posted September 23, 2007
Kim Stapp from Ringgold, Georgia cam back after a slow start to end up 11th place (co-angler division) in the Mercury Marine Women's Bassmaster Tour Boats tournament out of Shreveport-Bossier City, Lousiana.
Stapp blanked on the first day, but apparently found a key to unlock the Red River on the last two days, ending the tournament with 12-6 pounds and winnings of $725.
Kim Stapp, Rinngold, Ga.
Susan Dameron from Chattanooga ended out of the money ... 40th place out of 65 co-anglers.
Karol Whitehurst of Winnsboro, Texas, won the co-angler division — taking home $1,000 in cash and a Triton/Mercury boat rig valued at $25,000. Her 30-pound, 1-ounce total bested Dianne Kegley or Norphlet, Ark., who finished second with 16 pounds, 9 ounces.
"I'm turning pro next year," said Whitehurst, 50, an x-ray technician whose Saturday victory was her second this year as a WBT co-angler.
Laura Gober of Pendergrass, Ga. won the Angler Division. With a total weight of 34 pounds, 9 ounces, Gober capped off the five-event WBT season by keeping in front of first-day leader Lisa Johnson of Center, Ala., who finished second with 30 pounds, 2 ounces. Third place was taken by one-time WBT winner Sheri Glasgow of Muskogee, Okla., whose 28-00 put her squarely in place to claim the 2007 Toyota Women's Bassmaster Tour Angler of the Year crown. In fourth was the reigning WBT Championship winner Pam Martin-Wells of Bainbridge, Ga., who had 27-12. In fifth place was Jo Dee Lake of Bessemer, Ala., who had 27-00.
Gober's prize was a $50,000 Triton/Mercury boat rig.
"Last year at Dardanelle I was in the top six, but bombed there this year, so it's great to come here and finish off the year with a win," said Gober, who led the event on the second day.
The key to her win was "private water" — spots she didn't have to share with any other contender.
"I live on Lake Lanier (in Georgia), which is deep and clear. When I got here Friday and saw the river, I said, 'No way,' not here. I thought I might as well turn around and go home because I'm not used to anything like what I saw on the Red River.
"Then I decided to search for clear water, and found some, but couldn't get a bite. But I knew bass were in the river, so I went looking for places nobody else was."
Gober found small, shallow oxbows in 2 feet or less of water. When the spot that produced her limit on Friday didn't help her out Saturday, she moved to her backup spot, a series of small holes near the Red River's Jimmy Davis Bridge she'd located earlier.
There she threw a Zoom Baby Brush Hog in junebug and camo colors, plus a Netbait Baby Paca Craw in sapphire and black/blue flake rigged with a 3/16-ounce Tru-Tungsten weight and a blood-red Peter T Force Bead.
The first-day leader, Johnson adapted quickly to the river.
"I've never been here before," said Johnson, co-owner of a tree service business in Alabama. "I had to learn how to work in a river that changes so much — up, then dropping, then up again. It was different each day."
Her primary lure was a black Zoom Trick Worm rigged with a 1/8-ounce weight and dressed with Rejuvenate, a fish attractant.
The Lake Keowee championship out of Greenville, S.C., Feb. 21-23, 2008, is the next event on the Women's Bassmaster Tour.
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