Fish-Hawk.Net

OK, question for others. I fish a lot of small back lakes and spend a great deal of time scoping out little bits of structure to come back and fish in the winter time. Often these are lakes with one or two small shoals that aren't marked and hold fish. Obviously a few locals know about them and two weekends in a row there has been a permanent hut set right up on my waypoint. Public water, no problem with me - clearly that guy has put his time in too.

What is the etiquette with respect to fishing around these permanent huts? Last weekend I went out to one shoal, nobody fishing in the shanty, gave him as much of a berth as I could while remaining on the shoal. After seeing us set up, guy came out obviously annoyed. Whatever.
Yesterday I went to a different lake and same deal - empty hut right on top of a very small shoal. I set up relatively close to it and we caught a pile of fish. Guy never showed up but suspect it'll be different on a weekend.

On one hand, I try to respect people's space and avoid getting close. On the other, IMO you can't "claim" one of the few main lake shoals and not expect people who know about it to fish it for the whole winter.

Thoughts? I just want to fish my favourite holes without any drama.

If there's no one fishing the shack when you arrive then it's open to fish anywhere you want. Now I wouldn't set up 5 feet away from the shack but 15 feet away is open season so far as I'm concerned. If the guy shows up to bad for him, first come first served. Guys like that have to be careful about not being aholes and thinking they own the ice or they may show up to a burnt down shack some day.

Like Smitty said, if no one is there when you show up I'd treat it like the shack isn't there. If the shoal is small enough that you have to get with 10-15 ft I'd say that's perfectly fine.

If they are already there fishing, then I'd treat it like any other pop up shack or group of fisherman and keep my distance.

I might get grilled for this, but I think it would be interesting if the rules for crown land camping applied to ice huts.

I typically don't have any moral reservations about that either. One thing to keep in mind is that sometimes people with permanent shacks take their 4-wheelers or other vehicles out to their shack, so marking your holes with sticks and such might be appreciated by them.