Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Ice Fishing Festival

Last weekend Ryan traveled north to the small city of Hwacheon for its annual ice fishing festival.  He arrived with a co-worker after a five hour bus ride, and set out to find a place to stay, which proved a difficult task with the popular festival taking over the town. 
Three hours later the two found themselves just outside of town at the home of an elderly couple, offering modest accommodations in the form of a large spare room with Korean style floor bedding.  They spent that evening back in town browsing through massive ice carvings and enjoying fried chicken and beer for dinner, something Ryan doesn't get to do too much of with his vegetarian wife around!
Early the next morning the boys hit the festival.  They passed a circle of people ready to jump in and fish with their bare hands.
The main area was packed with Koreans, hunched over small holes drilled in the ice.  Next to the mass amounts of local tourists was the "Foreigner's Area," completely empty aside from Ryan and his friend.  
The guys spent the next couple of hours luring fish below the icy surface.  Observers encouraged them to simply yank on the lines until the fish were snagged.  The Korean press got up close and personal to take photos of the fishermen.
One way or another they nabbed sixteen or so small to medium-sized trout between them.  The day's catch was cut sashimi style and eaten raw, as well as cooked on an open grill and enjoyed beside the river.  
 All in all the boys had a great time.  

And on Sunday night I was very happy to have my fisherman home :)

2 comments:

  1. this is really a cool post!!! i tried ice fishing one time at my friend's in wisconsin and had a blast! that is so cool yall got to do it somewhere different with unique traditions behind it :) AND got to eat the fish right after!

    the first picture looks like norway too :)

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  2. sorry...not yall i mean, but HIM and the boys haha. i got a bit overzealous writing this!

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