Pro Staff Profile: Sherri Beswick, Competitive Offshore Angler
An educator in the Palm Beach school system, Johnson Outdoors pro staffer Sherri Beswick spends most of her weekends fishing offshore fishing tournaments with partner Bill Wummer. Based out of West Palm Beach, Bill is a top captain in the kingfish world and a skilled captain for all sorts of species including dolphin and wahoo.
Bill organizes a large number of tournaments in his area and is well-known in the South Florida region. As his veteran partner, Sherri has also found and earned the respect of other competitive anglers—mostly men—in this highly skilled and extremely competitive environment.
“I started fishing competitively a little over ten years ago when I met Bill,” notes Beswick. “He and I have fished countless tournaments together in Florida, Mississippi, and the Carolinas since. We do the Southern Kingfish Association Series along with a lot of other local tournaments, too. We’ve fished the Pros for a couple of years. In total, we fish about 15 tournaments a year,” notes Beswick.
Beswick says she enjoys the competitive aspect of the tournaments and “friendly rivalry” they have with other teams. “We’re a pretty close-knit community of anglers. I go out with zero expectations to truly enjoy the sport. If we win, that’s great, but I still want to have fun doing it.”
Over the years, though, Sherri and Bill have consistently placed high in tournament rankings. “My house is full of awards and trophies for first place. I don’t know how many years I’ve taken first place in my division for Florida—at least nine of the past ten years,” notes Beswick.
She says it’s been a challenge at times “being on a boat with a bunch of guys”, but she quickly earned the respect of the other anglers on the team with her skills and knowledge of the sport. “How do I put this nicely? I feel like I really had to prove myself in the beginning—that I could handle steering the boat when another angler was reeling in a fish or Bill was on the gaff. Now the only issues are that I consistently catch more fish and bigger fish. That’s just the way I fish—I’m good at what I do,” remarks Beswick.
When not pulling Cannon downriggers in kingfish tournaments or teaching in the school system, Beswick concludes that she and Bill are out “fun fishing” and enjoy lots of different species, including pompano, wahoo and dolphin. “Despite often high seas and crazy conditions, chasing fish offshore is definitely a passion of mine and something I love to do. I urge other women to experience offshore fishing if they get the chance—it’s definitely a lot of fun and challenging at times.”
Johnson Outdoors and our fishing brands (Minn Kota, Humminbird, and Cannon) are proud to have Sherri Beswick on our team and competing in the ultra-competitive world of professional kingfish tournaments. To read more about the many competitive outdoors men and women that interact with our entire family of brands, click the link to be directed to the Johnson Outdoors Outdoor Adventure Blog.