Minnesotans scramble to get fish houses off ice by Monday's deadline

(FOX 9) - It's a very cold race against the clock as people rush to get their fish houses off the ice before Monday’s deadline.

Jim Van Bergen and Kolt Ringer said the task took up a good chunk of their day.

The two spent hours clearing a path to the warming house Jim puts by his hockey rink on Carson’s Bay.

Then the pair went across the bay to Jim’s fish house…

The Department of Natural Resources knows the deadline is not as easy to meet this year because some are snowed in, frozen in, or both.

But, the deadline is still the deadline.

A task that typically involves avoiding open water now requires an open road.

“Having somebody plow a road close, that helped a lot,” he said.