TORONTO -- Anglers from a popular fishing hole in southern Manitoba are providing hot meals for Winnipeg's homeless after a bountiful season on the ice.

For weeks, thousands of anglers have crowded the ice on a particular part of Lake Winnipeg near the town of Riverton, saying the fishing has been best there this year.

"They're driving three hours to come fish here and stuff, and the fishing has been really good, whereas other places it's been kind of hit and miss," Neil Triska, president of the Sandy Bar Fishing Club, said in an interview with CTV News.

Triska credits the success of the area in part to novice ice fishers, inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic to try a new hobby that is permitted amid public health restrictions.

Waylon Johannson, Sandy Bar Fishing Club's vice-president, says the ice fishing boom has also brought new business to the town.

"Riverton was kind of going down on a downslope, but now it’s starting to pick up again," Johannson said.

He added that the sudden surge in popularity on Riverton’s portion of Lake Winnipeg has members of the community giving back.

Some local businesses have been donating prizes, which are handed out on the ice, but this week, they are providing meals to Winnipeg's homeless.

The community is holding a fish fry for the city's homeless on Sunday, with nearly 23 kilograms of locally caught pickerel.

Church member David Harper of the Encounter Life Fellowship said providing the homeless food amid Winnipeg's cold winters is important.

"They have a fish fry, they have a bowl of moose meat stew. They really need that kind of nourishment in their bodies," Harper explained.

Ice fisher Justin Lea said the good fishing season has everyone "thinking with their hearts," leading to generosity on and off the lake.