Women’s Bassmaster Tour Pros Head For Alabama
Famed Lake Guntersville Hosts Pivotal Third Stop on Mercury/Triton Circuit
CELEBRATION, Fla. — The Mercury Marine Women’s Bassmaster Tour presented by Triton Boats comes to famed Lake Guntersville May 3-5 for a pivotal tournament in the 2007 season.
The third of five tournaments on the nation’s premier women’s circuit, this Alabama contest is pivotal in two lucrative races — the Toyota Tundra WBT Angler of the Year and qualification for the 2008 WBT Championship. Also at stake in this tournament for the winner is a fully rigged Triton/Mercury rig valued at $50,000.
At 69,100 acres, Guntersville is the largest lake in the state and the biggest of the four Tennessee River impoundments in Alabama. And if past BASS history is any indication, it could lay out a giant welcome mat for the pros and their co-angler partners.
Alabama WBT pro Kimberlee Striker believes Lake Guntersville will be kind to the female competitors.
“The fishing should be good,” said Striker, a veteran angler from Cullman, Ala. “You can’t predict Mother Nature, but the bass should be on a good bite when we get there.
“I think they will be at the end of the spawning season and they’ll be backing out in a little deeper water.”
Striker predicts that the winner will have a three-day, 15-bass total between 50 and 60 pounds.
With spawning over or almost concluded, Striker expects most of the bass to be caught five to 10-feet deep on Texas- and Carolina-rigged soft-plastics, as well as spinnerbaits.
In the Toyota WBT Angler of the Year race, which will reward the top female angler with a Toyota Tundra Double Cab Pickup Truck, early tournament winners Sheri Glasgow of Oklahoma and Texan Juanita Robinson hold the top two spots. Reigning WBT Championship winner Pam Martin-Wells of Georgia is third, followed by Missouri’s Lynda Gessner and Secret York of Kentucky. The remainder of the top-12 includes: Penny Berryman, Ark., two-time WBT winner Dianna Clark, Tenn., Christie Thomas, Ala., Patti Campbell, Texas, Christiana Bradley, Va., Debra Hengst, Texas , and Tammy Richardson, Ark.
The daily weigh-ins take place at Lake Guntersville State Park at.3 p.m. Anglers launch beginning at 7 a.m.
The remainder of the WBT schedule: Kentucky Lake, June 14-16; and Red River, Sept. 20-22.
BASS is the worldwide authority on bass fishing, sanctioning more than 20,000 events through the BASS Federation Nation annually. Guided by its mission to serve all fishing fans, BASS sets the standard for credibility, professionalism, sportsmanship and conservation, as it has for nearly 40 years.
BASS sanctions and stages bass fishing tournaments for every skill level and culminates with the Bassmaster Classic. Through its clubs, youth programs, aquatic resource advocacy, magazine
publishing and multimedia platforms, BASS offers the industry's widest array of services and support to its nearly 530,000 members. The organization is headquartered in Celebration, Fla.
Sponsors of the Women’s Bassmaster Tour include Mercury Marine, Triton Boats, Toyota, Lowrance Electronics, MotorGuide, Advance Auto Parts and Plano.
For more information, contact BASS Communications at (407) 566-2208 or visit www.bassmaster.com.
April 23, 2007
CELEBRATION, Fla. — The Bassmaster Southern Open circuit heads for South Carolina’s bass-rich Santee-Cooper Reservoir May 3-5 with the competitors wondering the same question that is always asked this time of year in the South.
Will the bass be spawning?
Spawning bass mean shallow, accessible bass that can often be seen by fishermen before they cast to them. That, along with the heaviest bass of the year, is the recipe for big catches — and lots of them.
If BASS history is any indication, there will be enough quality bass to make the competitors happy. Lakes Marion (100,500 acres) and Moultrie (60,000 acres) have been making fishermen's dreams come true for years and have long ranked among the pros’ favorite fisheries.
In tournament held recently on Santee-Cooper, local guide and Southern Open pro Ken Ellis exploited bedding bass to the tune of 86 pounds, 7 ounces over four days.
“I think the fish are still going to be doing what they were doing this past week,” said Brent Riley, a former Bassmaster Classic qualifier from Ridgeville, S.C. “This week they were bedding again. We keep having these cold fronts that keep pushing the fish back. I would suggest bedding and cypress trees — a combination of that — will be the deal during the tournament.”
That was exactly the combination that provided Ellis with his recent win. The Bowman, S.C., pro fished the Bonneau area of Lake Moultrie where he targeted bass relating to shallow stumps and brush. Ellis scored on Senkos and Zoom Trick Worms.
Ellis expects spawning bass to be a major factor as well since there is a full moon the week of the tournament, but believes sight-fishing will be limited.
