I personally don’t anchor mine at all, I just put it up on blocks if leaving it for long periods of time so the skids don’t freeze down. My hitch either goes inside the shack or with me back to the cabin. If you wanted to anchor it, just take an ice screw and a short length of strap and put it through one hole and out the other.

If trailer isn’t a concern, consider how width will dictate your layout. With how I like to fish, I want to be close enough to the holes to be able to jig directly from the couch/chair and have holes running the length of the shack. If you go 7’+ in width, you will want to think about hole placement relative to how you’re going to fish while also considering the frame underneath. Some people like 8′ wide and have a couch at each end facing each other. All personal preference.

If your place is on the lake, then go for the skid. I have a 6.5×10 skid house at the family cabin in WI and I’ve been very happy with it. Started off with portables, then built a ski platform for the 949i to tow around, and finally got the skid shack. World of a difference for fishing in comfort. On early ice with little snow cover you can push it out by hand, otherwise the Honda ATV with chains pulls it no problem. I now have a ranger that will be the primary pulling vehicle which should make it even easier. I’m on a small lake so theft is not much of a concern, but you could easily anchor one with an screw if you left a hole cover off.

I have mine set up with a jackknife sofa and boat seat. Have been able to squeeze 4 adults and 1 kid in fishing at the same time. Takes almost nothing to heat and the convenience of all the lights and other gear being attached to the walls cannot be beat.

Currently working on setting up a battery bank that I can connect my solar panel. Then I’ll be upgrading heaters to either a truma forced air or a diesel heater.

If you ever need to transport it, I wouldn’t go wider than 6.5ft unless you already have a deck over trailer. I have access to a tilt car hauler with a winch mounted to the front that lets me pull up the shack between the wheel wells. If I was going to get another to keep at my house and hit closer lakes with, I’d go to a 6′ wide.

If you just have the battery’s in a tote with no metal objects to pierce the casing or short the cells, then they should be just fine. If your house catches fire and the lithium battery’s get to a point where they are compromised and ignite, then they will burn. But I’d view that as a moot point.

I think that it would be a pretty good chance you get a spot. Once the fall hits, parking there is generally much easier from my experience.

It costs a lot to run a veterinary clinic. And to practice quality medicine that the doctors are comfortable with for the pets that are brought in. There are some “older” clinics around that will do things cheaper, but don’t have the same level of monitoring and may use different protocols that have higher risks of complications. On the other side of the equation is a trend of veterinary clinics being purchased by private equity groups, which seems to have a strong correlation with pricing adjustments. They don’t advertise that they’ve been sold to a corporate group, but if a clinic has a “medical director” and not an owner, that’s a telltale sign.

For dentals, they run a lot cheaper if you help take care of your dogs teeth. If it goes a long while without being checked/cleaned and teeth deteriorate and need to be extracted, it will drastically impact the price. I watched my wife take 6 teeth yesterday and remove a lump from the gums on a dog and it is quite the process. Ask for an estimate, generally we try to do ours with a “high” and a “low” depending on how many (if any) extractions are needed. Quantity is hard ahead of time because you can’t know for sure until the pet is sedated and dental rads are completed.

Health insurance for pets really depends on the breed, lifestyle, and how much you personally would put towards a pet. One of our vets has insurance on her Great Dane where she can drop him off at an emergency clinic and not worry about the price. We don’t have insurance and just keep an emergency fund for our crew, if one were to need something then we’d pay from that. If you have a working dog or a breed more prone to certain issues, then insurance with greater coverage might be worth considering. If you only want it for the extreme cases, then one with a higher deductible and lower monthly cost would make more sense.

If I recall the last update I saw for that launch is it was “supposed” to be completed for the summer of 2024. Hopefully they do complete it this fall, the Croix needs another public launch in the area. Just hope it doesn’t have the same problems as the Hudson launch as of late.

hot tamale wrote:

Anyone been out in the bayport area for sturgeon? I know its probably a little early yet but im so pumped.

does the high water affect sturgeon activity, anyone know? Thank you!

