As the temperatures drop, Michiganders gear up for the winter months and the ensuing festivities. Sledding, snowboarding and skiing are all popular winter sports, but for senior Patyon Warner, ice fishing is the way to pass time.

Warner’s home on Lake Lansing allows him a prime location to fish.

“Me and my buddies go ice fishing to pass the time in the cold winter months,” Warner said.

Many people often wonder what the small wooden houses out on Lake Lansing in the winter months are. Ice shanties. Which are small wooden portable sheds used as shelter for fisherman braving the cold to make a catch. Warner explains the involved process of drilling a hole in order to fish. “You have to check the thickness of the ice before drilling. It must be at least six inches thick for safety reasons,” he said. An auger or ice saw, whether powered by an electric motor or manually, is then used to dig a hole about eight inches in diameter, giving the fisher a hole to begin their hunt.

The average person might assume that ice fishing is a rather mild sport, but few are educated on the dangers of braving the ice. Ice can be deceptively thin in some areas, do to the current moving under the water. Although the dangers of ice fishing are much less severe on Lake Lansing, winds have been known to break off large chunks of ice in the Great Lakes, leaving fisherman stranded for days. In 2009, 100 fisherman where stranded on a block of ice on Lake Erie and had to be rescued by the Coast Guard.

“There is a certain aspect of danger but that makes it kind of fun,” Warner said.

So, if you decide to take to the lake this year, make sure to be safe and bring in a big one!