Ugly Fish but Pretty Good Time

BSU Students Attend Eelpout Festival

By DJ Haffely and Maggi Stivers

The Eelpout Festival is celebrated on Leech Lake every year. 

“Grumpy Old Men” made ice fishing seem exciting to the world but Eelpout Festival blows them out of the water. . . well ,ice in this case. Tens of thousands of people came statewide, even nationwide, to Walker, Minn., for the 32^nd annual Eelpout Ice Fishing Festival on February 18^th - 20^th. More than ten times the population of the town (and ten times the traffic) overwhelms the tiny resort town during these days.  This event has become so famous that parts of the 2011 festival was filmed by a crew from “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno for a future episode. The Vikings cheerleaders also made an appearance. Many BSU students took time out of their weekend to attend Eelpout and have some fun.

BSU students Jake Paulson and Ellise Loomis both spent time on Leech Lake enjoying the festival. Paulson grew up in Walker and has been attending Eelpout for the past seven years. Paulson describes the festival as “spring break on the ice in the middle of the year.”

Paulson’s family has attended the festival for as long as he can remember. However, this year Paulson had to be a little more careful when attending the activities and being on the ice.  Paulson recently broke his leg while playing hockey and made his way around town on his four-wheeler, complete with crutches strapped to the back. “Nothing can stop me from having a good time at Eelpout,” said Paulson, “not even this [broken leg].”

According to eelpoutfestival.com, the official eelpout Web site, the Festival started in 1979 as a way to bring tourism to Leech Lake. The festival was named after the eelpout fish that Ken Bresley caught. Ken Bresley was the founder of Eelpout.  The first Eelpout festival was even able to make a profit, by selling official Eelpout buttons. Every year, the tradition of selling the buttons continues to keep the festival going. The button purchase is also the method of entering into the angling competition and entering into drawings. This year’s button was purple and displayed the Eelpout festival logo.

There were several prizes available for the angling completion including a custom made eelpout fish house and thousands of dollars.  There was also a raffle for a Ranger TR 177 fishing boat and a contest for the best eelpout encampment. The weekend consists of an eelpout angling competition, a pout curling, a pout luge, a pout relay, a polar plunge, bikini fishing, and many more events that celebrated the winter weather.

Workers set up for the Polar Plunge event.

The polar plunge event was widely popular among the shivering crowd. Several hundred people huddled around a hole in the ice to watch half-naked people jump in to ice cold water. Several jumpers had tag lines such as “you only live once.” The MC announced their tag lines just before their plunge.  Several individuals and groups took a leap and were then judged by the mayor and his wife on their jump.  The belly-flopping BSU student scored high. Paramedics stood by, and were even in the water wearing cold resistant suits, should something have gone array.  The polar plunge is also a competition to see who can raise the most money. This year Bill Bieloh’s team won raising more than $18,000. Bieloh was the founder of Moondance Jam music festival who passed away year ago.

Paulson stood on one of many giant ice blocks that surrounded the polar plunge hole. He along with others cheered loudly for the contestants that jumped in. He described the event as “fun to watch and it was clearly popular. I was lucky to get a close spot.”

In previous years, there was the ice rugby event held at Eelpout. Last year it was cancelled due to weather conditions. Several college level players came for the competition, but this year it had the returning 2006 division 3 BSU rugby team competing. The Eelpout 500 ‘On-Ice’ Auto Race was also a big hit amongst the crowds.

A typical day on the lake for an “eelpouter” includes, dressing as warm as possible, and using only    four-wheelers and snowmobiles to get around with and of course to drink some beer. Several people have trailers attached to their four-wheelers and set up lawn chairs and couches to travel around. There are even a few couches set up on the ice.  Several people who attend the festival do not participate within the angling completion. “They just come to have a good time,” said Paulson. Most “eelpouters” have a good time just drinking and fishing.

There is a lot of work that goes into planning such an event as this, but when all is said and done, “the garbage that is left on the lake after the weekend is a huge mess,” said Paulson.

Photos By Maggi Stivers