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Anglers dig out fish houses before deadline

Meeting Monday's deadline has been a struggle for anglers after record-breaking snowfall in February.

MOUND, Minnesota — It's moving day on Minnesota lakes. 

In the southern two-thirds of the state, fish houses must be off the lakes by the end of Monday, March 4. 

Brothers Butch and Joe Peitz started digging out their fish house on Lake Minnetonka Sunday morning. 

"It was a battle," Butch said. "Everybody's struggling to finish up." 

Meeting Monday's deadline has been a struggle for anglers after record-breaking snowfall in February.

Related: DNR: Time to start removing those fish houses

"Combine deep snow and slush you have the perfect storm for tough conditions to get fish houses off," Alexander Birdsall, a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officer, said earlier in the week during a press conference. 

The Peitz brothers had to chip away at about an inch-and-a-half of ice that surrounded the entire fish house's frame.

"The weight of the snow actually pushed the water up the holes, through the house. That's what happened. The water came up above the holes that we drilled. Froze the frame in," Butch said. 

Grant Hamrick of Mound was also out on Lake Minnetonka with this friends on Sunday afternoon. 

Temperatures dipped below zero as Hamrick and his friends removed their fish house. 

"It was good we got it done quickly because I don't want to be out here any longer," Hamrick said. 

Hamrick said they were lucky enough to be near a plowed road on the ice. 

"Just a lot of brute force and maybe shovel out a little bit in front of the tire but it wasn't too bad," he said. 

In the southern two-thirds of the state, structures must be off lakes by the end of March 4. That applies to lakes south of an east-west line formed by U.S. Highway 10, east along Highway 34 to Minnesota Highway 200, east along Highway 200 to U.S. Highway 2 and east along Highway 2 to the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. The deadline north of that line is by the end of the day on Monday, March 18. 

According to Birdsall, if shelters aren't removed by the deadline, owners may be prosecuted and structures may be confiscated and removed or destroyed by a conservation officer. The DNR is also reminding anglers to pick up their trash so that it doesn't end up in the state's lakes. 

By 2:30 p.m., the Peitz brothers made it off the lake. 

"We're just ready to finally go home," Butch said. 

He went on to say, "It's Minnesota. You gotta love it."

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