Pyeongchang Trout Festival (Jinbu)

 

Happy Winter! I hope you're wrapped up and warm today. I sure wasn't! Self inflicted though. I went to the Pyeongchang Trout Festival in Jinbu, Gangwon-do. The ice festival consists of ice fishing! And many other ice activities too. There was even a pool, where you can go in and catch trout with your hands. 

If you're going to go, I'd make sure that you're wrapped up super warm! Even if the sun is shining! Jumpers, jackets, scarf, hat, gloves, wooly socks...etc and hot packs!!! Not like David there with only his body warmer. He wasn't too cold though luckily. 

 

The bus from Gangneung wasn't too bad either. It was a 30 minute bus ride. We got to the festival at 2.30. 

It hasn't snowed much here, but the festival was covered in snow! Real snow too. They used snow machines to make it. It's pretty cool. It definitely gave it a nice atmosphere. 

The festival was also only a 7 minute walk from the bus station. You see the river coming into Jinbu, so it's easy to find. There's a hell of a lot of signs too. 

There were many options to chose from, tent fishing (35, 000 won), no tent (30,000 won), ice fishing (13,000 won)..etc. I'm not sure what they all meant though. We opted for the ice fishing. 

We wandered through a tent, and they attached our tickets to our jackets.

We bought some "rods". Basically plastic sticks with a line and bait on the end. There were different kinds. Cheaper ones for around 3000 won, and real fishing rods for much more. We opted for the cheaper ones. 

 

There were 4 areas for ice fishing. You chose which one you wanted to go into. 

As you can see, there was ice! And a lot of it too! I mean, today wasn't that cold, it didn't even get to the minuses. 

Sure there would have been ice already on the river, but no way could it have gotten that cold to make 5 inches of it, enough for hundreds of people to walk on. They must have artificially made it somehow.  Each section had holes in the ice already. I think you could make your own too with a drill they had. But there were so many holes, you could chose one and wait. 

We didn't have any chairs! I think next time we will buy camping chairs, because it's hard standing up all the time. 

Here's David holding too of the rods! Dancing to keep warm. You could see the big net too, which they use to house the trout. 

I found a different rod going to the bathroom. It was easy using it as I didn't have to bend as much. You can barely see my face! I was wrapped up too, and was still FREEZING my butt off! 

It was that cold, the line started freezing...brr, we were there for about 2 1/2 hours. 

Trout! It's hard to catch them. You could be standing there for hours and not catch anything. The rods were a little flimsy. The bait was so fake, the trout obviously realised what it was. There were a few which swam up to the bait and sniffed it before swimming away. 

Once the fish was caught, you had to buy tickets to the cleaning station. It cost 6000 won for the cleaning. They prepared the fish for sashimi, or for barbecuing. 

You then went into another tent, where they had this beast. They had slots in the side where the guy puts your fish in to cook. It took about 15 minutes. 

Here's the raw fish. There was a station where you could buy the veggies and sauce to go with the sashimi for 5000 won.

Some street food. Fried little fish. It was delicious! 13,000 won.

And finally, the roast trout. It was the first time I ate trout too. Delicious! Much better than salmon. 

It was a fun COLD day! I would definitely take a trip to this festival. This year it starts around the 8th January till the 31st January. I think most years it's the same! So, take a visit! Experience ice fishing. 

Kelly