ICE BARS
Simply the Icing on the Cake
By: JOE HENRY
The famous Igloo Bar, located on the ice in front of Zippel Bay on Lake of the Woods, boasts more than 1,000 square feet and offers big-screen TVs, hot food and some of the best-tasting beverages around. Oh yeah, and you can actually fish in the bar!
Imagine walking into a bar and ordering your favorite beverage while checking out the game on the big-screen TV. As you debate between a cheesy brat and a warm bread bowl of chili, the bartender asks, “Would you guys like to fish?” There’s no doubt Lake of the Woods is an ice fishing mecca, and if you decide to come up and set the hook on some of its prized walleyes and saugers, don’t forget afterward to check out an ice bar located on the lake.
Visitors to the Lake of the Woods area come to ice fish with many different expectations. Whether you’re a hard-core angler, you enjoy the social aspect of ice fishing or you fall somewhere in between, one of the spots that catches most anglers’ attention is the Igloo Bar. At more than 1,000 square feet, this structure requires thick ice — at least 15 inches. The Igloo Bar is located in front of Zippel Bay.
The bar is transported onto the ice in two pieces and bolted together. It’s equipped with big-screen TVs, electric lights, running water, a limited hot-food menu and heated porta-potties that resemble little igloos.
For $5 per hour, you can rent a fish hole in the bar. Rattle reels are available or you can bring in your own ice fishing rod. How many bartenders do you know who have a fresh bucket of minnows behind the bar?
I commented to Nick how things get pretty festive when someone catches a fish in the bar. “You should see what happens when someone loses one,” he replied with a smile.
The Igloo Bar is an ice fishing favorite. There’s a barrel with burning wood outside for those who enjoy a little heat while stepping out of the bar for some fresh air. It also adds to the ambience and creates a nice atmosphere outside the bar.
It’s festive, it’s Minnesotan and it’s unlike anything most people have experienced. For many, it’s the perfect way to embrace the Minnesota winter, enjoying a drink in a festive bar way out on Lake of the Woods while ice fishing — what more could you ask for?
Zippel Bay Resort plows an ice road from the resort through Zippel Bay and out onto Lake of the Woods. The road is as wide as a four-lane highway in most spots and is very well maintained. Once you get away from shore, where the fishing is good, side roads on the thick ice branch off from the main road, with plenty of fish houses spread out. Many of these are resort fish houses that guests rent for the day or, if a sleeper fish house, overnight.
Signs mark each road so guests can easily locate their rental fish house. Names like “Walleye Way” and “Igloo Street” help you find your way.
With the success and notoriety the Igloo Bar has experienced, it was only a matter of time before others followed suit. Justin and Tanya Ferguson, owners of Cyrus Resort on the south shore of Lake of the Woods, had an idea. Owning a resort with their own ice road, they asked themselves, “Why don’t we have a bar on the ice too?” In January 2022, the Angry Walleye opened about half a mile off the south shore on Lake of the Woods!
“People ask how to find it at night,” says Justin. “I tell them, when you round the corner on our ice road in the bay, you can’t miss it with all the lights. You can actually see it from shore. We’ve got it lit up like a Christmas tree.”
The Angry Walleye is a 16x29-foot bar with electric lights, a big-screen TV and a bar stocked with most types of spirits a person could want. They offer six flavors of beer, along with soda and water. The bar also features Cyrus’s homemade pizzas — a hit on a cold night inside a festive bar on the ice.
“The success of the Igloo Bar is really what drove this idea,” explains Justin. “Our neighbors down the lake have done a nice job, and we thought, why not us? It wasn’t easy. We had to get permits, have it inspected and so on, but now it’s open, and folks are really enjoying it.”
The bar is big enough that it had to be pulled out by a large groomer with tracks. Although the bar is set up for ice fishing, they haven’t started offering fishing inside yet. That doesn’t seem to bother anyone. “We get a good rush of anglers who’ve been out fishing all day and want to swing in for a drink and some fresh homemade pizza before heading off the ice,” Justin explains.
Having a bar on the ice is certainly a novelty and offers guests another way to enjoy this unique ice fishing mecca. It’s almost like a celebration of ice fishing. Imagine the conversations after a day on the ice: “How did you do?” “Where are you from?” “Catch anything big?” These are common “icebreakers” at the Igloo Bar, the Angry Walleye and other resort bars around the lake.
The Angry Walleye is located just offshore from Cyrus Resort on Bostic Bay, about 3 miles west of the Rainy River and Wheeler’s Point area. As a reference, the Igloo Bar and Angry Walleye are about 5 miles apart on the ice.
Most people come to Lake of the Woods for ice fishing or, in some cases, snowmobiling. If you are coming up to reel in a few walleyes and saugers, regardless of where you stay, think about swinging into an ice bar.
They are very simply the icing on the cake!