Without ingenuity, there is no bite

Experienced fishermen from Kostanay, Ekibastuz, Karaganda, Pavlodar (seven people in total) set off on a long journey to Lake Tamarack in Michigan. For three days they trained on the reservoir at minus 10-15 degrees, the weather was constantly changing. But the northerners are not afraid of winds and subzero temperatures - in Kazakhstan the frosts are much stronger.

- This time, luck turned its back on us a little. The team went with a minimum composition, - says Olga LEVITSKAYA, a master of sports in sport fishing from Karaganda . - We did not have the so-called "zabrovochniks" with us - they help, coordinate the movements of athletes around the reservoir in the fishing sectors, choose the place where to drill, and so on. And this is 80 percent of success. The fish here are small - sunfish, bluegill, crappie, we called them aquarium guppies.

According to her, there were no trophies weighing 5-15 kg, which the sportswoman is used to catching in Kazakhstani waters. The maximum weight is 500 grams.

- According to the law of this state, you can't bait fish, as well as use bloodworms, you can only fish with maggots and worms, the athlete continues. - Unfortunately, we had little time to learn all the details, practice, and apparently we didn't have enough ingenuity. For example, the Lithuanians trained on this lake for three weeks.

The first three places were taken by teams from Lithuania, Finland and Norway. The Kazakhs came in ninth, and athletes from Mongolia closed the tournament table.

“This is a huge experience for us, it will come in handy at future starts,” the interlocutor noted philosophically.

Elena KOEMETS, photo from the archive of Olga LEVITSKAYA, Almaty