Wheel House Cities on the ice

I have never fished out of a wheel house before, but on almost every single lake in the area are just cities forming on the ice of wheel houses. I never really see anybody moving them around to different locations, and when I see people drive them onto the ice they just pick a spot and drop it down- no drilling holes and dropping the flasher down, searching for fish before hand or anything.

I guess my question is, are a lot of these people that set up their wheelhouses like this more so just into it for a getaway or social factor?

What do you do all day if the fish aren’t biting or even underneath you at all, nobody ever moves to new locations it seems like? Is it just like sitting in your living room watching TV, except you now have a few holes in the floor that a fish could come through? Hanging out with friends, family, playing cards, having a good time- with the added bonus that you are always on the ice?

You about pegged the nail on the head there with most wheelhouse guys. Being in Le Sueur county, I’m guessing you’re talking about Washington and German? I grew up on one of those two lakes and see it every year out there. Pull in, drop, drill, crack a beer. When it’s time to pick it up for the season, leave the beer cans, the carpet you froze to the ice and a poo bag or two. Leave all that for me to come out with an ATV and trailer to pick it all up in March.

Adversely, I put my wheelhouse on both of those lakes occasionally but it gets moved 1-3 times a day and always comes back with me, even if it’s a few hundred yards from my dads front door. The amount of theft and break-ins with wheelhouses on those two lakes are incredibly high.

yes and no. I know wheelhouse guys that move their house 2-3x a week looking for walleye. the other advantage of a wheelhouse is you can travel to far away lakes and use them there obviously. But yeah, I mean if you’ve been in a wheelhouse you know it looks a bit like a living room. Wheelhouses are about comfort more than anything, and when you get comfortable, you don’t make a lot of effort to change anything.

404 ERROR wrote:

Being in Le Sueur county, I’m guessing you’re talking about Washington and German?

Those lakes and several others. It just seems like every lake I drive by has a hundred houses on it. When out fishing for a day, I feel like I have never seen somebody move their wheelhouse from one spot to another. And often times, it just looks like they sit there for a month or two.

When I had a wheel house, we would spend a long time finding the exact spot we wanted it on and then leave it there. If that spot was or turned slow we would go exploring on the ice, or with portables. Since they are a pain to setup/move it would take a lot of convincing to move it a few hundred yards. If we moved it, it was usually to a different lake. Also, yes they are very comfortable, and moving/resetting up isn’t a super high priority once you are settled in. My house was a homemade steel beast, so it was more of a pain than the new aluminum frames too.

I’m going to assume we are talking about crappie villages because they are the most common.

IMO there are different types of fishing. There’s searching for fish and waiting for fish. During the day crappie are schooled up tight so you have to work hard and search for them. During low light the fish are scattered roaming and searching for you(food).

That’s why most wheel house people prefer fishing after dark. Fishing is easier and location is not near as critical. Being the fish are scattered across a large area they do tend to catch less than the daytime fisherman. They do catch fish though and at times do very well.

I like both types of fishing. Drilling holes during the day, finding a huge school and catching 100 crappie is my favorite. Sitting in a wheel house with some friends playing cards and drinking a few while catching enough for a meal is fun too.

For some, there are just more important things sometimes than catching a fish…

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Thanks for the replies! About what I thought, but I was just a little curious what people do inside the wheelhouses and why they just seem content on leaving them on a spot most of the winter.

mnrabbit wrote:

I was just a little curious what people do inside the wheelhouses

Back in 2011 there was a house on German that burned down from the guy making meth in it…maybe that’s what they all do?

“I was just a little curious what people do inside the wheelhouses”

Be careful what you ask for…

For many, ice fishing is a social thing. Just a place to go and get away from the wife and kids, have a couple barley sodas, and play some cards. Occasionally, you’ll get the bonus of rattle reel sounding off.

Nothing wrong with that at all. Personally, I prefer fishing out of my portable and fishing to catch fish. I have never had an urge to buy an overpriced glorified $20,000 trailer, with all the hastle of licensing, towing, maintaining (which can be a nightmare), to go sit and have a few beers. That’s what they have VFWs for.

Besides, the way the winters have been going the last few years, what do you get, 6 weeks on the ice before the season closes? I don’t see the winters getting longer any time soon the way we’re cooking fossil fuels.

crappie55369 wrote:

“I was just a little curious what people do inside the wheelhouses”

Be careful what you ask for…

I should have proofed that before I typed that up haha.

SW Eyes wrote:

I have never had an urge to buy an overpriced glorified $20,000 trailer, with all the hastle of licensing, towing, maintaining (which can be a nightmare), to go sit and have a few beers. That’s what they have VFWs for.

Besides, the way the winters have been going the last few years, what do you get, 6 weeks on the ice before the season closes?

