spear house ?

[MCI]

I took my 10yr old and 13yr old out spearing for the first time on Thursday, my 10yr old speared a 6lber and my 13yr old didn't see a fish. The fish came racing in just as the red and white decoy came floating back into the hole after I gave it a whirl, mouth open and got the decoy in his mouth. He spit it out and stopped to stare at it as to figure out what the hell that was.  Both of my boys jumped and said a few choice words before my 10yr grabbed the spear and got him 1" behind the gills,  They are both hooked now. I did a lot of spearing when I was younger but  I took too many years off while my kids were young and growing up, now I want to get back into it with my boys.  I always speared out of the wood floor, wood ends and  canvas sides 4x6 house.   I would like to have something a little bigger for at least 2 or maybe 3 people to spear out of.  I thinking of a permanent house, aluminum on ski's.

I wanted to post this and ask you guys that are out spearing to get some opinions or suggestions on what size to build/buy or if you have any "must haves or do's" when it comes to a spear shack.

What kind of heaters do you guys use?  I used a sunflower when I was younger, but I don't want to use that anymore.

hole size?  I used to spear out of a 24x24 hole, I would think for 2 people I would want a rectangle hole???

Thanks in advance for your input.

PS, I don't want a wheel house, I want to keep it light weight so we could load it easily on a trailer, tow it through the woods to get on some back country lakes and most important get out fishing on 4-5" of ice.

 

[MJ1657]

So many options....

Hub houses with a wood floor work great. I use the 949I Eskimo. I also have a 6x8 perm but its not real portable if you know what I mean. 

You're right on a rectangle fhole. Mine is 30x48 placed in the center of the house. It's amazing how many more fish you see when people are looking from both sides. 

Buddy heaters seem to be the most popular. I use the regular and the big buddy. We were on Winnie a couple years ago and it was -37 when we went out. You couldn't leave the big buddy on high in my Eskimo or it would cook you out. No more sore eyes or head like when I used to use the sunflower heaters.

Awesome to hear you got your boys hooked. Look forward to hearing more.

[mwal]

I concur on a buddy heater and an Eskimo quickfish and a floor that folds up. I would make sure to get the thermal model of the quickfish. I have both size buddy heater as well . Single for temps in the 5 or above. Big buddy for windy really cold days.

 

Mwal

[fishadb]

Pretty simple to build a 4x8 or 5x8 out of 2x2's. Or if you've got a a big enough budget there are some factory made aluminum houses. I spear out of an Ice castle Scout or a flip over Clam TCX Voyager, gets plenty dark if you throw a blanket on top. One thing to think about is how often you plan on using it. If you're just doing a few day trips a portable is fine but once the ice gets thick it's nice to have a hard side so you don't have to make a hole all the time.