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FAIRBANKS — Clout doesn’t mean much when it comes to renting an ice fishing house from the Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation at Birch or Quartz lakes.

Just ask Brooks Ludwig, who is the northern region superintendent for Alaska State Parks and the father of three young boys who like to fish.

“A lot of weekends there’s not one of out of the eight that are open,” Ludwig said. “There’s been times when I wanted to take the kids out there and couldn’t get one because I waited too long,” he said.

As they have for the past eight years, both Alaska State Parks and the Fairbanks North Star Borough Parks and Recreation Department are offering ice fishing houses for rent on Birch, Chena and Quartz lakes. The ice houses were put out last week in time for the Thanksgiving weekend.

The 8-foot-by-12-foot plywood ice fishing houses have proven immensely popular since the state and borough hooked up with the Department of Fish and Game in 2000 to offer them for rent.

The Department of Fish and Game builds the huts with federal funds from the Sport Fish Restoration Program and then turns them over to the borough and state to rent and maintain. It’s proven to be a profitable arrangement for everyone involved.

The ice fishing houses provide a fishing opportunity for people who don’t want to spend the time or money building their own ice fishing huts. They also offer a great place to take young anglers.

Ludwig takes his three boys — 9-year-old Ian and 5-year-old twins Fin and Eli — ice fishing a few times a year, usually at Quartz Lake.

“It’s always a big deal,” he said. “They love it.”

Ludwig stokes a fire in the woodstove and breaks out a thermos with hot chocolate to keep his young anglers warm and happy.

“We’ll take a five gallon bucket and throw any fish we catch in there, and it’s like an aquarium,” he said.

For $15 a day, it’s a cheap, fun way to spend an afternoon or evening and they almost always bring home a few fish for the frying pan, Ludwig said.

Matt Steffy, manager at Chena Lake Recreation Area, said there was a little more than 12 inches of ice on Chena Lake last week when workers put three ice houses out on the lake.

The ice thickness on Birch and Quartz lakes also is about 12 inches, Ludwig said. Rangers put four ice houses out on each lake that are available to rent.

All ice houses have a woodstove and four fishing holes.

Ice houses at Chena Lake rent for $25 a day and include a milk crate-sized bundle of firewood. More firewood is available for $3 a bundle, Steffy said. The rental fee also includes four, freshly drilled fishing holes.

“As long as it’s not colder than 20 below and we have staff on hand we’ll go down and drill four (fishing) holes for them,” Steffy said.

The state’s ice fishing houses at Birch and Quartz lakes rent for $15 a day but anglers must drill their own fishing holes and supply their own firewood, Ludwig said.

The ice at Quartz Lake was about 14 inches thick last week but the ice on Birch Lake was thinner and more variable. In one spot, the ice on Birch was measured at only 3 inches, Ludwig said. Workers positioned the ice houses at Birch Lake closer to shore where the ice was thickest and will reposition them farther out when the ice thickens, Ludwig said.

Sport fish biologist Fronty Parker with the Department of Fish and Game in Delta Junction said fishing is usually better at this time of the winter than it is later when the ice is thicker and there is less oxygen for fish to breathe, which tends to make them lethargic and concentrate in deeper pockets of the lake.

Fishing at Quartz Lake was reported to be excellent last week.

“One of the protection officers went out there the other day and said people were catching their limits in a half hour,” he said.

All three lakes have been stocked with rainbow trout, coho salmon and Arctic char. The bag limit is 10 fish a day per person.

Individuals who want to put their own ice houses out on lakes may do so but any structure left on the ice overnight must be registered with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, according to sport fish information officer Nancy Sisinyak. There is no fee to register ice fishing houses, she said. To register an ice house, simply stop in at Fish and Game offices in Fairbanks or Delta Junction.

Contact outdoors editor Tim Mowry at 459-7587.