“The next wave are going to bed out (from shore),” he said. “They’re not going to bed in those real clear ponds where they’ve been bedding. It’s going to be warm enough out in the stump fields in 4 or 5 feet of water on the main lake. So it’s not going to be such a big sight-fishing thing.
“It will be real good fishing. There will be a lot of weight because we’ve had a cold front here, so I expect it to be as good or better than this past week. I don’t think there will be any 30-pound sacks because it’s getting a little late in the year for that. But there will be a lot of 20-pound sacks and some 25s.”
Riley predicted that the winner will have a three-day total of about 70 pounds.
“Typically, by this time most of the bedding is over,” Riley added. “We had a big wave of fish move in last week. It surprised the heck out of everybody that they were that many still going on the beds. It’s pretty chilly down here again and I’m thinking that’s probably going to set them back again.”
This will be the second of three Southern Open events, which serves as a feeder system into the big leagues of bass fishing — the Bassmaster Elite Series — while providing a quality payout. At stake is a top prize of $56,000, which includes a Triton/Mercury rig. Also at stake are valuable points toward qualifying for the 2008 Bassmaster Classic and coveted Elite Series.
Daily weigh-ins will begin at 2:45 p.m. at John C. Land, III, Boating & Sportfishing Facility on State Route 260 in Summerton, S.C., and are free to the public
BASS anglers who want to participate in the most Elite-level of tournament fishing have two avenues to reach that goal in 2007. The new, revamped Bassmaster Opens feature two divisions, the Southern and Central, which serve as feeder systems into the Bassmaster Elite Series and bass fishing’s world championship, the Bassmaster Classic.
In all, each division will host three events with the top three points finishers from each of the Open Series qualifying for the 2008 Bassmaster Classic and the top five points finishers from each division qualifying for the 2008 Bassmaster Elite Series. The final Southern Open will be Oct. 18-20 on Lake Wheeler in Alabama.
Sponsors of the event include Toyota Tundra, Triton Boats, Mercury Marine, Purolator, Berkley, Advance Auto Parts, Lowrance Electronics and MotorGuide.
BASS is the worldwide authority on bass fishing, sanctioning more than 20,000 events through the BASS Federation Nation annually. Guided by its mission to serve all fishing fans, BASS sets the standard for credibility, professionalism, sportsmanship and conservation, as it has for nearly 40 years.
BASS stages bass fishing tournaments for every skill level and culminates with the Bassmaster Classic. Through its clubs, youth programs, aquatic resource advocacy, magazine publishing and multimedia platforms, BASS offers the industry’s widest array of services and support to its nearly 530,000 members. The organization is headquartered in Celebration, Fla.
For more information, contact BASS Communications at (407) 566-2208 or visit www.bassmaster.com.
For Immediate Release
April 23, 2007
Inside BASS: Elite Rookie Enjoying The Traveling Life
CELEBRATION, Fla. -- If he hadn’t qualified for the Bassmaster Elite Series, chances are Bryan Hudgins would never have visited the West Coast during his lifetime. Or experienced the mind-blowing big-bass action that resides in California waters.
Knowing what he now knows, Hudgins would be kicking himself if he had not been able to join the nation’s finest bass pros on the western swing.
Before finishing third in the Bassmaster Wild Card tournament last fall, Hudgins wasn’t a very well-traveled angler. The Orange Park, Fla., resident had established himself as a force on his hometown St. Johns River and begun to spread his wings to other southern waters.
But it was earning his Elite Series tour card — and winning a Triton boat to help pay his 2007 entry fees — that sent Hudgins on his fantasy bass trip that started off with lakes Amistad and Clear, as well as the California Delta. And all produced the kind of giant bass that he never knew existed.
“California was awesome,” he said recently. “The fishing in California is just unbelievable. It’s way better than I ever dreamed. It completely different than I ever thought it was. Clear Lake is probably one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.”
Hudgins couldn’t get enough of California fishing. Between tournaments, he fished two other reservoirs that surrendered the biggest bass of his career.
“On one small reservoir near Stockton, I caught a 13-10 just messing around before the Delta tournament,” he said. “And I had caught a 10-pounder three hours before that. I caught those two off a bed, but we were catching like 100 a day on a drop-shot.
“And several of the Elite pros had a little tournament before practice started on the Delta on another lake, and we just caught the heck out of them.”
With absolutely no fishing experience in Texas or California, the 27-year-old pro is fairly satisfied with his start. Hudgins opened with a 49th-place showing at Amistad; finished 36th at the Delta; and followed up with 58th at Clear Lake before returning back East for the Elite Series stop on Clarks Hill last week, where he finished seventh. In the process, he earned $35,000.
“I’m pretty happy with things so far,” Hudgins said. “I’m learning a lot and having a lot of fun. And I’m getting to fish places I never would have gotten to fish.”
