Ladies with lures
Women may not be as prolific as the men on the professional fishing circuit just yet, but don’t tell them they don’t have what it takes to compete
Editor’s Note: This is the first half of a two-part feature article focusing on the state of women in professional fishing today. The second part will be posted Wednesday, Sept. 7.
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Back in the 1970s, when competitive bass fishing was first trying to find its footing, women were about as rare at a tournament weigh-in as a 12-pound bass. It was a man’s sport, and if a woman was spotted anywhere near the weigh-in festivities, she was most likely a dutiful groupie, cheering on friends and family.
“Back in the early days that I can remember, there weren’t any women at all that fished the men’s events,” said legendary pro Larry Nixon, who has been fishing competitively about as long as there has been an opportunity to do so. “I can’t remember the first year they started, but I want to say the late ’80s was the first time I saw women at any of these events.”
In those days, the tournaments may have been for men, but the sport was for everyone. Though women generally steered clear of the good-ol’-boy fraternity that was competitive bass fishing, they could be found at any given time maneuvering a boat down at their local fishing hole, waiting for the next bite.
However, in time, women slowly began to make their mark in the professional bass-fishing arena. After all, as any woman – and any man worth his salt – will tell you, the bass don’t care who it is at the other end of the line. If you’re throwing the right thing, the fish will eat it, regardless of your gender.
As women began to infiltrate the competitive bass-fishing ranks, fears of prejudice and nonacceptance proved largely unfounded. Sure, most every female angler can still recount a time when a man protested having her in his boat. But then again, hasn’t every angler had a run-in with a fishing partner at some point or other?
“It was different,” said Nixon of the bygone era. “Some guys didn’t want to fish with them because of the obvious male/female problems, but a lot of guys were acting silly, is what I thought.”
But, to a large extent, those days are over. It seems that in the current climate, the notion that women are second-class citizens on the bass-fishing tour has virtually no credibility – with men or women for that matter – any longer. Female anglers just want to be considered as equals.
And from a widespread sampling of anecdotal evidence, it appears that they are.
The times, they are a changin’
“When I first came on the scene, a lot of the guys took me under their wing and treated me like a little sister,” said Australia’s Kim Bain, who has fished with the guys on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League and the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series. “These days, I’m treated more like an equal, and that’s something that I really get a kick out of.”
Nixon concurs: “I think the general attitude now is there is nothing wrong with it. I don’t even think about it anymore when I draw a lady in a tournament because it’s no big deal. They’ve been there before.”
Women may be equal, but they are still uncommon, as only three females fished the pro side of the FLW Tour in 2005. Six competed as co-anglers.
“We’re still considered a rarity – women fishing on the level that I do,” said FLW Tour pro Mary Divincenti.
That said, those nine women still accomplished a lot of things in 2005 to bring attention to themselves. Three of them – Judy Israel, Sondra Rankin and Mary Parnell – scored a top-10 finish, and two of them – Bain and Israel – qualified for the 2005 FLW Tour Championship. In addition, Israel took big-bass honors on Beaver Lake last April.
“That’s one of my goals every year, to make a top-10,” said Israel, a grandmother from the Bronx. “I’ve done that the last few years, and I’m very proud of that.”
Indeed, it seems Israel’s mark on the FLW Tour in particular has been the clearest, and in 2004, she became the first woman to win an FLW Tour event. But every woman has her story, including interesting narratives from the time they first picked up a rod to the first time they cashed a check in a tournament.
Women strive to overcome cultural, societal hurdles
Each woman also carries with her individual challenges that make the pro-fishing pilgrimage a difficult one at times. Most of these women are wives, and many of them are mothers, and while families tend to support them, the distance takes its toll. These pressures, they say, are the driving reason why there are only nine women on the FLW Tour.
“I think there are a ton of women out there (who would fish competitively) if society did not dictate that it is the woman’s role to run the children and the household,” Divincenti said. “Unfortunately, most households these days require two incomes, but I think there are a lot of women who would truly love to fish on a professional level if not for the requirement of a dual income.”
Though the familial and financial pressures loom large, the rewards they reap from their fishing careers make it worthwhile. For a so-called “rarity,” finding yourself on a top-10 stage in the company of men makes the whole journey more exhilarating than exhausting.
“Other than family events like having babies and getting married, it was my next No. 1 accomplishment in life,” said Israel of her historic victory on the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana.
Here are a few of those stories, told by the women who’ve done it all, from the front of the boat to the back, while living out their dreams.
Mary Divincenti: “There was something about that adrenaline rush”
Mary Divincenti didn’t grow up fishing. The thoughtful, well-spoken, no-nonsense Louisiana belle fell in love with the sport by falling in love with a man.
