Ice Fishing Pros Compete in Bulgaria
They battled with snow drifts and waded through knee-deep slush to get to their competition ground on a frozen lake in Bulgaria's southern Rhodope mountains, reports AFP.
The world's ice angling pros converged this weekend on the Shiroka Polyana lake, 1,500 metres above sea level, to face off at the 16th annual Ice Fishing World Championship.
Fifteen countries are represented this year -- reigning champions Ukraine, along with challengers Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden and the United States.
After a week of training sessions at nearby dams and lakes, the 150 competitors have been stepping out onto the ice in their rubber boots for the two-day championship.
Seventy-five anglers dug holes in the ice with hand augers, remaining bent over them for hours fishing with their small palm rods.
The aim is to catch as many fish as possible -- mainly tiny perches and roaches.
In the five areas on the lake set aside for the competition, teammates and captains gather around to cheer the anglers on, alongside the referees and spectators eager to see the pros in action.
"The idea is to have more fish than anyone else as a team and be a world champion -- as simple as that. To find out if you are wiser than the fish," Finland's team captain Elisa Saarela told AFP.
The competitors may have been mostly catching fish that could fit in their palms, but Saarela says the smaller the fish, the bigger the achievement.
"When the fish is smaller, it's much harder to get it. A bigger fish is much more easy to catch. If you catch a big amount of small fish, you are very professional," Saarela explained.
But she says the best part of this unusual sport is being "out in the nature, in fresh air, with beautiful surroundings and seeing good friends from all over the world".
The Bulgarian national team is ranked eighth at the World Ice Fishing Championship, which took place during the weekend of Shiroka Polyana dam near Batak. Absolute champions became Lithuanian fishermen who won both titles.
In the team ranking the Lithuanians became the first in front of Belarus and Ukraine. A gold medal won the 52-year old Lithuanian veteran Gintas Balchevichus, followed by Finnlander Antil Silanpaa and another Lithuanian player Marius Yassiakskas.
The championship will remain in history as the most extreme of all times. Its conduct coincided with the disastrous situation in the region due to the snowstorm. Around the Shiroka Polyana there were fallen trees on the road, which stopped the electricity, fell more than a meter and had difficulty moving.
However, more than 150 athletes and coaches from 15 countries have fought over from Batak, whose municipality has thrown a lot of power and equipment to clear the roads, and then entered the ice. There the situation was even worse, as there was almost half a meter of snow slush and water on top.
Wet to bones and kneeling to the knees, fishermen hunted hooves and babbugs to determine the new world champion. Lithuanian Balchevichuscus grabbed the title with 3,203 kg of catches for the two racing days. His victory at such an advanced age was identified as a great sensation.
Bulgarian Slavcho Lazarov ас 19th is the highest in the ranking.