Taking the chill out of ice fishing

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This article was published 27/12/2017 (3200 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A couple of outdoor enthusiasts from St. Norbert are making new tracks in Manitoba’s fishing community.

Mat and Sam Hobson are the owners and operators of Icebound Excursions, a new rental and outfitting business that takes people onto Lake Winnipeg for a day of ice fishing in a SnoBear.

The SnoBear — a novel take on the vintage Bombardier snow bus — is a Canadian-designed mobile ice fishing shack made specifically for the winter sport. The 3,500-pound enclosed sled can carry four adults comfortably over frozen bodies of water and snow drifts in pursuit of the perfect place to drop a line. Inside the cabin, two benches and four holes in the floor allow anglers to stay warm while waiting for a bite.

It’s also equipped with enough propane to heat the cabin for five days, an electric ion auger, Humminbird GPS and sonar units, and a four-stroke, 88-horsepower gasoline engine.

“We were trying to figure out how we could rent one last year because we wanted to use it as a family,” Mat explained. “It hadn’t been nice weather for us to get out in a tent and make it worthwhile, especially with my daughter not being able to walk at the time.

“On the drive home from the Manitoba Outdoors Show at the Downs last year, after joking around that if we won the lottery we could buy one for ourselves, Sam said, ‘If no one’s renting, it why can’t we?’” he said.

Sam, whose family owns The Flag Shop on Pembina Highway, said ice fishing had become a favourite pastime for her family, but with an infant daughter in tow, making it outdoors was becoming more and more challenging.

After a bit of deliberation and drafting a plan, the two decided to purchase a SnoBear and combine business with pleasure.

“I wasn’t really interested in heading out onto the ice with her because it was cold a lot of the days that they were out, so when we saw this we thought it was definitely the perfect way for a small family to get out,” Sam said.

“Our son is over the moon excited to be in it anytime he can. He’s a guide in training.”

The Hobsons will be renting out the machine throughout the season and offering guided fishing trips on Lake Winnipeg. A typical day will either begin at the east or west side of the lake, where the couple will show anglers how to operate the SnoBear, which Mat says is comparable to driving a snowmobile. For a guided tour, he will drive the group out on the ice and set everyone up with rods, tackle and bait. He’s also on hand to help pick the best fishing spots, so first time fishers don’t have to worry if they can’t catch their lunch.

“Because it’s so easy to move in this you’re not worried about packing up the tent, throwing it in the back of the truck and driving to the next spot,” Mat said. “You can move really easily without having to bundle up in -40C.”

For now, the Hobsons will be focusing on a local clientele on Lake Winnipeg, but will be looking to expand to other bodies of water and tapping into Manitoba’s foreign fishing market in the future.

“I know there’s a large number of Americans who come up to Lake Winnipeg to go ice fishing and we saw them as a target market as well,” Mat said. “The American plates parked at the entrance points outnumber the Canadian plates, hands down.”

Daily rental prices are $500 for weekdays plus PST and GST, or $525 plus GST for a guided tour. Weekend rates are $625 with driver plus GST, or $700 plus PST and GST without.

The SnoBear will be on display at KidFish Ice Derby in Selkirk, Man. on Jan. 7. For more information go to www.snobearrental.ca