By Robert Lucke
With the whole community of ice houses gracing Beaver Creek Reservoir these days and the great ice fishing found there, many folks might be wondering just how to build an ice house.
Not to worry. Get on the Internet and let a search engine take you to the ice fishing home page. There an ice house builder will find pages and pages of all sorts of plans. Goods and bads of each and even an explanation of terms.
There are ice hut plans which are detailed instructions for building a 30 inch by 60 inch fold-down portable fish house which is described as "very nice."
And what about an ice fishing shanty? That gives plans for a four by six foot take-apart, hardside ice shanty.
Then there is the ultimate ice shanty or plans for building a 40 inch by 84 inch portable ice fishing hut.
The terms shanty, hut, or house are not clearly defined but might become more clear after seeing the plans for each.
There is the portable fish house that refers to a house that can be pulled onto the ice by hand and be collapsed for easy transport and storage. Those tasks should be able to be performed by one person.
How about the semiportable fish house? That classification is for those houses that are too heavy to pull through deep snow, but can be easily loaded and unloaded from a pickup or trailer by one person.
The hardside fish house generally contains the types of houses that are constructed with plywood, particle board or other similar sheeting material.
Take-apart fish houses refer to houses that are constructed of wall, floor, and ceiling sections that bolt together on site and are disassembled upon leaving.
There are hinged fish houses which have wall sections hinged to fold down float to the floor for transport and storage.
There are electric systems, heating systems, cooking systems, and, yes, even bunks to sleep in after spearing that 20-pound walleye and hauling him through the ice hole.
There are some that could not possibly cost over $20 to build and some that would cost as much as a good used pickup.
But once again, on the Internet, there is a huge choice for the outdoor recreationalist in wintertime.
