Valladolid (Spain). October 2007
The United States has shown once again its skill in bass fishing with its overwhelming defeat to the European selection team in the fourth championship of the Eurobass Cup. The final result was 22 points for the American professionals and two points for the European team. The second round duplicated the score of the first round: eleven points to one, achieved by the captain, David Espax.
The European team managed to catch more fish in the second round than in the first, but it wasn’t enough to beat the best anglers in the world. Pairings such as José Luis López and Ray Scheide came out with the United States on top, but only after a small margin of 165 grams, the point going to the only champion that the Eurobass knows.
The winner of the individual classification was Kevin Wirth, with 8,305 points, in second place Aaron Hastings, third place Charles Hammack and José Luis López fourth place with 7,020 points. The trophy for biggest fish went to Ray Scheide with a fish weighing in at 1,975 grams landed on the last day of competition.
Wirth has already participated in a previous Eurobass Cup, has participated in eight Bassmaster Classics and two FLW Championships, has competed in 166 tournaments and has obtained cash prizes on 92 occasions. His earnings in the B.A.S.S. circuit exceed 700,000 dollars and reach 180,000 in the FLW league. He currently holds 16th in the B.A.S.S. ranking and on 31 occasions has finished in the top ten.
The Director General of the Trade Fair Center of Valladolid, organizer of the Eurobass Cup, Javier Galiana, stated that the U.S. team that competed in this fourth championship is, without a doubt, the strongest of those who have ever competed, even though their names don’t have the media coverage of other professionals who have passed through the Eurobass Cup in previous years.
Six anglers caught the five fish limit in the second round weigh in: Americans Kevin Wirth, Ray Scheide, Charles Hammack and Keith Phillips and Europeans José Luis López and Javier Guillén.
The 24 anglers who participated in the Eurobass Cup will return to the Reservoir of Ricobayo next Saturday, this time as teammates, to participate in the Latin Bass Tournament, one of the competitions on the calendar of Iberian Week.
This year there will be 36 boats fighting for the trophy. The anglers participating come from Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia, Madrid, Portugal, Castile y Leon, Andalusia, to just name a few.
The Latin Bass Tournament will start at eight in the morning and will conclude at six in the afternoon. After the weigh in, boats will be escorted by the Civil Guard to the Trade Fair Center of Valladolid where the award ceremony will take place on Sunday for both competitions.
In addition, the American professionals who have repeated their title of the Eurobass Cup will give seminars on fishing techniques used, their favorite equipment, types of baits, etc. all in a large aquarium found in pavilion 2 on the trade fair grounds.
