With 60 rental ice fishing houses on Lake of the Woods this winter, and about 35 miles of ice roads to plow, Brian Ney knew that he and his crew of eight would be busy last Sunday.

Ney's family had built Adrian's Resort on the big northern border lake in 1952, and he grew up there, not far from Baudette, Minn. In the decades since, Ney, 54, has seen winters of good ice and occasional years when ice has been slow to form in December.

But always, by now, in mid-January, Lake of the Woods ice measures a couple of feet thick, or more, making it a dependable destination for the tens of thousands of winter anglers who seek its bountiful walleyes and saugers.

https://www.startribune.com/ice-sunken-trucks-ice-fishing-dennis-anderson-lake-of-the-woods-mississippi-river/600246878/