Ice House / Camping / Young family questions

I have been searching through years worth of old threads on ice houses and got some questions answered.

I have a family of 5, kids are 5, 4, 2. My ice fishing has gone from hole hopping in a portable and enjoying the elements multiple times a week, to now nearly non existent the last 2 winters. I have not done a good job getting the kids out and interested – by the time you get their snacks and entertainment, clothing, and get to a lake and set up – they are pretty much uninterested, plus we need good weather being in a portable. Personally, I’d always been against wheelhouses and enjoyed drilling lots of holes each day, but I am now starting to wonder if I had one, if I/we would get out fishing a lot more? Have it already set up on an area lake, already have some entertainment and snacks in it, etc. Ability to spend several hours/weekend in it as opposed to hoping for an hour on the ice in a portable.

Those with young kids, do you get out in yours or does it sit there and take up your money?
What are things to look for within one? Minimum size for a family? Bunks, lift beds, space, etc.
When is the best time of the year to buy one? Used, I am guessing just after the ice season? New, I’m sure wait time is several months out? Not in a huge rush to get one, sometime in the next 0-24 months. Will the used market come back down at all?
Length? Single or tandem axle? I have a 2019 Ram 1500 5.7 V8

To justify the cost, would also like to use it for camping some. Used to be a big tent camper and thought travel trailers were “not camping…” However, with a young family – trying to get kids to sleep in a tent, fall asleep before the sun goes down, not wake up at 5am with birds chirping and crabby/tired the rest of the day, we’ve pretty much given that up as well. Kids are spoiled these days… or I as a parent is lazier.

When my kids were little like that we ice fished. Once they hit about 8 and are in multiple sports even in the same season that became the full time every weekend job and ice fishing became all but impossible. The nice hydraulic shack just sat in the driveway. I’m lucky to get one single weekend without a tournament in a winter to get them out at this point. Summer is almost as bad with sports and activities. Getting them on a week fishing trip in the summer I’m still pulling them out of stuff I’m paying for.

Alagnak1 wrote:

When my kids were little like that we ice fished. Once they hit about 8 and are in multiple sports even in the same season that became the full time every weekend job and <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>ice fishing became all but impossible. The nice hydraulic shack just sat in the driveway. I’m lucky to get one single weekend without a tournament in a winter to get them out at this point. Summer is almost as bad with sports and activities. Getting them on a week fishing trip in the summer I’m still pulling them out of stuff I’m paying for.

Part of me says that I should not get one because I have not ice fished much lately. The other part of me says that getting one will get us back to fishing more, like I always did. Then part of me says, save the money and rent an ice house one or two weekends a year.

mnrabbit wrote:

Part of me says that I should not get one because I have not ice fished much lately. The other part of me says that getting one will get us back to fishing more, like I always did. Then part of me says, save the money and rent an ice house one or two weekends a year.

That’s the real conundrum. You invest a bunch of money with no guarantees you will use it. Renting one is a fine option because then you can actually use a house and see what you like dont like before making a big investment.

Rent a ice house 2 or 3 times a year and see how that goes first. If the family likes it then look at buying one. Try before you buy kinda thing.

I am in a similar situation to you mnrabbit. I have two twins that are 4 years old and the youngest is 1.5 years old. I purchased a hub last year for this reason. Only had it out with the kids once this year and it was only for about 2 hours just to get them out. Funny that the kids have more fun just playing with the minnows than trying to fish. They get a kick out of cleaning out the holes with the scoop too. We did rent a sleeper for a weekend a couple weeks ago and left the youngest with the grandparents. The kids had a good time overall and my one daughter didn’t want to go home. Last winter I setup the 2 man on a pond close to our house. The older kids took shifts and my wife dropped one off and took the other back home half way through. It is way easier to just focus on one kid and make it all about them. One thing I have heard over the years about kids is make the trips short and leave when they say they are done. You want to make it fun and not burn them out.

If the fishing is slow we play a game trying to teach them how to set the hook and feel for a bite. I make them close there eyes and then tell them to set the hook when they feel a tug. Just pull the line and they start reeling. Play it up like they got a big one on. They love that game.

