KERRI BURRUS - The TOP PROFESSIONAL FEMALE ANGLER in the World BillFish Series 1999, 2000, 2001.

Kerri Burrus of New Orleans, Louisiana, is a woman in her 40's participating in the predominantly male sport of Big Game Fishing. She is fishing a worldwide circuit called The World Billfish Series. This SERIES is to fishing what the PGA Tour is to golf. This is her 2nd year fishing this series. Kerri is a member of the New Orleans Big Game Fishing Club, The Billfish Foundation, and The IGFA (international game fish association).

In this particular series, the TOP TEN FROM THE INTERNATIONAL OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP CIRCUIT GO UP AGAINST THE TOP 3 FROM EACH U.S. DIVISIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP CIRCUIT IN SPORTFISHING'S CROWN JEWEL - THE WBS GRAND CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT TO CROWN THE WORLD CHAMPION OF BILLFISHING.

Kerri came in 10th in the INTERNATIONAL OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP (IOC) CIRCUIT in 1999. For the year 2000, except for Tahiti, Kerri completed in all of the IOC tournaments and finished 5th. Overall, men and women COMBINED, KERRI IS the CURRENT TOP LADY ANGLER ON THE 2001 WBS WORLD TOUR and was the TOP LADY ANGLER FOR 2000. The IOC tournaments take place in Tahiti, Hawaii, St. Thomas, Venezuela and Mexico. Kerri competes for points. For every Blue Marlin she catches, she gets 400 points. The anglers on this circuit usually seek out Blue Marlin only, but there are times when Sailfish, White, Striped and Black Marlin are also caught for points.

There are very few women who compete in this sport on this level. To make this even more exciting, Kerri takes her son, David, to some of the tournaments and that makes them the only Mother/Son team on the circuit. Kerri's son is THE TOP JUNIOR ANGLER in the world and 10th OVERALL IN THE IOC with the ADULT men and women. Both Kerri and her son have been on ESPN's Big Game Fishing the World several times in the last year and there are pictures of them both on line, fishing these tournaments all over the world. These can be found on the World Billfish Series website.

The appeal about this is that you have a woman catching these massive fish - she is the only woman on the top 10 list of anglers. Kerri is also a mother of 2, and though is making this a great mother and son experience, is always a Mom first, and a fisherman second. While watching Kerri on ESPN, you see her catch these beautiful fish and also see a mother and son bonding through their love for this exciting sport. Kerri started big game fishing at age 7. She fished out of the New Orleans Big Game Fishing Club until 3 years ago when she decided to expand on her passion through the WBS. Kerri was the first female member ever accepted into the New Orleans Big Game Fishing club.