Anyone ever use pop up portables for camping? I’m thinking they’d be ideal in cooler months of fall. What do you use for flooring…tarp or padded floor mats? Although, I could see how transporting the mats would be less convenient. Anyway, just curious about others’ experiences.

Weight would be the deal breaker for me since you would need a larger one to comfortably lay down in it, and those weigh in at like 30-40lbs. Unless you were base camping only, you would probably be making a single portage trip just to carry your shelter.

Yes, would strictly be base camping. For me, it would be short and easy accessible lakes as well.

There are a handful of YouTubers that do this on ice fishing lakes and one I can think of that does it on land. Mav, FishNMore, and Adam Stew all come to mind. The overnight ice fishing trips seem pretty manageable.

Most seem to use the Hexagon shaped shanties and interlocking 24" square foam tiles for the floor. Disc-o-beds seem to be a good option, but fair warning they are heavy.

Invest in the drill attachment for the screw in stakes, especially for on ice.

GunflintTrailAngler: "Yes, would strictly be base camping. For me, it would be short and easy accessible lakes as well."

For that price point then it would probably be decent. Most of them are insulated to some degree so similar comfort as a canvas hot tent and probably about the same total weight, minus the stove.

In October we walked through the Grand Marais campground when we were staying at Nelson's Travelers Rest for our annual MEA/Moose Madness stay and saw a few of them set up. I thought they looked like a great cold weather option for a tent, but I would not want to portage one. I was thinking they'd be great for a campground stay or an entry point lake for a late fall or early spring trip. It looked like they were set up on those square interlocking pieces mentioned above and one looked like it was on a tarp. .

Those fish houses do not have an integral floor sewed into them. Have you ever wakened to the feel of a mouse running over your face?

I have used the smaller Otter hub shelter for ice camping on Seagull and Daniels. With a tank of propane and a cot, it makes for a very comfortable lake trout camp. It would be awkward to haul that setup in a canoe, but not impossible. Stu mentions packing a clam screen shelter on his October BWCA trips in BWJ, and says that it barely fits under the seats/thwarts. It took me a few times to figure out how to set-up and collapse this shelter, but now I prefer to use this vs. the flip-over style ice houses.