Welcome to Lyback’s Ice Fishing
We are a seasonal winter business that runs open December thru March. Business Hours are (7:00am to 5:00pm – Sunday thru Thursday), (7:00am to 8:00 pm – Friday and Saturday).
Located on the south shore of Mille Lacs Lake. We specialize in providing warm and comfortable ice fishing houses you can rent by the day or weekend.
Clark and Phyllis Lyback officially started this ice fishing business full time in 1954. Clark had his “Willys” Jeep and 5 small rental houses. He actually started a couple years earlier, but was called back to Honeywell to work. Clark and a handful of others were some of the first to have rental houses and actually plow roads out on Mille Lacs in the late 40’s, early 50’s. After WWII, and the advent of FWD vehicles like Jeeps and other small military trucks it became a possibility. Clark’s son Eddy took over the duties on the ice in 1976 and eventually purchased the business in 1984. And has been running it since. This year will be our 70th year on the ice.
We strive to be a place where you come out and fish, have your space, some peace and quiet and enjoy your time on the ice. There are restaurants and bait shops close by. We try to keep things as quiet as possible out there for all of our customers. But we have made some changes on shore. The last 5 years we have been working on restoring Eddy’s Grandfather’s barn he built when his family homesteaded here in the early 1900’s. The downstairs is our new office complete with men’s/women’s ADA bathrooms and showers for our customers. It has tables and seating for customers when they come in. We sell and serve “Heggies” Pizza at the office and on weekends deliver on the ice. Other types of snacks and beverages are available also. Photo history and memorabilia from all the almost 70 years on the ice will be displayed in the office area and will be worth stopping by to see. (NOTE: Being that we are only open December thru March we only take CASH or CHECK payments, we DO NOT ACCEPT credit or debit cards.)
Our houses are set up also you come up for the day, overnight, or the weekend. We offer seasonal permanent storage and services, wheelhouse seasonal and weekend rates and storage. (See Private and Wheelhouse Rates page)
We won’t say that everyone will always catch fish, because that’s fishing, but we work hard to make sure everyone has a good chance at it while staying with us. We move our rentals often to different fishing areas to give our customers the best possibility to catch fish. Eddy has been on the ice for over 50 years and knows the the areas we fish well and places the houses. Our goal is to make your fishing experience a good one and enjoy your time on the ice.
We usually enjoy very good early season Walleye/Perch action in shallow water and move out deeper as the season goes along. There is Trophy Northern Pike action, especially late in the season for anglers. Perch and Tullibee action sometimes can last well into March. We keep roads out as long as the weather permits.