The exhilaration heats up as the 2006 World Championship Surf & Shore Angler Tournament enters its final fall run for the quest of the silver cup. Several key Top Contenders have begun to emerge and global warming may handicap some anglers in the tournament.
Top Contender Dana Wilburn from Los Angeles, California – a member of SC Surf fishing.com stable – continues his domination on the Pacific Rim with a strong summer tournament season. Using his consistent volume catches of Bared Surf Perch and a tight line and singing reel report in June with 10 halibut landed in one outing, Dana held the top position 11 out of 14 weeks during the summer session and is the current board leader.
Dana’s lead is threatened, however, by top Ocean City Contender, Donna Gutridge, who followed up a stagnant summer session with catches of stingrays, blues, and an incredible catch report of croakers in a two day period. And not too far behind are Ocean City Contenders Paul Fisher and Ken Nichols, both picking up in their catch reports with late summer season rallies.
Increasing the drama 2006 tournament, remains anomalous fishing reports throughout the tournament summer season which have left the committee members wondering if the effect of global warming has hit the fishing shores throughout the world. Tournament Vice-Chair Smith said “We’ve seen contenders drop out in New York, Delaware, New Zealand and Australia which are prime Surfcasting grounds. Plus we have read reports of Manatees in Northeast American waters, Billfish being caught off the English coastline, squid infesting parts of the Australian coastline and the list go on.If global warming is affecting us (Surf & Shore casters) throughout the world, than let us be smarter than the Canary in coal mine and start sharing information.â€
Tournament scoring judge David Bellamy added, “We think there is a possible correlation with global warming this past summer season, with irregular migration of predictable fish species, sub tropical fish species in the Northeastern Atlantic Ocean and stagnant tournament contender reports.”
Yet contenders and top contenders on the eastern coast will be converging in October on the Delaware and Maryland shores at the 27th annual Bethany-Fenwick Surf fishing tournament to earn bonus points which could accelerate them into the top seat. The World Championship Tournament Committee plans to closely watch the catch reports from the 800 entries to include the World Championship Anglers who will participate in the 27 year old regional tournament. Tournament committee member Jason Douglas added, “The preliminary fishing reports on the Northeastern seaboard of United States have been very good and abundant. Plus one of the top contenders is a season tournament angler Donna Gutridge, and you still have Phillip Edmond and Edwin McKee of Perth, Australia who have been keeping up the pace reporting bi-weekly.â€
The next few weeks in the final leg of this year 2006 World Championship Surf & Shore Anglers Tournament will be exciting weekly “nail bittersâ€, in the ultimate Surf & Shore fishing challenge to find the best Surf Fishing angler in the world.
