Fish and Game suspends ice house registration in the Copper Basin

Ice anglers in the Copper Basin around Glennallen won't have to register their ice fishing shelters this winter, under a change that runs from Wednesday through the end of May.

For that stretch, anglers can use ice houses or pop-up shelters without getting or displaying a state registration number, the department said. The rest of the year, any shelter left on the ice overnight still has to show a permit number and must come off by April 30.

The reason is a gap in the system: there's no way to register an ice house online, so anglers and wildlife troopers have had to contact the department directly during business hours to do it. Waiving the requirement for the season sidesteps that.