WATCH: What Happens When Someone Leaves A Fish House In A Lake Superior Shipping Lane?

Living in the Twin Ports area, you see a lot of people fishing out in the Duluth Harbor, looking for walleyes and other fish out between Park Point and the Duluth and Superior shorelines.

During the summer months, anglers in boats have to be aware of the shipping lanes marked by large buoys and shipping traffic using those designated traffic-ways and get out of the way when a ship is coming through.

What about when it's wintertime, though?

Duluth area YouTuber "Vibe With Mike" recently caught a video of just what happens!

Mike has a really fun YouTube channel that highlights a lot of neat stuff on the Twin Ports area shipping scene, like this video from last summer about a ship that made its first-ever trip to Duluth in 2024.

What are the rules about ice fishing in a shipping lane?

In short, you can't go leaving an ice shelter in a shipping lane. Regardless of whether it's a portable ice house or not, it is an obstruction of a vital commerce waterway and it is not only illegal, but also really unsafe!

The last thing you want is a ship to come through and plow right through your fish house or break the ice right around where you're fishing.

Even with the ice in the harbor, the shipping lane is still marked by red and green buoys. Between those buoys is the shipping lane, which is also marked on many GPS/water depth/navigation maps.

It might seem like something you don't need to worry about in January when there's ice on the harbor, but ships will continue to run well into winter most months, taking a break in the mid-to-late part of winter before resuming in the spring.

What did the Coast Guard do about the ice fishing house in the way?

In the video Mike caught for his YouTube channel on January 2, 2025, thankfully the crew of the US Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw saw the fish house and stopped before breaking any of the ice where the house was.

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As Mike showed in his video, the Mackinaw made a stop off the Superior shoreline in the harbor to grab a portable fish house that was left inside the shipping lane, not very far from one of the lane's buoys.

A few trained ice rescue members of the Mackinaw's crew had headed down onto the ice to collect the fish house and bring it aboard the ship. As USCG Commander Jeannette Greene told WDIO, this is a very dangerous place for anyone to be fishing.

Greene explained that the Mackinaaw pulled up very slowly and maintained some distance to avoid breaking the ice, as they didn't know if there was anyone inside fishing.

As Mike showed in his video, there wasn't anyone fishing, rather just the house and some gear left behind. The owner was likely in for a surprise if they went out over the weekend to fish, only to find their house was missing. Well, this is what happened to it.

While it isn't very common across most of Minnesota and Wisconsin's lakes, not leaving your fish house in a shipping lane might be something I need to add as an addendum to my list of Ice Fishing 10 Commandments, which you can see below.