Six Ice Fishing Facts About the Upper Midwest

In this piece I'm going to share 6 Ice Fishing Facts about the Upper Midwest that I came across online.  They're really pretty cool...no pun intended!

1.  Did you know the current world's largest ice fishing contest has over 15,000 anglers?!  That's right...It's held in the month of January on Gull Lake, north of Brainerd, Minnesota each year.  They actually drill over 20,000 holes for the event!

2.  I also found out that Wisconsin, by itself, has about 1.4 million licensed anglers and about 1/3 reported that they ice fish.

3.  Now, I knew it was a great winter time activity, but I didn't know that ice fishing was ranked 4th only behind sledding, snowmobiling, and ice skating as the most popular outdoor winter activity!

4.  The species of fish that is caught the most through the ice in the Upper Midwest are Panfish.  About 11.7 million within the state of Wisconsin alone!  That would include, bluegills, crappies, perch, and pumpkinseeds.  Coming in 2nd was the Northern Pike at 866,000, and finally the Walleye at 750,000.

5.  In the state of Wisconsin, ice fishermen and women catch an average of 14 million fish during the ice fishing season!

6.  Finally, I didn't know that approximately 1/2 the fish caught during the ice fishing season are kept by anglers in the Upper Midwest, compared to only about 1/3 during the open-water fishing period.

Stay tuned for more information, next week, about the valuable by-product that ice fishing is sure to produce for you and your family!