A Look Back
This black and white image might ring a bell.
We ran this photograph in the November 2014 issue of North Dakota OUTDOORS as part of an ice fishing feature. It also appeared on the back cover of a late 1960s issue of OUTDOORS.
According to Department records, the stark black and white image was originally taken in the early to mid-1950s on the east end of Lake Sakakawea, and likely ran in the pages of NDO around that time.
Even so, this photo still feels as if it has some tread left on it and is fitting for this time of year on the Northern Plains when men, women and children cheat winter by drilling holes through the ice in search of fish.
You can look at the photo and imagine what you want. Yet, it’s easy to envision a lone angler, befitting of the lonesome landscape captured by the photographer, fishing unaccompanied, warming his hands next to the stove, waiting for the fish to bite.
Then again, the ice house could be crammed with the unknown number of people who could fit in the car for the ride out.
While you could wander North Dakota’s landscape today and likely find an equally lonely ice fishing scene – of course, it might take some doing – what you’ll typically find, especially if the fish are biting and the word has spread, are tracked ATVs, dozens of four-wheel drive vehicles, ice houses of all shapes and sizes, many of which are built to the hilt, enabling their occupants to sleep overnight on the ice.
Unlike in the early to mid-1950s when ice fishing was just gaining in popularity, and the use of ice houses was finally deemed legal, the interest in ice fishing today is at an all-time high.
Today, if you team early freeze-up and easy access to North Dakota’s waters, tens of thousands of people eagerly participate across the state. In those years when it all comes together weather-wise, ice fishing can account for 25 percent of the overall fishing effort for the year in North Dakota.
Nowadays, having the ice to yourself is a lot like the provided black-and-white photo – a thing of the past.