Chasing the coveted WWC belts
The World Championship of Catfishing (WCC) took place on the Tennessee River at Savannah, TN on July 8, 2017. The long running tournament has been held on Pickwick Lake for many years and has been fished, and won, by many legends in the catfish world. The area is known by the moniker, Catfish Capital of the World.
The winners receive the much coveted WCC Championship Belts giving the event the real feel of a World Championship and giving the anglers something besides a trophy to hang on the wall.
The weather was fairly nice for July and a mid-morning rain provided a refreshing cool down. The three-mph current was a little stronger than normal since there were six flood gates open.
This year’s weigh-in was held at Wayne Jerrolds Park in Savannah. When all the weights were tallied it was Jeff “Big Daddy” Dodd and Roy Harkness at the top of the leader board.
Team Dodd/Harkness brought 87.85 pounds to the scales to claim the victory. Their bag included big fish of the tournament at 55.60 pounds. It was a tough bite according to Dodd. The fish were still in spawn to post spawn and not very active.
“We had located our big fish the day before,” reported Harkness. “We marked them on our sonar and returned on tournament day. We went there first and struck early with several big bites using skipjack for bait.”
The team struggled after that as they fished for their unders. “We really struggled getting our under 34-inch fish,” said Dodd. “The big fish definitely did it for us. It is a really good feeling being World Champions.”
“Towards the end of day we actually down sized to little baits to finish out our five fish,” explained Harkness. “We were working hard to catch our short fish, but we always have a great time and lots of laughs. Nothing unusual happened, except that we blew out a dipnet. Thank goodness it floated.”
“We were fishing in 20- to 30-foot water early for the big fish, but fished anywhere from 15 to 70 to finish out the day.”
“It feels awesome to win the WCC,” said Harkness. “It’s not about the money or anything else. I ve always wanted to win those belts and I couldn’t of wished to do it with anyone else than my buddy Jeff Dodd.”
Second place went to Larry Muse, Frank Meador and John Stevens with 63.35 pounds. Muse indicated that the fish were in full spawn.
“The bite was tough,” offered Muse. “And, Pickwick was running the flood gates. It was like bumping the Mississippi River. The sensitivity of the Warrior Cat Bumping Rod made the difference!”
“The fish would stop it and if you moved it before they turned, they would drop it,” continued Muse. “You had be able to feel um’ and know what to do. Congrats to my buddy Jeff Dodd and Roy Harkness on the win.”
“The WCC was a star studied event,” said Muse. “Everybody there can beat you any given day. That’s my fifth time to finish second in the WCC and it’s been to a different winner every time. Looking forward to next year.”
Third place went to the Mississippi team of Nick Dimino and Adam Long with 53.10 pounds. Long had a tough day overall, being stung by a yellow jacket and had a catfish fin him in the thumb all the way to the bone. Nevertheless, the team fished on.
“Pickwick had been spilling around 100,000 all week,” reported Dimino. “I had a feeling it might setup pretty nice for Adam and I since we prefer bumping over any other method of fishing. The day started off misting and gloomy, which we didn’t mind because it sure beat sunny and 95.”
“Tournament hours were between 6 and 3 and on our first drift, at 6:15, we caught a 30 pounder,” continued Dimino. “I thought, finally the fishing gods are looking after us for a change. Well, we ended up catching about 20 fish but nothing else over 10 pounds.”
“This tournament is notoriously a low weight tournament because the fish are ending up their spawn and just not real active. We needed one good bite and could have made a run for first place and those belts. If there is one tournament I want to win it’s the WCC. It has a prestigious history behind it!”
The rest of the top ten:
Fourth – Shipman/Nash/Nash/Nash – 27.15
Fifth – Barnett/Kitchens – 18.31
Sixth – Shepard/Moyine – 14.19
Seventh – Parmely/Parmely – 13.60
Eight – Matlock/Barnett – 11.30
Ninth – Garison/Garison – 7.15
Tenth – Caleb Stanford – 7.05
