평창 송어 축제 Pyongchang Trout Festival

As we were heading home on Sunday, after checking out the snow festival, we cut through the town of Jinbu in order to escape some traffic getting onto the highway near Yongpyong. As we drove around we saw signs for the Trout Festival that Steve the Qi Ranger made such a nice video for two weeks ago.  So, I suggested we check it out for ourselves. As it was late in the day we got there only in time to see them ending the fishing day. All the activities that you can see in the video were closed, save for one sled pushing activity. But, I found the place to be very peaceful and photogenic.

Today's Korean lesson. 송어 is trout in Korean. Now you know. 

Here is that sled pushing activity I was talking about..... 

 And of course the fishing....

People of all ages stood around fishing holes hoping to bring home a good catch for the day. I was really stunned because I saw so many people walking away with quite a few fish. Some had so many they gave them to others who didn't catch as many.

My next obvious question was... what do you do with all these fish once you catch them? When I went fishing as a kid, we'd always throw the fish back since we didn't actually want to eat them. Of course, now thinking back on that, it seems a little cruel, catching it, stressing it out, and then throwing it back in where it probably just got sick from the stress of being caught and having a hook jabbed through it... But, here, if you don't want to cook your trout at home, you can bring it into the restaurant and they will cook it for you! Pictured above is 송어회 or raw trout, like sashimi. As we walked through the restaurant, we saw people eating trout in any shape or form you can imagine. In soups, grilled, raw... 

While it seems like many of the big festival activities are over, you can still make a stop by here and check out the trout fishing. If you're lucky, some other winter events could still be happening as well.