Fish, shanties are big draw to Frozen Tozen festival
Boulder Junction celebrating winter event
Most ice-fishing shanties are practical structures, built to provide anglers with protection from cold and windy winter weather, not to win awards from “Architectural Digest” magazine.
But fishermen and women who trek north for the ninth rendition of Boulder Junction’s Frozen Tozen Winter Fest, which runs Feb. 17-19, are being encouraged to pull out the design stops and decorate their bob houses like Mardi Gras floats.
Colorful purple, gold and green beads and masks — a la New Orleans revelry — will be provided.
Judging will take place at noon on Saturday.
“We thought that going Mardi Gras would liven things up a bit,” said Bob Bertch, the festival committee chairman.
“The person who has the most creative fish hut will get some kind of prize. We wanted to come up with something different this year, and we think we’ve achieved that.”
Bertch said anglers — who will dangle their lines into the chilly waters of Boulder Lake from both inside and outside their shanties — will compete to see how many bluegill, crappie, bass, pike, perch and other fish they can catch on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the awards ceremony following at 4:30 p.m.
Whoever catches the largest of these lakedwelling vertebrates will win $300.
There also will be $100 awards in the adult, junior and team categories for anglers with the most accumulated inches of fish of all kinds.
Moreover, all entrants will receive a ticket for door prize drawings provided by sponsors.
And the first 20 who register will receive six raffle tickets. Registration begins at 7 a.m. Saturday in the tent at the Boulder Lake boat landing on Airport Road.
Walk-ins will be accepted throughout the day, Bertch said.
The cost to enter the fishing contest is $30 for adults and $10 for kids 10 and under.
Raffle tickets cost $1 each and are available at a number of Boulder Junction businesses.
The top prize will be a travel package worth more than $400. Tournament proceeds benefit the Boulder Junction Area Boat Landing Improvement Fund, he said.
For those who aren’t crazy about ice fishing, the Frozen Tozen Fest will have a snow-sculpture contest for adults and children, plus on-ice games for kids and their kin.
There’s no cost to enter the snow-sculpting competition, Bertch said, but prizes still will be awarded.
Entrants should bring their own sculpting tools.
In true Northwoods style, Bertch said the gathering may also have a turkey bowling contest in which participants throw frozen turkey carcasses over the ice and try to knock down as many bowling pins as they can.
In the past, festival-goers have been able to play ice golf.
In this game, participants use tennis balls and play on a course cleared out on the snowy lake, trying to get their balls into holes cut into the ice.
“But we dropped that because it was just too much work,” he said. “One winter, we cleared the course and then had 12 inches of snow, so we had to clear the course again. That made for some big piles of snow. Then, when the festival was done, we had to flatten out the snow because it was a hazard for snowmobilers.”
Bertch said the festival will kick off from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at Winter Park, 10000 Old K Road, with a bonfire, ice skating, sledding and hot beverages.
During the ice-fishing tournament on Saturday, area service organizations will sell chili, beer, wine, coffee and hot chocolate.
If the temperatures drop or the winds pick up, participants can duck into the festival’s heated tent.
For those who stick around on Sunday, the Boulder Junction Snowmobile Club will host a pancake breakfast from 8 to 11 a.m. at the Headwaters Restaurant and Tavern overlooking the Manitowish River at 5675 County Road M.
Proceeds from the breakfast will benefit the club’s trail maintenance efforts.
Bertch, a native of Toledo, Ohio, who describes himself as an occasional ice fisherman, moved to Boulder Junction in 2000 after years of vacationing in the area. During most of the winter, he acknowledged, his recreational activities focus on (indoor) league bowling.
“Some fellow chamber members and I came up with the idea for this festival about a decade ago to draw more locals and visitors outside to enjoy our great and cold outdoors,” he said.
“We do get a lot of snowmobilers and other people who cross-country ski and snowshoe in the winter. But I’d say 70 percent of our visitors come in the summer when we’re really busy."
He credits his daughter, Theresa Smith, with coming up with the rhyming Frozen Tozen name “because she’s creative and pretty good at that kind of stuff.”
In addition to getting people out during the winter, he said the Frozen Tozen Fest has raised thousands of dollars to improve area boat landings.
“We approached the DNR a while back and asked, if we come up with some extra money, will you work with us?
“We filled out all the proper paperwork, they agreed and have been real helpful. Just last year, for example, we paid $3,000 and they chipped in $3,000 and we now have a brand new roll-in aluminum dock on Little John Lake.”
More information: See the Boulder Junction Chamber of Commerce website at boulderjct.org or call (715) 385-2400.
Getting there: Boulder Junction is 275 miles northwest of Milwaukee via I-41, Highway 10, I-39 and Highway 51.