People ice fishing on Gull Lake in Brainerd, Minnesota, USA

© Robert Benson/Cava

Gone (ice) fishing. Ice fishing in the Land of 10,000 Lakes

The Ice Fishing Extravaganza on Gull Lake, Minnesota, certainly reels in the crowds to this part of the US in late January. More than 10,000 people will try to catch as many fish as they can, mostly walleye and northern pike, in a charitable contest organised and run by volunteers.

The practice of ice fishing was started years ago by Native American tribes in the Upper Midwest region, to gather food for the long, harsh winters. But today ice fishing is a popular winter activity in the US state known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Some anglers even deck out their ice shanties – a portable shed which provides a bit of shelter on the ice - with TVs, underwater cameras, sonar fish-finders and bathrooms with hot showers, making it easy to spend weekends out on the lake, warm and dry.