On the northern plains, winter does not end the fishing — it merely relocates it. When the lakes freeze hard enough to bear a truck, temporary villages of fish houses rise on the ice of Devils Lake and Lake Sakakawea, some no bigger than an outhouse, others heated cabins with bunks, stoves and satellite television.

A Town That Melts in Spring

Beneath the ice the fishing goes on, for walleye and perch and pike, through holes bored with power augers and watched over on electronic flashers that reveal the fish rising to the bait. The perch of Devils Lake, in particular, draw anglers from across the region to a winter fishery of real renown.

From the almanac's reckoning:

• Fish-house villages appear on Devils Lake and Sakakawea each winter.
• Anglers take walleye, perch and pike through augered holes.
• Devils Lake perch draw ice anglers from across the region.

It is a sociable, hardy pastime, and a whole culture has grown up around it, from the fish-house builders to the bait shops that never close. The almanac counts ice fishing among the truest signs that the plains do not hibernate — they simply move the party out onto the frozen lake.