The smell and warmth of a wood stove creates a welcoming atmosphere in the ice-fishing shack owned by Cody Lister, of Sylvan Lake.
The building is really less a shack and more a like a nicely built shed, with skis on the bottom to transport it anywhere around the lake.
Four holes sit at each corner and Lister watches for activity below on his fish camera that gives a detailed view of the bottom, showing plants, rocks and even a bottle cap, but unfortunately not many fish on Sunday.
Normally there are walleye, perch, whitefish or even pike available.
In the past, Lister used what he calls a cube, that looks a little like a portable tent, for over the fishing hole.
“I got tired of setting it up and tired of freezing,” he said. On Sunday it was so warm inside his hut with the wood stove going that family members hopped outside for a minute to cool off.
Lister was one of the ice fishers to have his hut broken into last week.
He said it ticks him off that someone broke in. He said since the break in he doesn’t leave anything in his shack.
More than 20 huts in the Honey Moon Bay area were broken into on the night of Jan. 24. Many of them were broken into with bolt cutters breaking through locks last week. Police were investigating three teens and an adult last week after executing a search warrant at a rural property near Sylvan Lake. Among the items stolen were portable heaters, ice augers, fishing gear and at least one fridge.
Fred Davis, of Sylvan Lake, wasn’t around when the break-ins happened, but he said, “Kids will be kids.”
Davis arrived at the shack he shares with friends late Sunday morning. He was trying to light the wood stove and clear the ice off the rectangular hole as his dog Baxter, a Maltese-Yorkie cross bounced around beside him. Davis and his pals built their ice hut in pieces and assembled it on site. One donated a wood stove that he had made and lawn chairs and a cupboard are part of the huts furnishings.
Davis often works away doing oilfield construction, piledriving, and dropping by the ice shack is a way to catch up on the tall tales, fishing and otherwise.
“There are lots of lies told around here,” he said. “More lies than fishing.”
The biggest fish someone has pulled out of the hole he fishes is a 36-inch pike, but he heard of someone getting a 44-inch pike the other day.
sobrien@www.reddeeradvocate.com