JOCKEYING FOR EXPOSURE. It’s been more than 25 years since he rode a horse in the Kentucky Derby, but Kevin Wirth’s former career is still getting him attention.
The latest bit of exposure was a feature story this week in the New York Times.
Titled “From Whip to Rod, Ex-Jockey Tries Taming a New Animal,” the story chronicled the Elite Series pro’s previous career as a jockey and later an equine dentist, as well as his successful transition to professional fishing.
It contained an interesting quote from Herson Sanchez, a jockey agent in Tampa and the best man at Wirth’s wedding. “I’ve gone out fishing with him, and he wears me out. I’ve known him 25 years, and when he first decided to go fishing, well, I wasn’t surprised that he got on the map.”
The story also mentioned Wirth’s athletic prowess, including his golf handicap of 2 and a recent bowling score of 196 against some other Elite Series pros.
TOYOTA TIME. Bassmaster Tournament Trail sponsor Toyota Trucks recently attracted the attention of the Hollywood Reporter for its “15-episode behind-the-scenes Web series about bass fishing's premier tournament and the lives of five top anglers that began airing this week on the new toyotafishing.com.”
The series titled “Hooked,” billed as a ground-breaking event in the bass industry, is produced by Brand Arc, Toyota's Los Angeles-based branded entertainment agency. Plans call for series to also appear on other sports and outdoors web sits via banner ad links. The episodes are three to six minutes in length.
“This is the first true behind-the-scenes footage you'll see with any of these professional anglers,” Toyota spokesman Chad Harp told the publication. “We want to give more to our fans and people who care about the sport.”
The series documents the activities of the five Toyota pros — Greg Hackney, Michael Iaconelli, Terry Scroggins, Dave Wolak and Kevin VanDam. It began with their preparation for the Bassmaster Classic in February.
CHAMP CHAT. Log on to Bassmaster.com Monday at 2 p.m. ET if you would like to post a question to the winner of the Elite Series stop at Clarks Hill Reservoir last weekend.
WRAP RAP. It’s that time of year again — the 2007 Hottest Rig Running contest where fishing fans select their favorite boat wraps among the Elite Series pros.
The creativity of the pros and their primary sponsors will be on display throughout the 11 Elite Series tournaments. And you can see them at www.espnoutdoors.com/hottestrig.
California’s Mike Reynolds and his “These Colors Don't Run” military wrap was the big winner last year — earning $10,000.
Here’s how the contest works:
Each week will feature a different group of anglers' boats for you to vote on. The winning boat from each week will advance to the final round July 6-13. Second place boats from weeks 1-10 will be placed into a Second Chance Qualifier, where these boats will have the chance in week 11 to win a spot in the final round.
Voting is limited to one vote per person each week.
WHAT I LEARNED FROM BASSMASTER MAGAZINE. Growing up on the cold plains of Minnesota, Elite Series rookie Derek Remitz needed all of the entertainment he could get. And much of it came from the pages of Bassmaster Magazine.
“I grew up reading Bassmaster,” he said. “As a kid growing up, I was pretty enthusiastic to try any new technique and that’s where I learned about them. With our weather, there were months where you couldn’t even go fishing.”
DID YOU KNOW? Elite Series pro Russ Lane was a minor-league baseball player before becoming a tournament pro.
IF I HADN’T BECOME A BASS PRO… Elite Series pro Randy Howell would likely still be a fishing guide on Lake Gaston on the North Carolina-Virginia border.
THEY SAID IT. “Back in the old days, there just wasn’t as much sponsorship opportunities. Now it is approaching something…really kind of like NASCAR. It’s really heading that way and I think ESPN is driving that. The TV coverage has really driven the growth in the last 10 years.” Elite Series pro Jason Quinn told The Gaston (N.C.) Gazette that fishing has become a surprising lucrative career.
News exclusives, audio and video clips of bass fishing's biggest stars, loads of discounts and more are all part of BASS Insider, an exclusive membership, now available at www.Bassmaster.com.
BASS is the worldwide authority on bass fishing, staging more than 20,000 events through the BASS Federation Nation annually. Guided by its mission to serve all fishing fans, BASS sets the standard for credibility, professionalism, sportsmanship and conservation, as it has for nearly 40 years.
BASS stages and sanctions bass fishing tournaments for every skill level culminating with the Bassmaster Classic. Through its clubs, youth programs, aquatic resource advocacy, magazine publishing and multimedia platforms, BASS offers the industry's widest array of services and support to its nearly 530,000 members. The organization is headquartered in Celebration, Fla.
For more information, contact BASS Communications at (407) 566-2208. To join BASS, call 1-877-BASS-USA or visit www.Bassmaster.com/.