Prairie Sportsman

I don't know what the diameter of this tree is, it's huge. (upbeat music) Red Lake, the largest in Minnesota, is an ice fishing mecca. During the winter, villages emerge with ice houses ranging from one room shelters, to small luxury homes. Rising above them all, is a double decker ice lodge. It's one of a kind. On Martin Luther King weekend, the double decker house is hosting several families who are long time visitors. My husband and I have been coming here probably for about 17 years, but this particular cabin, the last three years. Spent a lot of time here, not only ice fishing, but in the summer, have a lot of fun. Great group of people. It's become kind of a family tradition amongst everybody, and more and more people come. Now we're renting, one, two, three, houses around us, and it's been a great experience. It's very unique, as you can see, and you will not find another one. When you talk to people and tell 'em that you're in a double decker, you spent the weekend in a double decker fish house on the ice catching walleyes through the floor, what kind of looks do you get? - You get a lot of what? And are you sure, you know, there's a little bit of confusion when you try to explain how large it is. No one quite comprehends. We have been bringing our girls ice fishing forever, and some of the other cabins are completely rudimentary, and just four walls, maybe a table, and a rickety little bed that you get to sleep on, and they come here, and we have this nice table, we have a refrigerator, microwave, and if people wanna go upstairs, there's a TV also in the stairwell that we can watch TV on as well. Great speakers, so we can bluetooth into that. This is like family, you know, even though we're different families, but we're all family so it's a lot of fun together, so. Playing cards, playing games, teaching kids how to play poker, you know, the good stuff. (upbeat music) Last night, we had a fish get off, it swam underneath the hole, we had flashlights underneath the hole trying to get this fish. We did not get the fish till this morning, and it was 21 1/2 inches, so it was pretty cool. We sleep with about 10 people upstairs in the fish house, and it seems kinda crazy, but it's actually really comfortable, and usually the party animals stay up, and so, you don't hear them snoring till the middle of the night, so, yeah. Earplugs are my favorite device to have upstairs when were all kind of sleeping together. It can be tricky if, for instance, the rattle reels go off, that's kind of a fun thing in the middle of the night. Some people enjoy it, some people don't. -

Bret

20 holes in the house, which one is the hot hole? Ah, whichever one I'm not fishing in. (laughs) -

Woman

Who's caught the most fish? Him. - Brody. -

Woman

What's your secret? -

Brody

Watch the vexilar, feel for the nibble. He's the only one that's stays by his fishing hole. He's the only one that actually fishes. -

Girl

We just wait for the rattle reel. Yeah. - Yeah. -

Girl

We all play games and then wait till we hear a little bell jingle, and then... - We just listen for the cranes to go. -

Girl

Mine. -

Bret

How did you find out about it? Funny story, I was driving by on my way, my brother and I were driving up to Baudette, Minnesota to go fishing on Lake of the Woods in the fall, and driving by Hillman's, I looked over, and I saw the frame being built, and I immediately called, I said "What is going on over at Hillman's? "What are they buildin'?" And that's when I found out they're building a double decker house. I said, called my wife immediately, I said, "Hey, what weekend would you like to go?" She said, "MLK weekend." So immediately called before it was finished, said, "I want that weekend every year "until, for the foreseeable future." (bright music) -

Bret

The idea for the double decker came from Buddy Hillman, one of the third generation owners of the family's fishing and lodging business. I built one back in '87, a smaller version of this, but that was in the years when the chipboard was big. Found out that doesn't hold together quite as long, should. - Sure. Lasted about six years, and fell apart. I was always gonna build one, it was always popular, but. When you told people, "I'm gonna build a double decker fish house "and put it on the ice," kinda reaction did you get? My dad wasn't big on it. (laughs) Let's just make a bunch of small ones, I said, "I think everybody will come "and check it out if we do it." -

Man

There she comes, get out of the way! -

Bret

This house is probably not the easiest to move around the ice. Do you pretty much park it in the spot for the winter? -

Buddy

No, we move it for every customer. Oh, you do? - Yeah. -

Bret

How easy is it to move around? It's not real easy. (laughs) Dedication, right there. Talk about what this house is made of, what it consists of. Two by 14 in the wall, or two by fours by 14 in the walls it's all spray foamed, it's all tin inside, and partly, inside and outside. Had an old cabin out back and we went and got the door out of that, built it to fit. And obviously a lot of people power their fish houses with a generator, which is what we're doing right now. But, you have something a little bit unique to a fish house on your porch that's on your fish, the second level porch that's on his fish house has solar panels on it. I wanted to be a little self sufficient, 'cause not everybody has a generator. So what can you power with the solar panels, here? Actually, the TVs are run off the solar panels, and all the 12 volt lights are all solar panels. It has four double beds, and four twin beds, so you can sleep up to 12 people. There's two heaters. - Oh, there's two. This one is just one for when there's no electricity goin', the other one is vent out the wall one. -

Bret

How long did it take you to build it? I started it on September 15th, and we got done at first of the year. A lot of sittin' around lookin' and ponderin' where stuff was gonna go. - I bet. (bright music) (calm music) Lower and Upper Red Lakes combined cover 480 square miles. All of the lower, and 60% of the upper, are under the jurisdiction of the Red Lake van of the Chippewa. And the remaining waters are managed by the Minnesota DNR. Hillman's is on the East Side of Upper Red, in the small town of Waskish. My grandpa came over from Norway in 1913, and he homesteaded North of the lake, and eventually ended up buyin' a gas station in 1933, and that's when he started the resort. Then in '41, we moved where we are now. -

Bret

The Hillman family's business includes the Tall Tales Tavern that features set ups, live music, and a few tall tales. (bluegrass music) -

Buddy

The guy that helped design everything helped build the first 12 Famous Dave's. We just decided it was gonna be called The Tall Tales Tavern, we had to have some tall tales of course. There's a few legends like the Sasquatch, Jake, so he he did that. Then of course, Freshwater Sailfish. -

Bret

And that sailfish, you did actually catch that sailfish. -

Buddy

I did. That was in 12 feet of water right over here? Yeah, right over here. (laughs) (calm music) It's just more of a calming experience, like you're out in the middle of the ice so all you really get to do is kinda come here and spend time with family, and you're just completely out of the rat race. It's spontan, and fishing is a bonus. I tell Buddy every time, "Hey, I absolutely don't care if we catch fish, "we come out here to have fun, fishin's a bonus." Probably keep coming back here with my kids, just 'cause it's a really fun place, and my whole family comes, it's a tradition that we've had forever. I think I love most, just the comradery of the friends. Everybody likes to catch fish and fish, but I think just hanging out with really good people and really good friends, I think is the best thing. (calm music)