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The other thing (and it kind of depends on where you live) is being in the south metro- i’m competing with everyone else who now has a shack on the road/lake/access. With the popularity of wheel shacks now- driving north on a friday or back on a sunday is right up there with memorial weekend traffic nightmares and something I like to avoid at all costs. It ruined it for me personally and it’s only going to get worse.

dhpricco wrote:

One thing I have heard over the years about kids is make the trips short and leave when they say they are done. You want to make it fun and not burn them out.

This is one thing I always do and am a big proponent of, even if it means you just got the holes drilled and it’s already time to leave. We’ve had trips that have had involved fishing. Some that have involved no fishing and playing on the ice or snow.

dhpricco wrote:

The older kids took shifts and my wife dropped one off and took the other back home half way through.

I should do this some… we’ve got a number of lakes within 20 minutes and could easily do this. This would also allow me to maybe find some fish and have a portable set up and ready for them too – increasing their time on the ice.

My kids, daughter just turned 6 and my son is 10. Been camping with them since babies. We love ice camping. But we make sure to have other activities to keep them occupied. I do not own a wheel house any more. But I have access to the old man’s firebrand. I’m not much of a wheel house guy. I enjoy it to a point but I don’t know If I’d own another. You have to dedicate alot of time to owning one to make it worth while.

Man, I feel your pain.

Lot’s of snacks, keep trips short, and maybe most important is keep them warm. A few dads on here have said big hubs are the key to bringing kids ice fishing. Have you tried that? A hub is a lot less of an investment than a wheelhouse.

Also start out by bringing 1 kid at a time. If I bring all 3 kids fishing, it’s hot mess. But 1 on 1 they are all great. As they get better I’ll bring 2 at a time and eventually all 3.

could buy a cheaper pop-up for the summer trips and rent a sleeper a few times a year for MANY years before you approach the cost of a wheelhouse. I pulled my pop-up all over the Isabella area and parked back in a clearing somewhere by yourself you still feel like you are camping with a lot more comfort.

It’s a tough pill to swallow for sure. I sold my wheelhouse a few weeks ago and i’m not sure i’ll buy another anytime soon. They’re a lot of fun and great for a family, but in my opinion you really have to be committed to using it every weekend in the winter and multiple times the rest of the year to justify the cost.

For the amount you’d spend on payments/insurance, gas to pull it around, resort road fees, food/beer, maintenance costs etc, you can rent a house a few times a year and take some awesome vacations as well.

mnrabbit wrote:

I should do this some… we’ve got a number of lakes within 20 minutes and could easily do this. This would also allow me to maybe find some fish and have a portable set up and ready for them too – increasing their time on the ice.

When I lived in the Metro I lived really close to prior lake ^^^^ This was what I would do with my Daughter. I’d often go out fishing by myself and get setup and on a good bite. I would then call my wife and she would bring my daughter out. Sometimes they would both stay and fish and after the daughter got bored they would go home. Other times the wife would just drop my daughter off and we’d fish until my daughter was tired and bored and I’d pack us up and head home. It worked really well. I got some quality alone fishing time and then would get some quality time with the family fishing as well

My second child will be arriving this Summer. My daughter turns 2 in a couple weeks. God willing, we’d love to have 3 kids or maybe 4.

I’ve realized that my days of anything being about me are over (except for one big trip a year ice fishing with friends, and a few early AM river runs on the open water). Just 5 Years ago I fished open water 3 nights a week from 4:00-9:00pm and was generally out there either Saturday or Sunday as well with my wife or friends. I feel like I’ve caught a lifetime of fish and have been blessed to basically live on the water for many years. From here on it’s 100% about my kids and finding ways to get them to appreciate the outdoors. I’ve even tossed around the idea of dumping my fishing boat while prices are absurd, stashing the fishing gear for a few years, and just relying on our tritoon to get out for our joy rides with family and friends while the kids are little. Once they are old enough to go with regularly, I’d buy a bigger fishing rig. My fears with that are I’ll just take on more and never bother buying another fishing rig. Sports are a huge part of our family’s life, so the competition for time with those may compound as well.

My plans are similar to what have already been mentioned. Keep experiences 100% positive and short. Load up on snacks and games. I hate the idea of maintaining a wheelhouse or paying the inflated prices. My wife likes the outdoors, but is lukewarm at best to the idea of a wheelhouse. She’d rather VRBO a few times a Winter and run portables out from the cabin. I’ll probably just buy an even larger hub this offseason for the outings my kids come on. On the rare occasions where I can fish hard on my own, I’ve still got a 1 man flip over that lets me go anywhere with ease along with some fishing buddies who do not have kids.

