Shanty Towns

Ice fishing is a great winter sport. I loved going ice fishing with my dad as a kid. I remember lying down on the ice with a tarp or blanket over my head looking down into the hole and watching the fish swim by and grab the hook. Now out here, it is a whole different mentality when it comes to ice fishing. I know some people back in BC have ice shacks that they put out on the lake to sit in, but here they have the same but the shacks are hardly "shacks". These ones have vinyl siding, insulation and shingles on the rooves. They are equipped with mini-kitchens and wood stoves. People leave them out on the ice until spring. They also turn ice fishing into a multi-family weekend social event.

They actually pull the ice huts out onto the lake and align them in rows so the ice fishing community can become a town with streets. Yes, they actually drive their vehicles or snowmobiles on these "streets" and park beside their "houses" as they would at home. I have the advantage of seeing this phenomenon from the air and it really does look like there are little towns on the lakes. This first picture is taken near Montreal and the frozen body of water is actually the St. Lawrence River!



The further North I travelled, I found these fishing communities were ever more prevalent. North Bay, Ontario is on the shores of Lake Nipissing. Here there are many little communities all over the lake. I bet there were well over 100 shacks out on the lake all placed either in a half moon configuration or the standard parallel and perpendicular fashion. I have yet to see a cul de sac though!! One town on this lake had a snowmobile dragstrip down mainstreet! Very interesting the people of the east are. You might have to click on this picture to see the phenom a bit better.