Ice Fishing at Hwacheongang River, Gangwon-do Province for Seol Nal

Seol Nal is the Lunar New Year. This year it was celebrated in Korea January 24th-January 26th. This holiday is one of the most important on the Korean calendar; it outweighs Christmas and the calendar new year. During these few days Koreans traditionally take off work and spend time paying visits to their families.

Since I had a few days off of work and no family in Korean to pay a visit to I decided to partake in an Ice Fishing Trip.

Very early on Saturday morning; the earliest I’ve ever left the house in Korea I took the subway to the meeting point. At the meeting point a combination of Koreans, Canadians, and Americans boarded a bus bound for Hwacheongang River in the Gangwon-do Province. It just so happened to be a blizzard outside and the trip to North-Eastern Korea took about 3 hours.
The Ice Festival was amazing! When we arrived we simply took in all of the sites. Although the entire river was frozen and everything was covered in snow, the town had obviously made the best of it. There is just about any ice activity that you can imagine. The festival is fully staffed and there are many conveniences offered.
We ate lunch soon after arriving. I had whole, friend anchovies of some sort, a soup, and some rice. It was tasty and helped to keep me warm.
Although I had initially planned on grabbing a fishing pole and sitting around a hole in the ice-a much better opportunity arrived and I couldn’t pass it up!!
Although the temperatures were single-digits, I shed my layers of sweaters, socks, and gloves and exchanged them for a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.
All those who are brave enough to don an orange t-shirt and navy shorts are marched outside for all of the spectators to see. A big production was made as we marched out onto the snow and took our place along the walls of the circular pool. A crowd stood around the pool cheering and laughing. We were told to sit down and dip our toes into the water-it was painful. Then, at sound of a gong we jumped into the water and attempted to catch trout with our bare hands. While in the water you’re supposed to scoop up fish and then put them in your pockets or t-shirt. It was the coldest I’ve ever been in my entire life!!! In the first 30 seconds I was running simply on adrenaline…after that I lost all sensation in my legs and arms…I really couldn’t feel anything! It took all of 45 seconds for my legs and arms to go numb; I was walking on rocks and never would have known and my arms began to tingle. All the while Koreans are still yelling “ASA!!” and pointing to fish that you should try to scoop up. A gong sounds again at the end of 5 minutes and everyone is forced out of the pool.
When I got out I was shuffled into a tent that had a a hot-tub type thing in it….We sat down on wooden planks and stuck our feet into the steamy aromatic water. It took about 2 minutes to get any feeling back in my legs, and then after about 1 minute….IT HURT!!! After the pain goes away, if feels like you were never in the pool at all!!
It was probably the coldest, stupidest thing I’ve ever done-but I’m glad I took advantage of the opportunity!! I had a blast and will remember the experience forever!! Not to mention that I didn’t feel “cold” for the rest of the day!
The actual ice fishing wasn’t as exciting. It was neat to see, but kind of slow. They give you a stick thing with a line wrapped around it. You drop the lure end into the hole and bounce it up and down to attract the fish. You can usually see the fish swimming underneath, but I didn’t see too many people catching them.
With the fish you catch, you can take it to the restaurants and have it cooked, or you can take it to the sushi restaurant and have it prepared-we chose to eat our raw!!! So I had FRESH river trout!! It was tasty!!
Our group also participated in various other ice activities including ice sledding, ice bumper cars, ice ATV driving, etc. It was a blast! It was a really fun day!! Fortunately, I only fell one time! (I will admit I came down pretty hard though!) We got back on the bus at 4:30 and were home by about 7. It was a great way to spend Seol Nal!
Unfortunately it was so cold that my camera wouldn’t work!! I don’t have any pictures, but I’m trying to acquire them from others who went!