Sturgeon activity should be picking up soon if it hasn’t already. I’ll be going out tomorrow evening for my first sturg trip of the fall.

I don’t think water level is a huge impact for them in the Bayport area, with the minimal current down there and large main basin I don’t change anything for presentation.

I live right across from Osceola along the river valley, and with three dogs walked through the long grass daily and a DVM spouse I see a fair amount of ticks. The deer ticks were out in force for April/early May and now it’s transitioned to more “normal” levels of primarily wood ticks. Still will see the occasional deer ticks, but not as bad as earlier this year. My wife was finding ticks on dogs all winter long, anytime it’s above 32F they can be out.

Our dogs do transport ticks into the house, but between Simparica or Nexgard any tick that actually bites the dogs will die. We prefer chewable tick prevention for the dogs, doesn’t seem like the topicals maintain efficacy.

Keeping pets on year-round prevention if possible is what we recommend and what we do for our three. If it gets above freezing for any part of the day, the ticks can start moving. Especially with this past year, we were pulling ticks off dogs all winter long at my wife’s clinic. Heartbreaking when a young dog gets a tick born disease that is preventable and it isn’t caught in time. Hopefully your crew gets back to 100% soon.

All depends on the landings you use. Up at our cabin you pretty much need to have a scissor trailer to launch smoothly due to the depth of water at the launch. A “new” cabin owner up there bought a toon on a bunk trailer and they had to get pulled off the bunk trailer to launch last weekend, and that is with the higher spring water. Most of the neighbors use our scissor trailer and I launch with the loader attachment on the tractor. Goes much smoother.

However, be sure to strap all four corners when using a scissor trailer until you’re about to launch. I remove the rear straps right before the back end goes in, then remove the front straps after it’s mostly in.

If getting a scissor trailer, make sure to get one that cuts in where the wheels are so it is as wide as possible for the majority of the support. Our newer trailer is like that and is much more stable than the older one we had.

You can get hole sleeves with lids to keep items from going down. Svens sleeves has both wheelhouse and direct on ice models. It’s what I use when I take the nieces and nephews out ice fishing.

The regular buddy heater is more than enough. Most of the time I have it running on low.

The reason to try other heaters is for dry heat and to try and gain space since I could mount it under the jackknife sofa. Not a requirement by any means, just something to tinker with for the shack.

If you aren’t transporting then I personally would lean towards the 6×10. Nice to have extra room.

Either option above should work well. Those styles have worked the best for when I need my German Shepherd to wear boots. Not because his feet get cold, but there are times in the winter and summer where he runs so much that he wears his nails down to the quick and bleeds.

Tried some with rubber soles initially and for whatever reason they ended up with more snow packed in them. The sock-like ones haven’t had that issue.

Not an Ambush owner – my buddy did look at them before we made the decision to go with Pro-Fab. Was mostly a cost/customization factor, the Ambush shacks were right up there with Pro-Fab and Bebergs/Polar Fox.

I have a 6.5×10 Pro Fab Skid which (similar to Ambush) is aluminum frame with composite walls. Extremely easy to heat, not bad to move around, and for keeping up at the cabin it is the way to go for me. Picked it up September of 2021. Been well worth it for taking nieces, nephews, and even getting my 85yo grandfather out on the ice in comfort in subzero temps.

Size-wise, if you plan to fish solo most of the time and do a lot of run & gun, the smaller size will be easier to fit on a trailer and move around. If you fish multiple people or plan to keep it on the same lake, the larger size would be nice.

Only thing I’d change is getting mounting boards all the way around right from the start. I’ll be adding them this spring/summer, but it would have been easier to just have them. I did add a jackknife sofa and will be figuring out a different heater than just a Buddy, but I wasn’t sure the Truma was worth the additional expense and many of the vented heaters are pretty heavy.

If you bring a generator with, forced air can be nice to move air and dry things out. If you are planning to be out in the boonies, solar and an empire/martin direct vent would probably work better.

