more and more dangerous to be out on,” said Amanda Lee, Service Hydrologist at National Weather Service in Grand Forks.

All fish houses south of Highways 10, 34, 200 and 2 must be off the ice by Monday. Those north of the line have until March 17.

“We just encourage people if they’re going to go on the ice to be smart about it. To check the ice conditions as they go. And if they have any questions about the ice conditions just make sure they’re drilling holes or bringing a chisel with them as they’re going out onto the lake,” said Daniel.