Resort angler reels in world title

[Sam]

OCEAN CITY -- What do you get when a mechanic starts to think like a fish? It's not a riddle. You get Paul Fischer, Ocean City mechanic and expert fisherman who recently took home second place in the World Championship Surf & Shore Anglers Tournament.


Fischer, bested only by a California angler, outfished the rest of the worldwide field that included fishermen from North America, Australia, Africa and everywhere in between."It took me a while to think like a fish," Fischer said.

In essence, the tournament is a way for competitors all over the world to see who can catch the most fish over the course of an entire year from beaches, piers and bridges using only one rod per outing. A point system is also in place to reward large and exotic catches. Last year's tournament lasted from Jan. 1 through Dec. 18. This year's tournament season started Feb. 13 and will end Dec. 17.


The tournament is played mostly by the honor system. Fishermen take a picture, weigh and have a witness sign for each fish they catch. But with Fischer, for instance, catching an estimated 30 to 40 fish in a sitting, verification of each fish for the governing body is virtually impossible.But the angler community, as Fischer describes it, is a largely trustworthy one. The contestants are spurred on by a love of casting and competition.As with anyone who has fished practically every day for the past year, Fischer has his fair share of stories to tell. His record catch last year was 128 fish in a week.



"I fished so hard that week that the tip of my rod broke," Fischer said. "Then my reel broke. By the end I was pulling them in by hand." Fischer caught fish all over the region -- Indian River, Fenwick Island, Assateague and even Nagshead, N.C. As a traveling mechanic, he drove around with one extra piece of equipment.
"I carry a rod around in my van," he said. "That's standard equipment."
But although he was known to fish anywhere he saw clues, such as a bird diving into the water, he caught a majority of his fish on the Route 50 bridge in Ocean City. He would often become quite the spectacle fishing there, hauling in so many fish he would need a break.


"I would let kids pull some in, which I wouldn't count," Fischer said. "My arms would get tired." Knowing exactly when to fish, he would often have such a steady stream of fish biting his line that he would not measure his catch. Measuring could have earned him more points, but the process would often slow him down to the point that he would do better just moving on and catching more fish, Fischer said.
Over the course of a year, Fischer mostly caught rockfish and shad, though he occasionally snagged a flounder, drum, bluefish, croaker and even once snagged a stargazer.


"(The stargazer) was the most exotic fish I caught," Fischer said. "It's an ugly fish. Looks like a round, 5 1/2-pound football." The largest fish he caught was a 42-pound rockfish, which was the only one he did not throw back. Since December, Fischer has taken a hiatus from fishing. However, he expects that if he starts up again in a week or two, he will be in the top five of the competition by the end of the year. After all, Fischer showed in 2006 that he knows how to think like a fish. "The fish have a schedule too," he said. "They know what time they'll be at the bridge."

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