MONTCALM COUNTY, Mich. — West Michigan is the center of the ice fishing world as 10 different countries, including the U.S., are in Lakeview for the 2025 World Ice Fishing Championship.
The action starts Saturday, but teams worldwide have been on Tamarack Lake practicing all week long.
The Lakeview community is excited to see so many new faces check out their village.
“Nobody ever would have thought something like that would be brought to little old Lakeview,” Village President Emily Griffith said.
Her village is home to roughly 1,000 people.
“There's just good people. It's small. It's always been small,” Griffith added.
The village president also calls this place home to her business, Griffith Market. She says businesses are already seeing a boost in foot traffic as people started showing up to attend the 2025 World Ice Fishing Championship. It’s an event that has never been brought to Michigan before.
“Lakeview is a very rural, quiet, simple, middle-of-nowhere village in Michigan. So to have that kind of diversity here is super special,” Griffith added.
This small slice of heaven is about an hour northeast of Grand Rapids and is luring in quite a big catch this weekend.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to potentially meet people that are from all over the world,” Boujee on Main Owner Melissa Charron said. “It’s brought in a lot of faces ... which is great to see, a lot of people coming in. They hadn't known I was here yet, so that's helped me out a lot.”
Charron adds that she’s looking to snag some lifetime customers.
“I might see 10 people, whereas today I've probably seen 30. They're just coming in because it's something different, and they want to see what everybody has,” Charron said.
The business owner made up several shirts and hats commemorating the big event.
“I just made some for fun that say, 'Tamarack, Lakeview, Michigan.' But the other ones are 'Here, fishy, fishy,'” Charron said.
The village president is already looking to reel this amount of support in for years to come.
“We could say, 'Hey, every year, let's have, you know, an ice fishing festival where we get together and commemorate what happened this year,'” Griffith said.
A lot of the businesses typically close on Sundays, but because this event goes all weekend, they plan on staying open.
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