I’ll be testing out one of the cheap diesel heaters for my shack in the next few weeks. Would be nice to not need propane when I already have to have diesel at the cabin for the tractor.

I did pick up one of the ambush swivel hitches to use for my skid. It will make hooking up with the ranger much easier than trying to get it perfectly aligned.

Attachments:

1. 

   2024-01-18-16_43_30-Photo-Google-Photos.png
   

We’ve been using the Halo system for my German Shepherd over the last few months. Seems to work pretty well, he has definitely figured out that when it starts beeping he needs to make it back to me. Feedback from the phone seems to have decent response time, nice that you can turn the fences off when I take him to other parts of the yard. Have it set for just over 1/2 acre of space normally as I like him to stay closer to the house. Got a refurbished one for some decent savings as it was an experiment for us, will likely buy a new one for the Australian Shepherd puppy with holiday sales coming up

Pros: Easy to use, enough correction that my GSD notices it, GPS is pretty good, allows him to have the freedom of the yard without always using a tie out, portable (can set multiple “fences”), tracking feature is very nice

Cons: Hard to turn off the collar, battery life could be just a little bit longer (not as much of an issue at home, but all-day outside at the lake seems to run short), monthly subscription fee, wish it also functioned with a handheld remote when in places without cell service

I have a 6.5×10 ProFab skid that is the same style as the Polar Fox ones (basically the panels used in the CORE ICE houses). One of my fishing buddies up at the cabin has the matching twin, we bought them at the same time. For what we do, they are great. Early ice without snow they are easy enough to push out by hand. Tow with a wheeler once snow gets deeper and this year I’ll have a Ranger to use. I have a boat swivel chair and a jacknife sofa in mine, the neighbor uses old office chairs. I use a regular buddy heater for heat, put it on high to warm it up and then the rest of the day is pretty much on pilot.

Unless you plan on running and gunning, we always block up. Haven’t had any issues with tipping or sliding once in place.

Attachments:

1. 

   PXL_20221210_2040548962.jpg
   

It all depends on the level of care that you are willing to pay for and the things that the breed of dog may have a pre-disposition for. One of the hardest things that gets dealt with at a vet clinic is a client who can’t afford the level of care that their pet needs. Nobody wins with that one.

One of the veterinarians at our clinic has Spot pet insurance, which has helped her immensely with her Great Dane pup who has had two different instances of GDV. Even with taking radiographs and doing an exploratory at our clinic, she still wound up bring him to an emergency clinic for overnight care just so she could get some sleep and know that he was getting the best care possible. For her, the health insurance has already paid off even before year 1.

Convinced us to get coverage for our shepherd, at least until we can rule out any need for hip replacement and as a precaution for ACL. As with any insurance, there is a cost-benefit to it on premium vs saving for it.

Small animal clinics are shifting away from providing 24hr emergency services and relying upon dedicated emergency clinics. Cost, employee retention, and hiring are all reasons. Generally a trip to an emergency clinic is at least a $1K bill.

I’d recommend watching a few of Darren’s (3Rivers) videos on the “how-to” for sturgeon. I’ve never found a need for building the snowman, just set the foam bobber to rest at about a 45deg angle in the hole. If it lays flat or stands up straight, there is likely something messing with your bait. Be prepared to catch a lot of mudpuppy’s, they are common.

I run minimum 30lb braid for sturgeon in the winter. There isn’t that much current in the Bayport area, so no need to go light. Also keep in mind that the fishing is much slower in the winter than in the fall. But once you do get one, be prepared to get addicted and spend the rest of your winters waiting for those little foam bobbers to move…

Jason Mitchell Mack rods are an affordable option that work well – I have a MH I use for Pike and a H that I use for sturgeon.

Mudpuppy XH is okay – I have one for sturgeon but I might switch it over to a pike rod and get another Mack for my guest sturgeon setup. I’m not a huge fan of the guides that were on that one, which it looks like has been remedied on their new XXH Hilines.

Wolfram Custom – I have two, and they are nice. If you spend a lot of time going for sturgeon, they will treat you well.

