Ice Fishing Contest Festival 2010

Thousands of anglers cast lines through holes on a frozen river at an event to fish trout in Hwacheon, northeast of Seoul, South Korea on January 11, 2009. The Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival draws nearly a million visitors every year.

Ice fishing is the activity of catching fish with lines and fish hooks or spears through an opening in the ice on a frozen body of water. Ice anglers may sit on the stool in the open on a frozen lake, or in a heated cabin on the ice, some with bunks and amenities. It is a popular pastime in Canada, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine and Germany.