Chung Sung-Jun / Getty Images
Anglers cast lines into a frozen river during an ice fishing competition at the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival on Jan. 5, in Hwacheon-gun, South Korea. The annual event attracts thousands of visitors and features the mountain trout ice fishing competition in which participants compete with traditional lures or with bare hands.
Sara Stathas / Reuters
Sturgeons lie on blue plastic tarps covering the pool table and surrounding floors at Woodeye's Bar in Winneconne, Wisconsin on Saturday. Opening day of sturgeon fishing in Wisconsin is a day of celebration and socialization within the communities around Lake Winnebago. Woodeye's Bar in Winneconne, on the north end of the Lake Winnebago, rolls out the "red carpet" for the catches of the day.
Sara Stathas / Reuters
Fishermen arrive for opening day of sturgeon fishing season in the cold at 12 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 11 degrees Celsius) for opening day of sturgeon fishing season on Lake Winnebago in Pipe, Wisconsin on Saturday.
Sara Stathas / Reuters
Dan Loftus, a chiropractor from Germantown, Wisconsin, sits patiently in his ice-fishing shack on Lake Winnebago.
Sara Stathas / Reuters
Randy Becker, 56, from Brillion, Wisconsin, brings his 40 lb (18 kg) sturgeon to the Stockbridge weighing station before cut off time to register a catch on the eastern shore of Lake Winnebego.
"It gets in your blood," said Bill McAloon, a director of the conservation group Sturgeon For Tomorrow. "For the communities around here, this is a much-awaited time."
The season will run through Feb. 26 or until harvest caps are reached, whichever comes first.
Michael P. King / AP
Paul Cook, left, and Al Anderson, both of Madison, do their best to rescue a sinking shanty from Lake Mendota off the shore of Mendota Park in the Town of Westport, Wis., Wednesday, Jan. 25. The shanty, used for the men's casual ice hockey group called "The Iceholers," began sinking due to a recent thaw and then froze in place. Anderson and Cook said they planned to use a system of lumber framing and come-alongs to hoist the shanty out of the water, suspending it until the ice refroze underneath it.
Having grown up in Midwest, I can attest to the seemingly crazy things people do on frozen lakes during the winter. That said, looks can be deceiving, and the ice these guys are standing on was hopefully more than thick enough to support their weight.
Robert F. Bukaty / AP
Morning alpenglow casts a warm light on 6,288-foot Mount Washington, in New Hampshire's White Mountains, 40 miles to the west of a group of ice-fishing shacks on Long Lake in Naples, Maine Thursday Feb. 24, 2011. The exceptionally clear weather is coming to an end as another winter storm is predicted for Friday. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
The richness of the morning light suggests really clear and therefore really cold winter air. These ice shacks look modest compared to some recently photographed by msnbc.com.
Reuters
A man fishes, while sitting in a tent, on the ice-covered Ivankovskoye reservoir in the town of Konakovo in Russia's Tver region, Feb 5.
Looks like a pretty comfortable man cave.
Shu-ling Zhou / The Oshkosh Northwestern
A fisherman guides a vehicle crossing over a crack as another one captures the scene with his cell phone Monday afternoon, Jan. 3, on Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh, Wis. About 15 vehicles and their occupants were stranded on the frozen lake when a large crack opened. All made it to the shore safely.
I don't think there is any way someone could talk me into driving my vehicle onto a frozen lake, as it seems like there is just too much that could go wrong.
Karen Mancinelli / The Daily Record via AP
Fishermen try their luck on the ice at Hopatcong State Park in New Jersey where the ice was about 7-inches thick on Sunday morning, Jan. 2.
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