The excitement among the nation’s top legion of women anglers is building on the eve of this week’s Women’s Bassmaster Tour preview event on Texas’ Lewisville Lake.
Two examples:
“I’m excited about it,” said Carol Martens, a California angler, CITGO Bassmaster Western Open competitor and mother of reigning CITGO Bassmaster Angler of the Year Aaron Martens. “I’m doing this because I want to be one of the first to get involved in the WBT.
“I have no idea what I am in for. But I’ve been spending a lot of time getting ready for it. I’m taking a whole tackle store with me because I’ve never been to Texas before to fish. I’ve been gathering as much information as I can. I figure I’ll just go there and do what I do best.”
Martens is leading a three-person West Coast flotilla to Texas with friends Glenda Jackson of Las Vegas, Nev., and Debby Blanchard of Lake Havasu City, Ariz.
“We’re all congregating at Glenda’s house and driving together with two boats and two trucks,” Martens said. “We’re going to spend the whole time together.”
Courtney Williams of Frisco, Texas, is one of few boaters familiar with Lewisville Lake. She lives just 20 minutes away and often fishes there with her husband Travis. The pair competes in about 20 team tournaments annually.
“I'll finish my master's degree in November,” Williams recently told the Dallas Morning News. “The timing of the WBT is perfect for me. On the other hand, I grew up fishing with my father and grandfather, and I fish about 50 weekends a year with my husband.
"I've never considered being a woman as a disadvantage when fishing against men. For me, fishing isn't a strength issue. It's me against the fish, and I have to catch five of them. I'm curious to see how I will do against the top women anglers.”
SORE SWINDLE. Former CITGO Bassmaster Angler of the Year Gerald Swindle is recovering nicely from recent surgery on both shoulders. Remarkably, he had the surgeries five days apart and still managed to attend a Lucky Craft photo session at Alabama’s Lake Guntersville in between.
“I had bone spurs in each joint removed and then I had my collar bones cut off a quarter of an inch on each side so I could keep working out,” said the Alabama pro. “They were rubbing bone-to-bone badly and causing me a lot of pain.
“I hadn’t been able to work out or train for about a year. This last year, it really wore me down toward the end of the year, the aching. My right shoulder kept feeling like it was coming out of the socket because it was rubbing bone on bone and it had a slack in it.”
As of last week, Swindle was beginning to think more about fishing.
“I’m back on track now,” he said. “It’s been two weeks since one and three weeks since the other and you wouldn’t even know I had (the surgeries) now.
“I’m starting to fish a little bit now. My doctor told me I couldn’t hurt it, and I’ve been real practical about doing my rehab. I’m just kind of tiptoeing back into it.”
WEIRDEST CATCH. “I once caught a fox,” said Jeff Kriet of Ardmore, Okla. “I was fishing some rocks when it appeared and grabbed my crankbait. Then he ran down the bank with it. Then it got off.
“I’ve also caught a raccoon on a spinnerbait. It was the funniest thing. The raccoon grabbed the spinnerbait and started polishing the blades. It scrubbed the blades and looked at them. Then he scrubbed them again and examined them. It was hilarious.”
DID YOU KNOW? Four bodies of water are tied for hosting the most CITGO Bassmaster Classics: Louisiana Delta, Lake Logan Martin, High Rock Lake and James River have hosted three Classics each.
PRO BIRTHDAYS. California’s Mark Tyler will be 33 on Nov. 1. Missouri pro Tim Sainato turns 45 on Nov. 10 and North Carolina’s Guy Eaker will be 66 on Nov. 23.
IF I HADN’T BECOME A BASS PRO … Pro angler Pete Gluszek of Franklinville, N.J., would likely be an environmental engineer.
THEY SAID IT. “I don’t care if you like it. I don’t care whether you or anybody else like it, that’s their choice. I just wanted to be a little different, do something that had a little shock value. I think it worked.” California’s Skeet Reese on his latest hairdo, a spiky, shockingly blond job, that he debuted at the 2005 CITGO Bassmaster Classic in Pittsburgh, Pa.
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