Wong Leads Women's Bassmaster Tour Bass Fishing Championship after Day One
SENECA, S.C. – Judy Wong of Many, La., was in the right spot Thursday morning during the first round of the Women's Bassmaster Tour Championship presented by Academy Sports & Outdoors on Lake Keowee, which left the other 11 pro competitors in a tight spot.
Wong's five-fish limit of 12 pounds, 13 ounces gave her a more than 3-pound cushion over Dianna Clark of Bumpus Mills, Tenn., after the first day of the three-day championship. The 12 pros are competing for a top prize of $60,000 in cash and prizes.
"I was lucky,"Wong said. "I was fortunate to catch a limit early. Then I was able to look for better fish. I'm happy with what I got. I used a variety of baits – whatever the situation called for at the time. I picked what I thought would work and threw it at them. I was able to cull three times."
Wong's limit was all spotted bass, and she's fine with that right now.
"I may hunt some largemouths, but I'm going to wait until I have a limit of spots before I do that," she said. "I don't know what is going to happen with the weather. I know the wind made it a little tough when the weather changed."
A low-pressure front moved over the area mid-morning and the weather worsened. A cold rain, possibly mixed with sleet, is forecast for Friday's round. Several of the 12 championship contenders and their co-anglers had luck before the weather changed.
"I caught all spots and the bite was early," Clark said. "With spotted bass, they're hard to pattern. They move a lot, so it's hard to stay consistent. When the weather came in it slowed the bite down. The wind direction changed and that pretty much shut my fish down on the spot I was on. But I have enough areas that I was able to make a big circle, and some of those spots weren't affected as much by the wind. I culled my last fish five minutes before we had to come in."
Tammy Richardson of Glenwood, Ark., is in third place, 2 ounces behind Clark at 9-6, followed by Audrey McQueen of Eagar, Colo., at 7-4 and defending champ Pam Martin-Wells of Bainbridge, Ga., who is fifth at 7-1.
"I didn't have as many bites today as I did in practice," Richardson said. "It slowed down a lot when the weather got here. I've got a few more areas that are holding fish, so that should help."
McQueen, who had four fish in her bag at the weigh-in at South Cove Park, said all her action came in a short window Thursday morning.
"The first couple of hours were dead," McQueen said. "Then from about 9:30 to 10:30 I caught my four fish. After 10:30, I didn't get another bite."
Martin-Wells, who ran away with last year's championship by a margin of more than 7 pounds, realizes she is at a significant disadvantage in her quest to defend her title.
"The fishing was tough," she said. "They just weren't biting like I expected. I've got some catching up to do, but I'm not out of it. It's going to be cold (Friday), but that may make the fish bite. I'm going to stick with my plan. It's too late to switch games now. I caught two largemouths, but they were not quality fish. What I'm going to do is try to catch five keepers before I think about targeting largemouth. If I could get a kicker largemouth, it sure would be nice."
Sheri Glasgow of Muskogee, Okla., the 2007 WBT Toyota Angler of the Year, has an even larger hill to climb, sitting in 12th place with 3-15.
"I don't know if you've ever heard of Murphy's Law, but I experienced it today," Glasgow said. "I had one fish come unbuttoned at the boat. I broke one off on the hookset. I had another one come unbuttoned on the way to the boat, and then I snapped a rod in half on the last one. If you fish enough, you're going to have a day like that. I just hate that it happened to me on the first day of the championship."
Barbara Gaskins of Suffolk, Va., leads the co-anglers after Day 1 with a five-fish limit weighing 9-13. Karol Whitehurst of Winnsboro, Texas, is second with 5-0 and Dianne Kegley of Norphlet, Ark., is third with 4-13.
