Poor College Guys looking for ice fishing ideas

Greetings all,
I’m new to this site, but thought this might be worth a shot. I recently started grad school at the U (go Gophs), and i’m already thinking about how i’m going to get out ice fishing this winter…anyhew me and a couple friends are looking into options around MN (red lake, mille lacs, LOW, etc.), but we’re wondering what might be the cheapest…Since most of us are severely in debt to uncle sam already, pinching pennies is a must. Anyone have some good ideas that wouldn’t break our already broken wallets? Any suggestions would be great

There are replies posted in the General discussion forum over there

There are actually a number of good options in and around the metro. Lake Harriet can be decent (but the ice doesn’t get thick as quickly as on other lakes, so be careful); Bald Eagle Lake can be good as well. There are numerous others.

For a weekend trip, Mille Lacs can be pretty affordable. Red can be tough to get on during the weekend, but if you guys wanted to take a little break from school and go up during the week I bet you’d find it quite affordable.

Your biggest cost this winter would probably be gas, so you’re probably best off fishing local or picking Mille Lacs over Red or LOTW.

Hope that helps a little!

John

I agree with the local lakes. If you are unable to foot the bill for a full out getaway. Look at some of the lakes that are easily accesable. Hariet,and Bald Eagle are great lakes. Alse look to the west metro. There are some great small lakes for the crappie bite and lakes like Tonka, Buffalo, and Independence are all good Eye and Pike lakes.

Good luck with your search.

I built a 10×10 on Mille Lacs when I started at st. cloud.($800 from summer work and student loans)

I bartended to trade off my house payment and worked for tips. so in all I spent $800 for 4 yrs (yes I did it in 4) $200 a year for fishing as much as I did wasn’t bad. I stayed in my house for 3 weeks straight every year at college. I got to know a lot about the lake, got in good with the other resorts and owners and the cut me a lot of slack in food, moving the house ect. it was awesome!

I am starting Grad school at the U this spring. And there are a ton of places to fish fairly close. I love LOTW and Red but they are a ways away and gas is expensive but if you get a bunch of people to go up there for a weekend it helps with the costs.

Eric Ahlstrom

Congrat’s on grad school!
From personal experience, if your program is like mine (Aquatic science), you will have a lot of free time your first year to fish, but almost none after that. Since May of this year, i’ve gone fishing a total of 7 times. The moral of the story: enjoy your free time now, b/c soon you may have very little.