The Ultimate Fishing Town Contest, put on by the World Fishing Network, is past the nominating stage and well into the voting portion of the contest. The nominating period ended at the end of last month. Voting began on May first and extends to the end of the month.

With more than bragging rights at stake, the Grand Prize in this contest is a $25,000 community donation to be used for fishing related causes in the community, the official check presentation and media event by WFN will take place in the winning fishing town. A feature will also be produced on the winning community on WFN and WFN HD.

For second place, that community will receive a check for $5,000 to be used for fishing related causes in the community.

For third place, a check for $2,500 will be donated to the community to be used for fishing related causes there.

Alaska has contestants in the competition. But, so far they are not faring very well in the race. Currently, only two Alaska communities are even in the top 10. Dillingham, “America’s Fish Basket,” is a distant sixth place holder in the top ten, with only 2,944 votes. Petersburg is holding on to eighth place with 1,478. The current leader in the competition is Waddington, New York. That community is sporting a current total of 23,203 votes.

There are 13 Alaskan communities in the contest.

The Rest of the Alaskan communities, that in real life, haul in tens of thousands of fisherman and more during the summer season, are doing dismally and are way in the back of the pack.

Below is a full list of the Alaskan contenders in this year’s contest. Each Alaskan community in the list has a link to their town page in the contest, where your vote or votes can be cast.

Dillingham-2,944

Petersburg-1,478

Seward-330

Igiugig-43

Cordova-29

Kodiak-23

Soldotna-13

Ketchikan-24

Sitka-18

Valdez-4

Anchor Point-3

Kasilof-2

Homer-2

According to the rules of the game, Each individual can vote once every six hours per town during pre-determined time blocks per email address (the email address must belong to the person voting). In one day, 24-hour period, each person has the ability to vote 4-times per email address. The following are the six hour time blocks in which you can be eligible to vote for your chosen town:

Time Block One 12:01am ET/9:01pm PT to 6:00am ET/3:00am PT

Time Block Two 6:01am ET/3:01am PT to12:00pm ET/9:00am PT

Time Block Three 12:01pm ET/9:01am PT to 6:00pm ET/3:00pm PT

Time Block Four 6:01pm ET/3:01pm PT to 12:00am ET/9:00pm PT

Also, according to the rules at World Fishing Network, voters have options to increase your vote during the public voting period.

Facebook: One (1) bonus vote is available for a Facebook post. To receive a bonus vote you must click on the Facebook button located on the thank you page and post the pre-written message to your Facebook account. There is a limit of one (1) share opportunity per Facebook account, per town, per voting period for the Facebook bonus vote.

Twitter: One (1) bonus vote is available for a Twitter post. To receive a bonus vote you must click on the “Twitter” button located on the thank you page and post the pre-written message to your Twitter account. There is a limit of one (1) share opportunity per Twitter account, per town, per voting period for Twitter.

Business Listings: When voting, you can add up to one (1) legitimate town business listing to your town and receive a bonus vote for that listing added. All business listings require an email address that is the contact email for the business. All business listings will be reviewed and could be unapproved if deemed inappropriate. If any town business listing is deemed inappropriate a bonus vote will not be awarded.

Refer a Friend via email: When voting, you can refer up to six (6) contacts to vote for your town via email. Submit their email addresses on the thank you page section “Refer a Friend.” If they click to vote through the email they receive, then you will get that bonus vote in support of your town.

It is not too late to get out the support for your community in this contest. The voting goes on until May 31st.