Portable Ice Shelter 101 & 2025 Trends
As I write this all of the major brands have released there ice shacks for the 2025-2026 ice season. This year its about small innovations and not a huge leap in ice fishing shelter design. While we impatiently wait for the ice to form, lets look at the latest ice shacks on the market. Along with the latest trends in portable ice fishing shelters, this article details a few things to consider when deciding if its time for a new shack.
Key Takeaways
Latest Trends for 2025
Get out there, never let your gear prevent you from getting out on the ice
Modern portable ice fishing shelters come in two styles hub and flip over
Insulated shacks are better
Bigger is not always better
Weight is important, you have to get it out on the ice
Where are you going to store it
Portable vs Mobile
Taco doors went out of style with
Don’t Throw away that old shack, sell it on marketed place
2025 Trends
A few of the top portable ice shelter trends for 2025
New Eskimo XDP hub They make the shacks with a shorter bottom wall to make it pack up smaller, and has bigger windows. This was the #1 innovation I have found this year.
Lots of accessories to mount poles and electronics on the walls of hub shacks. Every maker has these and continues to expand them.
Ice camping continues to grow, there is a huge clam double hub 1200 that is designed for this. Check it out here.
Flooring for ice camping is another innovation area I noticed this year.
Get Out There
No matter what, the important thing to remember is to not let your gear stop you from getting out there and fishing. Don’t have a four wheeler, use skates like this guy. The reality is not often are we able to use skates on a lake but it does happen. If its a nice day you don’t even need a portable ice shelter. Just head out on your file gallon pale and go ice fishing. If you can only get a shelter that is uninsulated that’s ok. Even a suit case style ice shelter will do. Jason and I both fished from suitcase style shelters for years.
The main point is to make sure you don’t wait to get the perfect gear. You will remember the experience not that you had the best shelter on the lake.
Hub of Flip Over
There are two basic styles of portable ice fishing shelters sold today, hub and flip over. One is not superior to the other, but it’s more situational as to what will work best for your needs.
Insulated is Better
Almost all portable ice fishing shacks sold today come with insulation. Each brand will have its own name for it. But basically it means that you will keep warmer in more extreme temperatures with an insulated portable shack. Insulated shacks have many benefits and few drawbacks. You can bring a smaller lighter heater with less propane. Often I will bring the smallest heater I can find with 1lb propane tanks. Before insulated shacks I would bring out a large heater with a 20 pound propane tank. Even though a insulated shack weights a bit more it allows you to shave almost 20 pounds from your sled by not needing clunky and big propane tanks and heaters.
Insulated shacks also do not have condensation like the old uninsulated ones. With your heater on full blast because your heat is escaping you also get condensation buildup in your shack. When it was really bad it would actually rain inside your ice shack from the ceiling due to the condensation on the roof. Insulated shacks solve this problem.
Don’t worry if you have an un-insulated shack. You can to to your home improvement store and find this reflectix and install it on the roof of your hub or flip over shack. Because un-insulated shacks are sold at used at a fraction of the cost of insulated ones. You could pick up an cheap one on Facebook marketplace and put some of this in the ceiling and solve most of your problems. You don’t have to do the whole shack, just the roof and you get most of the benefit of an insulated shelter.
Bigger is not always better
Getting the portable shelter that works best for you and your fishing style is important. This ice shack is an otter cabin. We are out fishing on a super windy day on red lake and it was perfect for two of us to fish in. It has 48 square feet of fishing space. For hub style shelters this is on the small side, but I find it perfect for two people and there gear. As you can see we have all of our gear and we are fishing 4 holes. Two jigging and two dead sticks.
Sometimes its temping to go big and get the biggest one you can. I do have a clam six sided ice shack that is about 90 square feet. Its really good for a day on the ice with a bunch of fiends. I have fished four people and all their gear. Before I got the smaller hub shack I did fish out of it with two people . But its significantly bigger, heavier and harder to setup than the small Otter. One note is each brand has various sizes I just happen to have a big clam and a smaller otter.
So to sum up size, make sure you get the one that suits your needs. That does not always mean the biggest one.
Weight
With everything I bring out on the ice I think about weight. I often walk a good distance to get to my ice fishing spot. I currently do not have an ATV or other way to get around so I usually use what god gave me, my two feet. So always pay attention to how much an ice shack weights.
A similar sized ice shack can have very different weights. Even in the same brand different lines of ice shacks can have different weights. Often the heavier ones are more durable but you need to strike a balance between durability and weight. Sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too. Getting both a durable and light weight shack.
You can see in the picture a few years back we were talking out on lake Minnetonka over a quarter mile. I had all my gear jammed into an otter sport sled. It was a work out and my helper was not really quiet big enough to help very much. If you look in the background you can see I have two sleds. One has my auger and the other my shack, heater and the rest of my gear.
Storage
Depending on the style of ice shack you choose you need to have a place to store it.
If your garage is like mine, its pretty full. Hub style shacks are easy to store, I can put mine in the garage attic in the summer when I am not using it. During the ice season I bring it down and tuck it in the corner of my garage. Even my biggest shack the clam 6 sided one with 94 square feet of fishing space can go in the attic.
I have a one man flip over shack that just fits through the opening in my garage and that can go in the attic too. This is really nice as I don’t have to take up my garage space with something I am not using in the summer. But when I need its handy.
If you go with a larger two person flip over shack they
Portable or Mobile
Hub and flip over ice shacks used for a short time and then taken down. Not meant to be left on the ice for extended periods of time. Most of the time its just for the day. But if you are into ice camping you might stay in it for the weekend. But rarely if ever are you going to leave it on the ice unattended.
Hub Shacks are portable but not mobile
However hub and flip shacks differ in how fast you can move from spot to spot. If you look at the hub shack to the left, we used this for ice camping out on Petenwell Lake in Wisconsin.
Taco Chip Doors are Out
Doors shaped like a triangle are out. Get a shack with at least once door that opens from the top to bottom and is not shaped like a triangle. People are not shaped like a chip, doors should not be either. There are even ones now that have two full size doors.
Buy and sell your shack on Marketplace
If your needs change, its easy to swap out your old one for a new model. You can quickly sell your old gear and upgrade. It may cost you a little bit more for the new model, but you can get those new features using some cash from selling your old shack.
This is also a great way to upgrade if you don’t need latest and greatest. You can find some great deals on lightly used gear.
