Hwacheon Sancheoneo (Mountain trout) Ice Festival
Every year every season, without fail, there will be many events going on in Korea. So what’s up for this wintry cold season? Have you heard about the Hwacheon Sancheoneo (Mountain trout) Ice Festival?
Hwacheon is located in Gangwon-do, with a rather small population of approximately 27,000 people and 909.03㎢ in its area. However, it never fails to attract thousands and maybe millions to this quiet town every January to catch this annual festival, which will also be held this 10th January 2015 ~ 1st of February 2015.
Listed as one of the seven wonders of winters by CNN, there are countless ice and snow activities that one could participate in. But the main attraction here will be the Sancheoneo Ice Fishing event!
Upon purchasing an admission ticket (12,000 won), you will also receive a fishing zone pass, a plastic bag, and a 5,000-won Agricultural Specialties coupon for shopping on-site. You may begin to enjoy your Ice Fishing moments once you get into the fishing areas!
What is this Ice Fishing all about? Maybe some of you have experienced this in your home country or some could only watch it from television like me.
How-To Ice Fish:
- For a more invigorating experience, you may use a drill or a metal bar to cut a hole in the ice on your own. Or if you want it simpler, just find an open hole.
- After having your bait attached to the fishing line, drop it down into the hole. Remember to adjust the fishing line so that the bait is submerged approximately 30-40cm.
- With the line attached to the fishing reel, move the reel up and down to lure the fish.
- When you feel a tug, gently pull the fishing line up.
- Unhook the fish, and place it in the plastic bag. You have your first catch! Once you have finished fishing, you may take your catch to a nearby restaurant to have it served raw or grilled over a wood fire.
If you find Ice fishing too boring and don’t have the patience for it, how about getting your body totally wet but at the same time having much more awesome fun time and experience? Have you try catching a fish with your bare hands? I bet you have heard about Hand fishing?
Admission fee is also 12,000 won and after changing into the festival t-shirt and shorts, you will then perform a simple warm up exercise, and move on to the festival’s round fishing pool for this Hand fishing event. Once you get the “go” signal, participants will then jump into the pool, and try to catch sancheoneo using their bare hands within three minutes. Each participant is allowed to catch up to three sancheoneo. When the time is up, they walk out of the pool, and warm themselves up with a warm foot bath.
There are even shuttle bus for foreigners going directly to Hwacheon, do visit their website for more information!