MONTAGUE, Mich. — Ice fishing shanties line a sheet of ice as far as the eye can see over a frozen White Lake. It's the first weekend many have been able to get out this year after a very warm December, but that's not uncommon.
"If we get ice early, like December, we lose it," said Mitch Johnson, owner of Johnson's Great Outdoors in Montague. "In the last couple years, the ice hasn’t been as good as it is this early."
Johnson says he expects to see around 300 people at least come in his door to pick up bait and supplies for the weekend on the ice. He said this year is looking to be a banner year for his business, between more people picking up the hobby during the pandemic and a spectacular ice forecast.
Johnson says on average, an ice fisher will get four or five trips a season, but the delayed freezing of the lakes meant the water underneath had more time to cool and build a better shelf.
"Not everybody has a boat, not everybody has that access in the summertime to get where they need to be, when there’s ice fishing they can go wherever they want to go," Johnson said.
He feels the universal appeal of ice fishing lead to more people trying it out for the first time during the pandemic, and now that the season has returned, they are itching to get back out on the ice.
It hasn't all been sunshine and frozen rainbows for Johnson, though. With demand as high as he's seen in years from new pandemic-spurred fishers, the pandemic has also made that demand nearly impossible to keep up with. He had a line out the door for bait and gear Saturday morning, but his supply chain is choked up.
"Everything’s sitting out on boats in the ocean there, so we’re kinda still waiting," he said. "I probably sell right around 100 or so shanties a season. This year, I think we only have 57 shanties total."
What he is able to get into the store flies off the shelves. Of those 57 ice shanties, there were only three left as of Saturday, and even those may already have sold by the end of the day.
"I spend a lot of time doing that, a lot of people say ‘man I haven’t seen you Mitch!,’" he said, "That’s cause I'm trying to find product so we can stay in business!"
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