Greetings from IGFA!

    As of this writing we’ve completed 100% of our qualifying events and have many of the winning anglers signed up for the July 9 - 12, 2006 Championship Tournament. Our last qualifying event of the year was the Ocean Reef Bonefish Tarpon Unlimited Backbone Classic, which was held December 5-7 in Key Largo, Florida and now we're counting down the days until the championship!

    So far this year, we are happy to welcome tournaments being held in Australia and Costa Rica. We are also proud to have our qualifying events back this year from Uganda, British Columbia, Mexico, the Bahamas, and 14 states from across the country. We are very excited to report that Tony Cockayne, winner of the Murchison Falls, Uganda tournament, will be making that very long trip with his wife, Brigitte to fish in the championship, and Tino Kussmann, winner of the Haida Gwai Fishing Tournament held in British Columbia, Canada last May will also be competing.

    Several qualifying tournament winners have inquired about “practice days”. We have a pool of talented tournament guides to accommodate those anglers wanting to come in a day or two early to practice. To arrange for a guide, please contact us directly at IGFA for a list of guides who will be available for practice days.

    There are still rooms available at our host hotel, TheIslander Resort and they have extended their ROLEX/IGFA "special" tournament rates for 7 days before and 7 days after the championship. Please arrange to make your reservations early for best room selections. Call the Islander reservations directly at (1-800-753-6002), identify yourself as a ROLEX/IGFA Tournament participant and ask for Shannon O'Berry.

    We are very pleased to announce that ROLEX, respected worldwide for producing possibly the finest watches and other timepieces, is once again our title sponsor. Platinum partner Mercury Marine is back once again as the "Official Outboard Motor” of the ROLEX/IGFA Championship Tournament. Pasta Pantaleo, Reel Life Art, has been named as the “Official Artist” of this year’s championship.

    We look forward to another exciting and memorable championship thanks to our host marina, WorldWide Sportsman and Bayside Marina. Also, we'd like to thank our tournament partners; Shimano, G ▪ Loomis, 3M Scientific Angler, Hook & Tackle, and Stiffy Push Poles for their support.

    Prizes will include fabulous ROLEX watches, dynamite Costa Del Mar sunglasses and beautiful release mount trophies created by King Sailfish Mounts. In your angler bags will be a great tournament shirt provided by Hook & Tackle. We look forward to refreshments served by Bacardi after fishing each day by the scoreboard at WorldWide Sportsman.

    Lunches are included in the championship registration fee and will be available for pick-up each morning dockside before fishing.

    We are finalizing the tournament schedule and details on species, line classes, fly division, scoring and general rules. We will be updating you soon with this information.

    For more information or if you have any questions, please contact me at IGFA headquarters (954) 927-2628 or dhartman@igfa.org. Also, check out our website http://www.igfa.org/tour.asp for a list of anglers signed up so far competing in this year’s championship, updates, etc.

See you in THE KEYS and GOOD FISHING

2006 Rolex/IGFA Inshore Championship Tournament Update #1