Fish house removal deadline next week
The deadline to remove fish houses off Minnesota lakes is days away for much of the state.
In the southern two-thirds of the state, the removal deadline for inland waters is by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, March 7.
In addition to ensuring shelters are removed by the deadline, conservation officers from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will be watching closely to make sure trash isn’t left behind. The DNR says bait, blocking material, bottles, cans, cigarette butts, and plastic bags filled with waste are commonly left behind. “As wheelhouses have proliferated across the state, the have been increasing instances of people dumping sewage atop the ice,” says a DNR press release.
“Some of the things people leave behind are downright disgusting, and anything people leave on the ice has the potential to be an eyesore at best and an environmental concern at the worst,” says DNR conservation Officer Garrett Thomas.
The fish house removal deadline doesn’t mean anglers no longer can use them. Houses can still be on the ice, but they must be occupied if they’re out between midnight and one hour before sunrise.
For other areas of Minnesota:
In the northern one-third of the state—north of the east-west line formed by U.S. Highway 10, east along Highway 34 to Minnesota Highway 200, east along Highway 200 to U.S. Highway 2, and east along Highway 2 to the Minnesota-Wisconsin border — the deadline is by 11:59 p.m. Monday, March 21.
Exceptions to the removal deadlines are Minnesota-Canada border waters (March 31), Minnesota-South Dakota and North Dakota border waters (March 5), Minnesota-Wisconsin border waters (March 1) and Minnesota-Iowa border waters (Feb. 20).