When it was just one kid I still got out quite a bit, looking back. Did a lot of like 5-10am or 6-midnight fishing trips on local lakes. Two kids got a little less trips. Three kids, and nearly no local trips. It’s tough and I feel guilty if I’m gone in the evening forcing my wife to put all 3 to bed, and if I go after that I’m usually too worn down now days. Or you never know when one might not sleep well, so I want a good nights sleep…

I’ve kind of transitioned from a few hours a few days a week to about 2-3 trips a year (combined ice and open water) that are a few days long, sometimes pay a guide, and hit it hard. If I take a local trip now, I usually just take a day off work – that way I’m still there to help in the morning and evening and kids are at daycare/school during the day.

My experience is this. It is probably not typical but it was an awesome surprise. I bought a used wheelhouse several years ago that was a deal that was too good to pass up. I knew I had one shot at getting the family interested in camping in the summer and ice fishing in the winter. And I nailed it. We outgrew the first house, sold it and bought another. We go pretty much every weekend, spend most the week after work hours preparing for the next weekend adventures. We had a close family try an enlist both our boys into wrestling and basketball. They both said no it would interfere with ice fishing. Baseball and football on the other hand keeps us from camping as much as we would like but I’m fine with a couple camping weekends a year. I don’t know what our family would do without a fish house. Winter would be dismal.

I have a 7, 5, and 3 year old that I try to get out in a hub a couple times a winter – it is quite a bit of work and like most of you know, it takes just as much time to get things ready and back as we spend fishing.

Some of my best ice fishing memories when I was younger was sitting in a permanent shack with my uncle, dad, or buddies fishing all day and late at night. Granted, that’s pretty much all we had before portables came to the scene.

This fall we found a decent deal on a wheeled house which was just an empty shell with minor finishing and decided to give it a shot-didn’t spend the big $ on a nice house with all the amenities, but something that would be warm and I could leave out on the lake. Questioned myself most of the winter if we should have bought it as we waited for decent ice and finding a spot to be able to bring it (in Duluth area). Finally got it out on the ice 3 weekends ago.

We have fished in it every Saturday/Sunday night since, usually about 3-4 hours, bringing supper and lots of snacks (bucket/potty a must). We’ve done nothing but play games, talk, and fish – every week it’s been the question of when do we get to go fishing.

The kids are already planning the fish house remodel as they want bunks and to sleep out on the ice now. Another thing to add to my to-do list this summer.

From my perspective, it’s been worth it. It wasn’t cheap, but it’s now something we all want to do and we all enjoy. I’ll still force them to fish in a hub early season, but if we can get a couple months of solid fishing to help grow that fishing bug it’ll be worth it. We’ve also been lucky that we’ve been a decent bite of small crappies. I haven’t caught a fish in the last 3 weeks – like everyone said, it’s all about them.

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Get them out camping now, any season. Before you know it they’ll be teenagers and hate everything…then by the time your done paying for college, the camper you have your eye on will be as much as the dental work you will need.

I was motivated and doing the hub ok with one kid – it was a lot of work for what were sometimes short trips, but when the second came it was simply not really worth it. I got a shed trailer (I have some ridgeline threads here) and it has helped a lot for fishing and we use it camping. I would never have justified one if we did not use it year round, and we use it probably 2-3 times more in the summer.

My kids are now 6 and 8 and they are pretty happy happy either being in the house, or a popup, or a tent, but as others have alluded to here the thing that becomes the precious commodity is time – and that is where I find the house most valuable.

In the winter it gets filled with fishing stuff and all I have to do is bring in my electronics and bait and go. I can have 4-6 lines down in about 20-40 minutes if I need to pull it with the atv and have to unload/load that, and much less if I can just drive out. We go to a lot of local lakes where the fishing is not great, but we are fishing, and we can justify a quick trip in a couple hours.

In the summer it transitions to bunks, bags, cooking and camping stuff. To go camping we can toss food and clothes in and go. When we get back I drop the toy hauler door, take the food and clothes out, leaf blow the crumbs and dirt out and I’m done. It takes about 30min which is a far cry from drying out tents and gear, rolling bags, etc for hours (or the next day). Plus we can throw toys, bikes, kayaks, etc in the house.

