Bob-houses make a home on the ice

Dana Taggart has a stunning 250-degree, panoramic view of Lake Winnipesaukee from his winter place. On the weekends he’s apt to be entertaining there – serving filet mignon, lobster or bacon and eggs to a crowd of up to several dozen.

What amazes Taggart’s guests most is that he pulls off these culinary feats in his bob-house out on the ice in the middle of the water. “A lot of people think I’m kidding, until they actually come out and experience it,” says Taggart, of Franklin, a 40-year-old, high-end finish carpenter who works for himself. “It’s really fun.”

Ice fishing paradise

Taggart is one of thousands of fishermen across the state who head out on the ice for the winter catch season, from Jan. 1 to March 31. They hunker down in bob-houses to catch trout, cusk, bass, pickerel or perch. Alan “A.J.” Nute, owner of A.J.’s Bait & Tackle in Meredith, said, “It’s definitely part of winter. It’s a sport just like skiing would be.”

So far this year, Nute said, fisherman have had to head into the bays and coves of the big lakes in the area, or to small ponds, because it hasn’t been cold enough to build a thick enough layer of ice.

Nute is still seeing locals in his shop every weekend, though, to pick up items ranging from shiners and smelt for bait, to ice augers used to drill six to 10 feet into the ice, or for sonar that detects fish and cameras that allow fishermen to watch what’s happening deep in the water from up on top of the ice.

“We’re getting some out-of-staters because there is ice here,” Nute said, noting that fishermen from Rhode Island and Connecticut have been heading here from points south.

Fisherman will also come from all over New England the first weekend in February for the Great Meredith Rotary Ice Fishing Derby. They’ll drop their lines into icy waters all across the state, schooling in the largest numbers on Meredith Bay, the place the derby calls home.

“They’ll sell about 5,000 tickets,” Nute said. “I’ll get that many customers for just that weekend.

People travel from all over. It’s tradition. It’s a weekend getaway type of thing.”

About the derby

This year’s derby marks the 41st annual event, and it will be held on Feb. 8 and 9. Prizes range from $50 to $15,000; the largest prizes are given for the largest fish in these seven categories – Black Crappie, Cusk, Lake Trout, Pickerel, Rainbow Trout, Yellow Perch and White Perch.

For more information on the derby, visit meredithrotary.org or call the Meredith Chamber of Commerce at (603) 279-7600.

While Taggart spent some time fishing for tilapia in Silver Springs, Florida, in late January – because there was no ice to keep him interested locally, and he had a project he could do down south for a client – he will surely be out on the ice for the derby in his mammoth bob-house.

The Happy Hooker Lodge

Taggart is a longtime fisherman who’s been ice fishing on local waters for decades. He’s had a bob-house for many years, but last year he built the Taj Mahal. While the average bob-house stands about 4-to-8-feet wide by 8-feet tall, The Happy Hooker Lodge is 12 by 14 feet and offers two rooms – a bedroom with a king-size bed and two panoramic windows, and a kitchen area complete with a bar stocked with nips.

While the outside of the lodge is built with a composite material and the floors are plywood, the inside has many handsome features – including a mahogany bar, a mattress custom made with mold-proof foam and waterproof upholstery, a liquor cabinet made of Douglas fir and an industrial cooler for a refrigerator. (The ice the house rests on keeps the fridge nice and cold!)

Since Taggart is in the trades, he gets the higher-end materials on job sites; the cooler alone would have run him $3,000, but it was scrap he removed from a home and repurposed.

Once the ice is thick enough – 7 or 8 inches – he’ll use his four-wheeler to take the lodge out on Winnipesaukee off of Gilford Beach. And he’ll start inviting friends and family to come hang out. “Pretty much all are welcome,” Taggart said, noting that since he built The Happy Hooker Lodge, he has met so many people who stop to comment or to get warm by the fire he burns in a metal barrel mounted on the side of the structure.

Taggart goes out on the ice daily to check his bait traps or drop a line, sometimes with his girlfriend and her two children, or with friends.

Fishing happens, too

Taggart fishes whenever conditions allow. He drops a line for cusk, leaving it overnight and then checking back the next day. During the day, he fishes for trout with a jig line or pole.

Because he goes all out, Taggart has electronics that aid his sport. He drops a camera down into the water, for instance, so he can see the fish investigating his lines on a monitor and an LED television in the lodge. The equipment runs on a battery that’s charged by solar panels on the building.

A propane heater keeps the interior at a cozy 80 degrees and the floor is insulated, so the heat can’t melt the ice.

Getting hooked

Taggart grew up in Weare, and his father, Butch, started teaching him how to fish when he was 5. The elder Taggart took his son to the Deering Reservoir, and Dana Taggart loved the sport right away.

“I liked being outside and the thrill of catching a fish. I didn’t mind the cold,” said Dana Taggart. “Now, with the bob-houses, I like the brotherhood of fishermen and the families with their kids outside.”

Taggart’s family spent summers in this area, living on a boat at Mountain View Yacht Club from the time he was 8 or 9, and moving to the Lakes Region after he graduated from high school; that’s when he started ice fishing up here on his own.

In 2011, Taggart built his first bob-house – so he’d have a place to sleep on the water at night.

“I like seeing new people getting involved in the sport – especially kids and whole families – and seeing the sport grow,” he said.

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Janice Beetle is an author, editor and owner of Beetle Press, a public relations and marketing company. She can be reached at janice@beetlepress.com.