 Well it draws thousands to Walker Bay every year and this year was no different. For this week's Northwoods Adventure, Clayton Castle gives us a look into the people of the Eelpout Festival. Eelpout? That shout-out only means one thing. The Eelpout Festival is back in full force over the weekend as thousands gathered at Walker Bay for the 39th edition of the annual event. Whether it was someone's first or 31st time at the festival, people are drawn in by the atmosphere and come back year after year to take part in the fun. This is such a fun event. It's so different than anything else you see in Minnesota. Just people getting together have a good time on the ice and building a whole city out of nothing, that's something to be seen. Yeah it's just a great experience to enjoy the Minnesota outdoors and be on a lake and the ice bars are pretty awesome inside too and just great community here. Some use the festival to celebrate a special occasion spending the day on the lake to honor the Eelpout. It's my birthday so we brought a bunch of people up, figured there's not much else to do in the end of February in Minnesota so why not spend it outside? Three! When asked what keeps bringing people back year after year, it doesn't take long for each person's unique take on the festival. The beer. The people watching. We've watched a lot of cars get stuck. Great people watching. A few of the attendees at this year's Eelpout Festival came for a very special reason, whether it was an honor or memory of a loved one. We got to give a shout out to Dylan. He's the guy who brought us here. He's at home battling cancer right now so yeah thanks Dylan. Yeah thanks Dylan. My brother passed away and I love him to death and this was his best friend and we come up here in honor of him and we miss him and we love him and he loved everything about this place, not just this place but Walker Bay. He was so into this place. David was the epitome of just enjoying life and enjoying a time like this so. And we miss him tremendously and we love you doggy. Yeah we love you brother. And it's the memory of Phil's brother that will bring them back in 2019. Reporting in Walker for this week's Northwood's adventure Clayton Castle, Lakeland News. I don't know that we actually saw Eelpout in that story but that's an ugly looking fish. It is. Yeah I guess it tastes from a front relatively good. I'll take your word on it. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.