Some people want to die on hills about how fishing or camping or hunting “should” be, I just want to do stuff with my kids. Sometimes they fish, sometimes they read or run around on the ice while I fish, sometimes they play with bonfires, sometimes they sit inside on a tablet, sometimes we are on weeklong off-grid trips pooping in a bucket. But we spend time together.

tindall wrote:

I was motivated and doing the hub ok with one kid – it was a lot of work for what were sometimes short trips, but when the second came it was simply not really worth it. I got a shed trailer (I have some ridgeline threads here) and it has helped a lot for fishing and we use it camping. I would never have justified one if we did not use it year round, and we use it probably 2-3 times more in the summer.

My kids are now 6 and 8 and they are pretty happy happy either being in the house, or a popup, or a tent, but as others have alluded to here the thing that becomes the precious commodity is time – and that is where I find the house most valuable.

In the winter it gets filled with fishing stuff and all I have to do is bring in my electronics and bait and go. I can have 4-6 lines down in about 20-40 minutes if I need to pull it with the atv and have to unload/load that, and much less if I can just drive out. We go to a lot of local lakes where the fishing is not great, but we are fishing, and we can justify a quick trip in a couple hours.

In the summer it transitions to bunks, bags, cooking and camping stuff. To go camping we can toss food and clothes in and go. When we get back I drop the toy hauler door, take the food and clothes out, leaf blow the crumbs and dirt out and I’m done. It takes about 30min which is a far cry from drying out tents and gear, rolling bags, etc for hours (or the next day). Plus we can throw toys, bikes, kayaks, etc in the house.

Some people want to die on hills about how fishing or camping or hunting “should” be, I just want to do stuff with my kids. Sometimes they fish, sometimes they read or run around on the ice while I fish, sometimes they play with bonfires, sometimes they sit inside on a tablet, sometimes we are on weeklong off-grid trips pooping in a bucket. But we spend time together.

Nailed it. I bet your kids are awesome! There are a ton of ways to parent, but spending time together is the common denominator. In working with kids in athletics I see so many negative things, that it’s easy to dwell on them. Seeing people here asking questions (and sharing info with me) about how to go about spending time with their kids is a great feeling.

I’ve coached a lot of young kids who have had supportive parents that are extremely busy and they can’t figure out why their kids act out, go on defiant spells, or just have a general apathy for many things in life. When parents ask what they can do to help their kid succeed in a sport, classroom, or life I tell them to spend more time with them. I don’t care if it is watching a crappy football game, taking a walk every night, volunteering at their school functions, shoveling a driveway, or sitting in an ice shack catching nothing. Kids who have parents prioritize them and spend time with them daily are so far ahead of those who don’t have parents spending time with them.

My daughter has started a routine (almost 2), where grandpa or I warm up the truck when we go plowing around the buildings and driveways and toss her in when we leave. She now screams in excitement yelling “PLOW TRUCK!” when she sees snow falling. Some of the “conversations” we’ve had in hours plowing make for great stories. She does get angry on occasion over bad songs on the radio though, or if I cut off the snack intake a bit too soon. The upset moments are quickly forgotten by a funny sound from the wipers, giggling at the dog running outside, or when he chooses to ride in the back of the truck staring at her through the window licking the glass as I yell at him.

I have never really been much of a wheelhouse guy either. I never liked the idea of being stationary for a long period of time over dead water just waiting. If I was, I would definitely buy one I could use in the non-winter months as a weekend camper. I would honestly get more use out of it for that purpose than ice fishing.

Look at it this way: would you buy a boat and only use it 5 times/year? Heck no. I use my boat a couple times a week for 6 months straight. Granted, I don’t sleep in it over night, but I can’t justify buying such an expensive item unless I know I’m going to get a lot of use out of it.

I think the pandemic initially brought a lot of “impulse buyers” of recreational items into the outdoors. Eventually some of these people will realize that they aren’t getting the use out of them that they thought they would. Some people may keep them though.

I am in a similar situation 7 – 5 – 3. I find outings much more sucessful with only 1 kiddo at a time. I pack snacks and normally we stop for a chocolate milk at kwik trip – I don’t think it is bribary but try to keep the experience fun. Would love to get a wheel house in the future but for now we fish out of a pull over, my boy loves the ride out in the fourwheeler just as much!