I had a buddy who really liked that app. I wasn’t a fan when I took a look at it a while ago, mostly because it tagged a couple photos for fish at my cabin that clearly weren’t from the lake, with species that it doesn’t have. Seems like they’ve corrected that now, but I view it as more of a marketing gimmick than an actually useful app.

I have been happy with my Ultra Tow hubs, I’ve had them on the boat trailer for about 4 years now.

Best upgrade I did with my zero turn was to swap out the tires. I didn’t even try to mow the hill in back until I did this, as I wasn’t sure I’d get the mower back up without them.

Posting a picture of the hill might also help with ideas.

Attachments:

1. 

   Mower_with_Tires.jpg
   

It might be able to get up to 5K, if it’s exceptionally clean/well kept. But for a boat that’s seen some use, I’d agree with your assessment.

Steve Root wrote:

I get the feeling I’m the last guy on this site that doesn’t drive onto his trailer.

SR

I don’t get in my boat at all for loading/unloading. Basic tiller with a roller trailer, I have a rope I attach to the front eyelet. Back boat in, go to winch, unhook chain, hook up rope, unhook winch, push boat off while holding the rope. Drag it back to dock/shore and then park the truck. Loading is the opposite; push boat out, use rope to pull between guides of trailer, walk winch strap out, connect strap, remove rope, use the winch to pull tight, connect safety chain, and drive away.

Might not work for a larger boat, but it works for me and is faster than trying to climb in & out.

Seems like every supplier at the vet clinic has been sending letters about price increases and fuel surcharges that are now being added to the invoices. Supposedly they will “drop” them once conditions improve, but I’m not sure we’ll see conditions improve anytime soon…

You can check the WI DNR Find A Lake page for Burnett lakes with smallies, most look to be in the Webster area:
https://dnr.wi.gov/lakes/lakepages/Results.aspx?location=7&page=SMBASS&letter=ANY

My family has cabins near Little Wood Lake, and I have never really heard of a smallmouth bite nearby. The only water on the DNR list of smallies I have fished is Yellow/Little Yellow/Yellow River, but there I’m primarily targeting muskies. Haven’t caught an incidental smallmouth there yet.

If you really are seeking smallmouth water, I’d probably start exploring the Croix. You’re just going to have to take it slow and will be limited by water levels unless you are in a kayak or canoe.

Post a photo of what you are trying to do, and you may get some input. After rebuilding my aluminum boat, I found rivets to be the preferred fastener for just about everything on it.

We either do heartgard + nexgard or Simparica TRIO. My DVM prefers the monthly doses rather than the three month ones due to the decrease in efficacy mentioned above. Also have the dogs vaccinated for lyme + lepto + anything else my DVM decides. Cost is not really a consideration, since my wife is the DVM.

In regards to online vs at your vet, purchasing through your vet will directly support them and the local folks who work there. Even more so if they are locally owned vs a corporate group (which are becoming more and more common). It’s also not uncommon for the vet to have the product cheaper than some of the well-known online retailers.

Last year was my first opener on the Croix, fishing between Franconia and Osceola. Sure was surprised with how busy it was. I had been out on the prior couple weekends exploring backwaters and trying for rough fish and barely saw anyone. Come opener, it became a zoo. Capped off the day waiting for a guy to launch his brand new pontoon. He backed it right up to the waters edge, put the truck in park, and he and his group of people started to load it with all their gear for the afternoon. Another boat was ahead of me, and both of us just watched the clown show. Once they finally had all of their junk loaded (and found the key), they realized that the Franconia launch can be shallow and they barely got the pontoon off the trailer.

All together an interesting experience.

I seem to struggle with the quote feature and attaching photos, so here goes attempt #3 without using either:

Keep in mind that many veterinary products are done by weight, so check with your vet as what works for the 90lb Shepherd might be too much for the 20lb dog.

Another option for those with much older dogs is a carrying pack. We got a K9 Rover II pack a couple weeks ago since the Golden only makes it a mile or two before she really slows down. Now we load her in the pack and I carry her the rest of the way.