With less than one week to go before the 23rd Annual World Cup Blue Marlin Championship, (www.bluemarlinworldcup.com) close to 100 boats are entered from around the world. They will fish on July 4th from 8:30 AM till 4:30 PM in their time zone.

Entry fee is $3000 with one winner for the heaviest blue marlin over 500 lb. Smaller fish need to be released.

Areas represented so far in the tournament include Bermuda, Bahamas, Hawaii, Cape Verde Islands, Portugal, Canary Islands, Angola, Madeira, Azores, Principe Island, British Virgin Islands, Mexico, North Carolina and Alabama. Many more big marlin hot spots remain unrepresented, so far.

Anglers can register for the tournament online with a credit card for the first time this year by going to the tournament web site. Also starting this year, the World Cup is offering an optional "Big Blue Challenge". It cost $5000 to enter this additional jack pot and 10 days prior to the event there was $100,000 in the Big Blue Challenge purse. It is not too late to enter this part of the competition if the angler's confidence is high. Go to www.bluemarlinworldcup.net/bigblue.cfm to register.

In the past 22 years winners have come from 10 different areas of the world. It seems big marlin hot spots shift over time. Winners came from Madeira three years in a row, but their last winner was in 1997. Will Kona, Hawaii produce a winner for the 6th time? Will Bermuda come up with a 5th winning marlin? Last year the winning blue marlin came from the Cape Verde Islands. It weighted 850 lb and won a purse of $375,000. It was the 2nd time a World Cup winner had been landed in the Cape Verde Islands. North Carolina, San Salvador, St Thomas, Texas, Costa Rica and the Azores are all good possibilities to produce a winner as they have in the past. Can they repeat? We will find out on July 4th.

Complete rules, application form, current news and a list of past winners all appear on the World Cup web site. During the tournament the leading fish will also be posted on the web site as soon as the World Cup headquarters in Ft Lauderdale, Florida gets the report. For further information visit www.bluemarlinworldcup.com.