One hundred eighty fishermen from Spain, France, Portugal and the U.S. participated in this competition. The participants are members of Europe's bass fishing elite.
Iaconelli was accompanied by Byron Velvick, John Murray and Brett Hite. In the individuals, John Murray and Rich Swettenam won sixth place, Iaconelli and Velvick took eighth place, and Brett Hite came in eleventh.
While at the event, Iaconelli and the U.S. pros gave a few seminars, where they shared their bass fishing techniques with European sportsmen.
Also among the leading participants in the Semana Ibérica was Mann's European Dealer, Germany's Dietmar Isaiasch, the world champion in predator fishing, a widespread sport in Europe.
When asked how bass fishing is going in Europe, the American pros agreed that Europe is definitely the world's new emerging market and said it would have to take up the slack produced by Japan's recession. In Iaconelli's opinion, "Championships like this help raise the sport to the international sphere, and inviting American pros like us is certainly a good way to promote this sport and what its industry represents now and in the future, not only in the USA, but all over the world."
Brett Hite also emphasized this point. "We've learned a lot from each other," he said. "Each of us works with the techniques that give him the best results, but each bass is different, and each place has got its own unique features."
"None of us," he added, "could have imagined a few years ago that we could ever be experiencing something like this."
