Horses turn a capstan, a kind of winch, to pull the heavily laden net out of frozen Chagan Lake on Friday. [Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

When the first net filled with many metric tons of fish was pulled out of frozen Chagan Lake in Northeast China's Jilin province on Friday, the annual fishing and hunting season of the lake began.

Despite extremely cold weather, the activity attracted many visitors to witness an impressive winter fishing ritual on the lake that dates to the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234).

The fishermen worked together to cast 4,000 meters of nets through the holes they had drilled in the ice on the frozen lake's surface early that morning.

Several hours later, the nets, bulging with 180,000 metric tons of fish, was winched out by horses walking around a mechanical wooden capstan.

"Even in unfavorable weather conditions, we got a harvest on the first catch," said Huang Jinxing, vice-director of the Chagan Lake fishery. "I believe we will have a good harvest and a safe fishing season."