NAIFC Names New Champions Submitted: 12/18/2011 
RHINELANDER - As the North American Ice Fishing Circuit Championship wraps up today, one lucky team reels in the grand prize.Day two of the NAIFC Championship saw more arctic wind, and even more fish. But teams weren't taking any chances and kept their focus on strategy.
"Today was a little rougher. Because we knew so many people were heading over here, we started off somewhere else and kind of waited till it thinned out over here," says Mandolyn Machaffie, from Appleton, WI.
This will be the final time Rhinelander sees the NAIFC series for a while.
"We had a four year contract for Rhinelander, and this is the final year for a lot of different reasons," says Mike Michalak, who does media relations for the NAIFC.
One reason, Michalak says, is the economy. The investment it would take to bring the championship back here was voted down by the Tourism and Marketing Committee.
"Rhinelander has certainly put itself on the map. We were able to brand Rhinelander as the ice fishing capitol of the world, and we're not going to lose that. I mean, where we're standing are 210 named bodies of water," says Michalak.
This field of finalists has some world-class fisherman in their midst. Some of them are even going to the world championships in Kazakhstan in February. The USA Ice Team has won gold before, but they'll need to train for this one because things are going to be done the old fashioned way.
"They use a different technique than we do. We use power augers and technology here, and they don't. They look for schools of fish this big, and when they find them they stay; when we find them we leave. So there's a little change of mentality for the guys," says Mike McNett, Captain of the USA Ice Team.
They're also campaigning to bring fishing to the Olympics, but the next stop on the way is the Pan Am games.
When the final teams crossed the line and all the fish were weighed, no matter the place, all the teams spirits were high.
"The kicker kicked our butts today. We lost two big fish, and if we'd landed just one, we'd be right there. But, you know, you can be in first place all the time. We were yesterday, but not today," say Jacek Gawlinski and Zbigniew Wojcik of Chicago, who took 6th Place.
"Considering how we felt before and during, we're happy," says Joe Jaworski of Chicago, who took 2nd Place.
"Yeah, we didn't think we had anything coming into this tournament," says Bart Zitarz, Jaworski's partner.
A new team took the top spot, though they're definitely not new to the ice fishing world. Myron Gilbert and Dave Ellis share their fishing wisdom on the reality show 'Ice Men'. They say their trolling method is one of the things that gave them an edge.
"Absolutely, I believe that 100%," says Gilbert.
"That, and hard pre-fishing," says Ellis.
"We searched the lake a lot and did our time pre-fishing also, but on game day is when you gotta pull out all the stops and fish real fast. You gotta fish with an edge. You gotta fish quick," says Gilbert.
Something to remember for next year. We should know where that will be sometime after Christmas.
Next season for the NAIFC starts already in early January.
≈~≈The Daily Catch Team≈~≈
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