Overnight adventures on the ice have long fascinated anglers, and with the equipment available today, this adventure is becoming much easier.
Spending the night on the ice can take many different forms. When I was in high school, I often slept in my pickup truck with a line of tip-ups spread out in front of the headlights. Of course, overnight adventures in sleeper houses and hard-sided houses can be as luxurious as any RV park. Perhaps one of the hottest trends, however, is overnight adventures in portable shelters. More and more people are accessorizing and tricking out their shelters for prolonged overnight stays on the ice.
The reasons are many. There is the feasibility of simply staying on the ice where you are fishing. There are opportunities for catching species like walleyes and crappies well after dark. There is the serenity of sleeping on a comfortable cot while the wind blows outside and the ice moans underneath. There are several layers of enjoyment. The cooking, the ruggedness and the logistics can all factor into the desire to simply stay out on the ice. In some remote areas, lodging is perhaps an hour of travel on each end of the day; we have found it much simpler to set up camp where or near where we plan to fish.
This past winter, we returned to Lake Sakakawea and filmed a television episode on ice camping with an old friend I have known since high school, Erik Myre. Myre and I were involved in plenty of adventures during our early years and I will admit that many of those adventures were much less comfortable. Due to the quality of the ice fishing shelters available today, along with the better equipment developed in the camping and hunting industries, staying out overnight on the ice for consecutive days is no longer considered roughing it.
Getting Started
We have camped out in some of the largest flip-overs but for the sake of room, hub shelters give you the floor space you need for sleeping, cooking and fishing. Cots, gear and cooking equipment do take up a lot of space. When picking a size, you can’t have a large enough hub shelter if you plan on overnight use. I haven’t yet found a magic configuration for how to arrange cots or tables to maximize room. We typically position the cots around the sides of the shelter, while leaving some room for holes and rattle reels. In my opinion, insulated fabric is a must. I often use the Clam JM 600, which is constructed of thermal fabric that is much warmer and has much less condensation or water dripping. This size works well for two to three people.
A dependable heat source is obviously important — and a big consideration regarding heat is carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide poisoning is a very real threat, where basically the heater can consume all of the oxygen in a space and carbon monoxide builds up in the blood. People get drowsy and basically fall asleep and never wake up. Propane heaters that feature a carbon monoxide shut-off are highly recommended. Luckily, we are starting to finally see some innovation with propane space heaters. The Heat Hog has an 18,000 BTU LP heater that allows you to adjust the heat angle with a curved heating plaque. Remember that the sunflower-style heater heads don’t have any type of carbon monoxide sensor. Along with heat, find yourself a battery-operated carbon monoxide sensor to use inside your shelter.
Additional items that help heat your shelter comfortably are small electric fans. You can pick up small battery-powered fans at most camping centers that work extremely well. Some companies, like Clam, do manufacture fans and lights that can be screwed or clipped into the hub assembly of the shelter. The ClamLock system from Clam allows you to utilize accessories like lights, fans, rod holders and rattle reels on mounting plates that attach permanently to the actual hub assembly.
When the shelter is set up and heated, the ice is going to become extremely slippery and wet the longer you camp. The best flooring that I have found is simply exercise mats or rubber flooring that can be pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle. This flooring material can be found at many hardware stores. Fold-up cots and folding tables are necessary for sleeping and having a place to cook. A pillow, sleeping bag and blow-up mattress round out the comforts for sleeping. For cooking, we often bring a simple propane camp stove or grill. The basic cooking necessities might include utensils, pans, pots and a cooler for food items. I also recommend bringing a large water bladder or tank of drinkable water for washing, drinking and cleaning after cooking.
We often cook fish out on the ice, but you do need to check with state or provincial regulations on how to handle fish carcasses and how those eaten fish may impact a possession limit of fish. What we pack in, we pack out — including fish carcasses and leftover food and latrine items — with plastic garbage bags.
Once you have the essential equipment to be comfortable, ice camping is easy and affordable. Ice camping also opens a lot of options for remote ice fishing expeditions. We camped out on Fort Peck last winter on a remote bay that was several miles from the nearest town. We realistically probably didn’t have another human being within 20 miles of us. The solitude is refreshing, but the fishing in remote areas can really be outstanding.
Simple logistics can also be a strong reason to camp on the ice. Remote backcountry lakes can take a considerable effort to reach and if you want to fish in these locations for several days, common sense dictates to be prepared to stay on the ice. Overnight trips, however, can also produce a lot of great fishing for eelpout, walleye and crappie. We have even caught trout, perch and pike in the middle of the night. Rattle reel setups are highly recommended. While you sleep, cook or get ready for the next adventure, you might as well fish and have lines in the water.
I like to use the ClamLock rattle reels when overnighting in a hub, as they simply attach to the walls of your hub shelter. Typically, I use the heavier 20-pound dacron line for the main line and attach a small split shot and barrel swivel to the end of the dacron. Below the swivel, tie on an 8-pound test fluorocarbon leader that is about 3 feet long when targeting walleyes. On the business end of a rattle reel, a size 4 glow octopus hook is tough to beat paired up with the minnow of your choice. Make sure to check out the tall lighted bobbers called the Clam Stoplight Bobber that change color when they submerge. These lighted bobbers work extremely well in houses or on rattle reels. The rattle reel with the plain glow hook, split shot and small- to medium-size minnow will simply catch everything after dark. You can experiment with small, wide-gap jigs, and you can also experiment with putting a split shot a short distance above the minnow to give the minnow a shorter leash to swim on, but this simple program can account for bonus fish.
We often use our hub as a base camp where we will do some actual fishing out of the hub, use rattle reels after dark while we sleep, but we also do some exploring and will use tip-ups around the hub, particularly when we are walleye or pike fishing. The base camp serves as a place to sleep, cook and relax between adventures.
There is a camaraderie shared while sleeping on the ice. When you camp on the ice in what can possibly be brutal conditions, you will either really like the person you are with, or really dislike them, so choose who you ride into battle with carefully. People who are soft, have a negative attitude or simply complain a lot, are not going to be fun to be with on these types of adventures.
Let’s get back to the adventure briefly mentioned earlier on Lake Sakakawea with my old high school pal where we filmed a television episode. We caught plenty of fish. We caught a few fish throughout the night on rattle reels. We caught a few more fish on tip-ups. We caught even more fish bouncing around and fishing up and down the point where we were camping. We ate a few fresh fish. We pan-fried some elk steaks. We gazed at the stars and reminisced about times when we were much younger. We stared at the beautiful, rugged horizons of the Missouri River and blessed was the word to describe how we felt. We laughed until the wee hours of night in our cots and stayed up later than we normally do in our ordinary lives at home. The ice creaked and moaned underneath as the wind whipped outside, but we were lost inside a different world where we were comfortable and content.
Ice camping adventures do have an appeal if you are prepared and have the right equipment to make it comfortable. Ice camping also opens up so many more fishing opportunities, and allows you to experience some amazing places on a budget.