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I think you have to find out what works for your particular family and don’t be afraid to adjust. I have a 9 year old boy and 5 year old girl. I started tent camping but recently bought a hybrid camper so we have temp control and decent bedding. It’s nice after a full day playing outside to get good sleep and recharge properly. I also use it for hunting.

For ice fishing, I typically rent a sleeper once a year and then a portable trip once a year. Add in other kiddo activities such as sports, ice skating, and skiing and that’s about what we have time for in winter.

mnrabbit wrote:

When it was just one kid I still got out quite a bit, looking back. Did a lot of like 5-10am or 6-midnight fishing trips on local lakes. Two kids got a little less trips. Three kids, and nearly no local trips. It’s tough and I feel guilty if I’m gone in the evening forcing my wife to put all 3 to bed, and if I go after that I’m usually too worn down now days. Or you never know when one might not sleep well, so I want a good nights sleep…

I’ve kind of transitioned from a few hours a few days a week to about 2-3 trips a year (combined ice and open water) that are a few days long, sometimes pay a guide, and hit it hard. If I take a local trip now, I usually just take a day off work – that way I’m still there to help in the morning and evening and kids are at daycare/school during the day.

It’s like we are living the same life… i too have struggled with this subject. I think the increase in prices have priced me out of thr market though. I may pull the trigger on a well made homemade some day

I have found that taking them out one at a time and really spending quality one one one time with dad really makes a big difference especially as young as they are

Before you decide to buy a wheelhouse, you have to ask yourself if you’re really going to use it. That’s the number #1 question.

With a family of five, you’re going to want a decent sized shack (I’d say an 8×17′ as a bare minimum, and a 21-22′ tandem as the maximum because of your tow vehicle)

With the prices these days, most people including myself almost have to use it year-round to justify one.

It’s not just fishing and summer camping.

Our boys love the shack and love driveway camping as much as anything. They also make for a hideout to go watch the game in peace, make a great guesthouse, deer camp, etc.

I don’t know where you live, but you’ll obviously need decent ice to take it out on the lake. Depending on where you live or how far you’re willing to travel, your ice season could be two weeks or three months.

Next, I 110% recommend having a toyhauler. It opens up unlimited opportunities, I’ll never own a shack without it again.

When the ice is too thin to drive on, it awesome to park at a landing and fish all day on machines/portables, and have a place to crash for the night.

Without a toyhauler, your shack would be sitting in the driveway.

Before pulling the trigger, remember that you have to buy it, store it, maintain it, register it, insure it, tow it, and most of all: USE IT

Thanks for the advice all.

When is generally the best time to buy one used? I’m guessing after the ice season when nobody wants to store one the rest of the year?

Lots of thinking to do it on still, and I’m not in a rush.
New/nice/big right away?
Or maybe a smaller used one for a couple years that I can use close to home and have short outings with, then if we like it, upgrade, or know that I can pretty much sell it for what I bought it for.

I like a lot of the parenting tips for getting out with kids, especially the one on one time. I always try taking all 3 to give my wife a break so she can get something done. I do notice when I have 1-1 time with any of the children, it’s very enjoyable, they talk and laugh non-stop, are more open to doing new things, etc.

Spring is the best time to buy used, you will have the most shacks to choose from. The RV shacks hold their value pretty good all year, but again you have more to choose from in the spring.

Also, if you’re buying a shack with a steel frame, don’t even bother looking at non-galvanized shacks.

With a family of 5 I’d get the biggest one you can tow.

The other factor is time/work schedule, if you can’t head out early or take Fridays off entirely, it’s going to limit where and how often you can go. I used to have a sleeper as a bachelor and it was great, but became too much work once I moved to the cities. I also have 2 young kids, and may entertain the idea of getting one in a few years, but that will be driven more by a need for a camper than anything else. As previously stated, you can rent a sleeper house plenty of times every winter and still come out money ahead without all the work.

It’s a hard balance to strike to ensure they’re comfortable and engaged. My boys love fishing and I took them out in the portable when they were 3-5 years old, I made sure the weather would be good and that we were on a lake where we were going to at least catch some dinks, but the action would be steady. They had a great time, but then My bro-in-law got an Ice Castle and now that’s ALL they want to do. Hard to get them to want to go out and drag a sled and deal with gear when they can literally walk in a door into a warm, cozy house with a TV and there’s already poles rigged up for them.

It’s like getting to attend a major sporting event in a suite – after that the cheap seats aren’t as fun.