LAKEVIEW, Mich — Seeing people fishing out on the ice is a common sight here in Michigan during the winter.
But what’s different about who is out on Tamarack Lake in Lakeview is these anglers are here from all over the world and competing for a World Championship.
10 countries including America are angling for gold, silver, and bronze medals February 11-16, transforming the town of Lakeview into the center of the ice-fishing universe.
And that is not by accident.
US Angling Fresh Water Fishing Director Mike McNett told us three of the top anglers are from West Michigan (Chad Schaub, Zack George, and Keith Kniffen) and their experience with the water out here put the 330-acre Tamarack Lake on the hook to be this year’s venue.
"For the World Championship, it's [Tamarack Lake] a perfect venue, because there's a lot of small fish. And you know, really, we probably the community would like us to take out some of those small fish to allow some of the species to get larger," McNett told me. "But again, the community has been fantastic. The amount of small fish that are in there that these got. So you got to understand some of these World Championships. And even in some of the other disciplines, you get to the venue, you do a lot of practice fishing, and then all of a sudden there's not a lot of fish to be caught. And we know on this lake, it's a guarantee there's going to be hundreds and hundreds of fish caught."
And a lot of small fish are the name of the game in this two-day competition.
"Small fish, so you have to be really active," Niklass Strenglsrud with Team Norway said. "I believe it might be possible to catch some big fish, but I think you should catch the 2,3,4,5, the quick ones, and if they start to miss a bite, then it's probably better to change hole.
And for the first time, this year is a catch-and-release competition meaning the fish will be put back in the water after they are weighed.
"I would say the winning angler will probably have about, you know, 12 to 14 pounds," said McNett.
All those fish don’t leave the water by accident – catching them this quickly requires a special skill set.
"They're basically watching the line while it's in the water, as they're jigging, right?," added McNett. "And that's a very difficult technique, but you can see a small bite. You can see if they touch it, kiss it, if they've got it in their mouth. It's a really incredible technique."
“As long as we have five, six fishermen, every, everyone finds small details, and we put it together in the team meeting, and we have new things to test for the next training day," said Strenglsrud.
Lithuania won last year in Mongolia, they took the team gold and the top three spots, which Mike told us he can't remember ever happening before.
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