I’ve got the same thoughts. I’m sure there are plenty of benefits to having one, and I think it sounds like a blast as the kids get older to hang out on the ice in comfort for extended periods of time. That said, if I were to ever buy one (which I don’t see happening), it would also have to double as an RV and camping in the summer, to justify the cost of spending that much for something that is used that little in the winter.

Well mnrabbit I didn’t think I’d ever get one either but when I realized I could spend time with my entire family year round camping fishing it made sense for us. We paid under 15k and in 5 yrs if I decide to sell it I will loose very little.

We purchased the house this spring and we’ve already spent 24 nights in it as a family. My 3 year old boy caught his first limit of walleye on the ice last weekend. He caught 12 walleye 100% by himself, but here are the 6 I let him keep. Best thing I have ever purchased!

FYI: I’d recommend fly line to prevent tangles! Let’s just say I had to be patient, but it was well worth it!

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Joe, great pic and post, that’s what more families need and what it’s about.

Personally I don’t own one but have little issues with the wheel house’s other than the endless amounts of generators going 24/7, but it is what it is. I usually have blinders on once I’m focused in on the task at hand, so that’s just more white noise.

I tell you what I wish I had one! I wouldn’t go with the 20k variety though. plenty of used houses on the market for less than 10k that can work great for your whole family.

” Wheelhouses are about comfort more than anything, and when you get comfortable, you don’t make a lot of effort to change anything.”

I bought a castle last year and have a few buddies with skid houses out on mille lacs. We set our shacks up in proven spots we’ve been fishing for years. I bought a hybrid so I use it year round on my lot at the resort and fish w the boat all summer.
There is not much better than having my wheeler and portable outside the door to run and gun during the slow times and come to a nice warm shack to throw my rattles down for the rest of the day.
Yes we drink, play cards, watch tv and movies all while having our lines down.
I am sure there are many that don’t check what they are setting up on and those are the guys that don’t catch fish but have some faith that most of us are using our GPS and chips to find our target area and not just blindly setting up.

Here is a few from 18 hours in our shack last weekend that we leave out there.

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Fishwater83 wrote:

There is not much better than having my wheeler and portable outside the door to run and gun during the slow times and come to a nice warm shack to throw my rattles down for the rest of the day.

Joe Scegura wrote:

We purchased the house this spring and we’ve already spent 24 nights in it as a family. My 3 year old boy caught his first limit of walleye on the ice last weekend. He caught 12 walleye 100% by himself, but here are the 6 I let him keep. Best thing I have ever purchased!

Now you guys are making me want one someday!

Best money I’ve ever spent. There’s a lot of things going on in those fish houses. 99% of it is good things. I can just about guarantee my boys ain’t going to be standing in the middle of some highway protesting. They will be at work so they can afford bait, lures,license’s, etc. here’s what my last two weekends were like.

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MNdrifter… awesome pictures! Good times.

I would guess the cost per hour to own on say $15,000 boat vs a portable fish house would surprise you. I’m thinking the fish house gets more hours used per year then most boats.

Joe Scegura wrote:

MNdrifter… awesome pictures! Good times.

Thanks! You too. It’s almost a shame I don’t do Facebook. LOL.

I have always used my wheel house as more of a portable, just drive to a spot, drill hole, don’t even lower down, just fish, I will drill holes outside to, then just keep moving until I am on fish, it’s actually quicker than a portable, I don’t even have to get it out of the truck. I do have certain spots that I can just pull up with the gps and drop the house. Normally I will check to make sure my rockpile didn’t roll away with a camera. Sometimes if I’m just going out for a panfish bite either in a basin or on a weed flat, you can just set it down and you are on fish. I have no problem moving the wheel house 6, 8, 10 times a day, sometimes we do out west when we are chasing perch, but it is so nice to fire up the oven and through a egg bake, lasagna, pizza, tater tot hotdish. Any thing in the oven, go outside, keep fishing, come in to a warm meal, then when you do find a school, drop it down, sit on them all night, wake up to a morning bite in your pjs, bake some cinnamon rolls, and do it all over! I love my wheel house cause I don’t have to go to the motel at night.

MNdrifter wrote:

Best money I’ve ever spent. There’s a lot of things going on in those fish houses. 99% of it is good things. I can just about guarantee my boys ain’t going to be standing in the middle of some highway protesting. They will be at work so they can afford bait, lures,license’s, etc. here’s what my last two weekends were like.

Drifter…yes, I think I remember your sharing this family bonding experience last year on/in another universe! Ha..that was before you were exiled, think you know what I’m referring to.
That was strange…?
Hoping you can make it to the IDO GTG at Mille Lacs end of February. I would think no reason you couldn’t bring your little guys, hopefully Red Door still has the Mac ‘n’ Cheese bites!