Korea Ice Fishing

Forty-four. The number of minutes temperature in Seoul rose above freezing in January. Whether that number is completely accurate is irrelevant; Korea can be a cold place. And when it gets cold enough, ice fishing becomes a weekend outing alternative.

One of my friends is from Sinnam (신남) in Gangwondo, not too far from Inje. The man-made Soyangho Lake lies right behind my friend’s house.

Soyangho Lake. Frozen.

Ice-fishing enthusiasts.

Nothing says fishing like snow and ice.

You might wonder how thick the ice is, and what happens if it cracks and you fall through. I don’t really know the answer to the latter part, but the ice sheet appeared to be about 6 inches thick. And nobody fell through that day.

Cracks.

First step: get this guy to drill a hole in the ice for you.

Next, sit as such:

Then, stare at your bobber and wait. You might notice the odd-looking, helix-shaped fishing device and be surprised at its small size. The fish that people are after is the finger-sized 빙어, or pond smelt. Wikipedia tells me that it’s a freshwater species that inhabits the Arctic.

Denton was lucky enough to nab four of these small creatures. He then proceeded to pretend to eat it.

Pretending led to an idea, and this idea turned into a plan. A plan to eat a live pond smelt.

As you might imagine, as small as it may be, eating a live fish with no sauce isn’t particularly tasty. Most people eat the pond smelt fried and it’s much better as such.

 

 

~ by nathanhendrix on February 6, 2011.