“I was the classic girlfriend that moaned and groaned and complained about a boyfriend that did nothing but fish and hunt every weekend,” she said. “My mother told me, `If that man was chasing women or gambling or drinking, you’d have something to complain about. If all he does is hunt and fish, pack your stuff and go with him.'”
And so she did, finding her life’s two great loves at the same time. On her first trip, she landed a 12-inch bass that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She was hooked.
“There was something about that adrenaline rush and watching that fish react the way he did and knowing I caught him out of his own environment,” she said. “The very next weekend I ended up beating this boyfriend to the boat.”
Divincenti immediately immersed herself in all things fishing, and she became enamored with it all. She liked the preparation as well as the thought of spending a day on the water – she didn’t even have to catch a fish to be happy. Soon enough, she was begging for boat-driving lessons from her boyfriend.
“I started reading everything I could get my hands on,” she said. “I was like a sponge.”
As you may have guessed, Divincenti married her fisherman three years later, and she quickly determined the weekends just didn’t hold enough fishing time to suit her. She wanted to go during the week.
“I knew one of us was going to have to keep working so I could fish, and he was kind enough to keep working,” she said. “I quit my job and started fishing five days a week.”
One day in the late 1980s, her husband returned home from a boat show with some materials from Bass’n Gal – a tournament trail – and a career was born.
“He said, `You need to go fish with these ladies. I’ve taught you all I know, but to get better, you need to fish with people who are better than you,'” she said. “I had never fished a tournament in my life. I packed my stuff and headed off to North Mississippi, and I finished fourth and drew a check in my first tournament.”
Divincenti fished Bass’n Gal until its eventual demise and then set her sights on the WBFA (Women Bass Fishing Anglers), winning that championship in 2003.
“Winning that really kicked the fishing career into high gear,” she said. “It added so much oomph to my credentials. Some really nice sponsorships came along, and I started delving deep into the marketing side of the business.”
Divincenti’s sponsors include such top-tier organizations as Skeeter Boats and Yamaha Outboards. It was through Skeeter that Divincenti earned a chance to fish the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, a prospect that made her “like a giddy schoolgirl.” The chance was the manifestation of closely held dreams that she’d rarely had the gumption to mention to anyone, perhaps fearing the big leagues were just out of her reach.
“I never dreamed in all those years of fishing that it would one day come to that,” she said. “I had always hoped it would – personally, quietly. There’s not enough money in the world to buy what I have learned just from this one past season.”
Proud of the fact that she earned a check in her rookie year, Divincenti, ranked 159th on the pro side, said her goal this year was to get her feet wet and get used to fishing with “the, quote, `big boys.'”
Tough choices the norm for many women
Though Divincenti has certainly established herself as one of the foremost female competitors and is now realizing her dream of competing in bass fishing’s co-ed upper echelons, the success has come with a price. Long ago, Divincenti decided to forego having children in order to focus on her bass-fishing career, a fact she concedes may sound odd to other people. But the decision was right for her.
“To be honest, I was never willing to give up what I thought you should give up if you do have children,” said Divincenti, who began her fishing career at age 27. “I made a decision that the fishing would be my life, not children. I guess I’m somewhat of a selfish person when it comes to fishing because I was never willing to give it up even for the nine months it took to get a baby here. It was a personal choice, and I don’t regret it.”
The only regret Divincenti does carry is not starting her passion at an earlier age, saying, “My husband had no idea the monster he was creating.” Even though the choices she has made and the position she is in is far from conventional, Divincenti still wants to be looked at as an equal, and she feels that she is.
“I try not to get on the women thing too much,” she said. “It’s kind of obvious I’m a female. I tend to stress to (my sponsors), `Please don’t consider me as a woman. We all know I’m a female.’ I prefer to be seen and known and treated no different than any of my male counterparts. I am first and foremost a professional angler.”
That said, Divincenti’s perception of a woman’s more patient mindset is what she calls the only real advantage a female has over a man when it comes to on-the-water performance. And it’s that same patience, Divincenti says, that allows women to wait for their rightful moment to become household names.
“If you’re going to play lumberjack, you better be ready to carry your end of the big log,” she said. “Everybody’s out there with one main goal and objective, and you better be shooting for the same thing, or get out of the way.”
Though men and women may be equals on the water, the laws of nature just don’t allow that in everyday life, and that’s something Divincenti cherishes. She may be a pioneer in what is largely considered a man’s sport, but she’s still a girl’s girl at heart.
“There’s a certain excitement to being able to be one of the guys all day on the water, and then in the evenings I can still doll up and be just as feminine as a runway model,” she said. “Of course, I don’t look like a runway model, but with a little makeup and mousse I do OK. I’m nowhere near what you would call a frou-frou woman, but I’m the farthest thing from looking like a man, and there’s something nice about that competition.”
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Editor’s Note: This is the first half of a two-part feature article focusing on the state of women in professional fishing today. The second part will be posted Wednesday, Sept. 7.