USA Ice Team headed to Kazakhstan for World Ice Fishing Championship

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Myron Gilbert was part of the scene when the USA Ice Team won the World Ice Fsihing Championship in 2010 and he will be again when the team travels to Kazakhstan this week. Credit: Courtesy USA Ice Team

Updated: March 2, 2012 8:16AM

In more civilized forms, the Cold War lingers on ice.

With that in mind, Mike McNett, the captain of the USA Ice Team, is taking a Russian translator to the 2012 IX World Ice Fishing Championship next week in Kazakhstan. Fishing will be in the Almaty Region at Kapchagai Reservoir.

Russian and English are the languages of international ice fishing. McNett noticed in meetings that extended discussions in Russian would be translated into a sentence of English. So he is bringing Sean Warner of rusdialog.com to translate.

‘‘I told him to put his big ears on and listen,’’ McNett said.

Big ears for small fish.

Little is known about the fishery, other than the primary target will be roaches of about 25 grams (that’s less than an ounce). McNett said they will use presentations so small they would be about No. 16 in English systems.

That area also has bream, mostly small (200 grams), and the chance of bigger crucian carp.

McNett, a suburban insurance agent, has been the captain since the USA Ice Team restarted and finished ‘‘dead last’’ in 2009 in Poland. The next year, the team took gold in Rhinelander, Wis. He knows the international fishing world.

‘‘In fact, we heard .  .  . only a few Russian and few Ukrainian guys have been on [Kapchagai Reservoir],’’ McNett said. ‘‘In Europe, they will get on a train and fish it a week before we even see it.’’

The format is the fishing of one sector Friday, then another sector Saturday. Each sector has five zones, with one person from each country.

‘‘We have an advantage: We know the contours, the sharp turns,’’ McNett said.

The area to fish was Google-mapped on the website. From that, Brian Gaber of Electronic Guide Service worked his magic. So each angler should have a good idea of areas to target — what fishermen call ‘‘the spot within a spot.’’

‘‘If they brought that up to my uncle’s bass club [in the old days], they would have shot you,’’ McNett said.

The world changes.

Each USA Ice Team angler is expected to fund $3,000 of their trip, though McNett expects that to drop. There has been some corporate help from companies as varied as Cabela’s, St. Croix, Kahtoola and AmericanFishing
Contests.com, among others. To pitch in, go to www.usaiceteam.com/sponsors.

I wondered why the bulk of the team comes from moderate ice areas: northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin and southern Michigan. Beside McNett, three others are from the Chicago area: Bob Esbensen, Palatine; Bob Horn, Montgomery; and Tony Boshold, Chicago.

McNett said he thinks the variable nature of ice in those areas forces fishermen to be more versatile by learning to fish on whatever ice is available.

Perfect for everybody’s first trip to Kazakhstan.

Stray cast

Though Johnny B was lured back to Chicago radio by the Evil Empire, at least he knows Sun-Times stories are what people actually consume. Sort of like finding a muskie guy perch-fishing at Navy Pier.