With a total catch of 596.86 kg and an impressive 13.26 kg average, the team MIKBAITS & KRYSTON secured victory at IBCC 2025 from peg 59, in the MIKBAITS sector, fishing the challenging waters of Balatonederics – Rickenbach stég.
But behind the numbers lies a story of pressure, exhaustion and razor-thin margins — where every decision, every fish and every moment counted.
In this interview, the defending champions take us inside the final hours of the competition, sharing what it really takes to win on Lake Balaton, and how close they came to losing it all.
– That last night will be remembered for a long time. The exhaustion and tension must have put you in a very strange state of mind. Please tell us what happened in those last hours! Relive what you experienced during the most intense moments.
Although we were all physically completely exhausted, I would say that the last night was even more challenging from a psychological point of view, because they stopped taking fish from us and at night we saw how the surrounding teams were still going to the water, and what was even more challenging was that somewhere among those teams there was a team that ended up in second place. During the night we kept meeting and we were already coming to terms with the fact that unfortunately it wouldn’t be enough for the first place, the biggest shock came in the morning when the Media team started coming to us and finally Tomas himself.
– How did you manage to stay calm?
Certainly none of us were calm, but we thought that even if we didn’t keep the first place until the end, it would still be an incredible success for us. In 2024, we held the first place in the sector for the entire race, and on the last night, the second team overtook us by about 3 kg, so last year luck turned a little on our side.
– The average catch in the 2025 competition was 13kg and you caught just over 11kg more than the second place team. From a professional point of view, this is almost a negligible difference in such a long competition – but what do you think led to your success?
We will be going to the IBCC race for the seventh time this year and we know that every lost fish can cost you a place in this race. On the last morning, about an hour before the end of the race, we managed to catch a little over 10 kg carp, if we hadn’t caught this carp the difference between first and second place would have been only a few grams.
– In 2025, all three places on the podium were occupied by Czech teams, and Czech teams also won in 2023 and 2024. What makes Czech fishermen at Balaton so effective?
Czechs are generally good at everything they do, but I have no idea why we are doing so well at Lake Balaton.
– In a country like the Czech Republic, your success must have been perceived as a great success. How did you experience the past year as IBCC champion?
In our immediate surroundings, this success was perceived fantastically, I wouldn’t even believe how many people watched and cheered us, often these were people who are not even fishermen… Since none of Us is the type of angler who would have to publish and be visible based on some success, I would say that this success died down quickly. There are certainly far more people here who would inflate this success and brag about it anywhere else at any moment…
– In the history of the IBCC, no team has managed to defend the title. However, you have proven that you know what qualities a team needs to become a champion. What do you think are the three essential qualities that are absolutely essential?
I have been watching the IBCC fishing competition since its inception and even then I dreamed of participating in this race and never thought that one day we would be defending…
Fishing competition is not about individuals, it’s about teamwork, so the first and most important point is to have a team where you can rely on each other 100%.
This race is extremely demanding on equipment, so the next most important point is to be prepared for all situations.
The third point is about the drawn place, there it will be shown how the previous two points can work together.