Ice Fishing With A Truck Camper – Truck Camper Magazine
In the deep cold of Minnesota winter, Ken Barry takes his Four Wheel Camper to frozen lakes and goes ice fishing. How he stays warm and comfortable is an important lesson for anyone interested in extreme winter camping.
As snowbirds who drive south the moment we smell cold, the mere idea of driving onto a frozen lake to ice fish sends chills through us big enough to set off distant seismographs.
Of course, we weren’t always so thin-skinned. Just a few years ago we lived in Pennsylvania, and we were quite accustomed to the annual wintery onslaught. What’s that weatherman? Snowmageddon? Snowpocalypse? Snow-my-goodness? Snow-what! Bring it.
The lesson here is simple. Be very careful with snowbirding. Once you fly south for the winter, it’s hard to go back to wintering up north. Even if you have down feathers and aren’t one to duck high heating bills, enduring another long and dark winter might become an egg-too-tough crack.
From our warm Florida nest, Ken Barry’s extreme cold weather camping and ice fishing stories read a bit like Mark Watney’s time on Mars. Cold, barren, and cold. Really cold. How and why would anyone subject themselves to the kind of cold?
The answer, as Ken explains, is two fold. First, he clearly has a deep and unrelenting passion for the outdoors, and fishing. Second, he explains in great detail exactly how he stays warm and toasty or at least has a plan ready on how he’s going to warm-up, and be toasty.
A huge part of Ken’s warm and toasty plan is his Four Wheel Camper Fleet. Parked near or even on the thick ice, it’s his changing and recovery room. And what he wears and his techniques for staying comfortable in these frozen-turkey conditions are useful lessons for anyone who camps in the cold.
Get a hot beverage, a heavy blanket, and a sweater. This story is chilling.
Ice fishing is well known, but not something most of us encounter or see. How did you get into ice fishing?
I grew up in Massachusetts and I don’t remember anyone ice fishing there. My wife is from Minnesota. When we went to Minnesota for Christmas, her four brothers thought it would be funny to drag me out on the ice. They thought I was a city guy. That’s how I started ice fishing.
We moved to Minnesota seven years ago and I started researching ice fishing equipment and getting back into it. The weather conditions can be brutal, so there’s a lot of stuff needed to make it enjoyable. Fortunately, winter clothing and coats have come a long way and it’s easier to stay warm.
