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Greenville,
SC – Judy Wong didn’t come close to the 40 pound catch that she had predicted it would take to claim the title in this week’s WBT Championship on Lake Keowee, but her three consecutive limits totaling 26-10 were enough to claim the crown. She outlasted and outfished second place finisher Pam Martin-Wells by the slimmest of margins, a mere
six ounces, to add another major title to her impressive resume.
She concentrated on a discharge area known as the “hot hole” where she fished a Gary Yamamoto Senko and a football jig as a one-two punch that adjusted to the changing mood of the fish.
“When they came up to school I’d throw in the wacky rigged Senko and they’d whack it,” but when the fish were not actively schooling she’d drop her bait down 20 to 30 feet and mop them up from below.
She took a cue from her previous day’s amateur partner and added a ¾ ounce spinnerbait to her arsenal today and used it to catch a key fish.
“On the first day, I culled in my first area, but today I stayed there until 10 and then tried to catch a largemouth,” she said.
She got emotional after the event as she spoke to the assembled media. “I’ve tournament fished since 1989 and at one point I thought about quitting,” she said, saying that her husband characterized her performance during that period as zagging when she should have zigged. This victory, added to past women’s championships on the Red River and Eufaula, earned her a boat and cash prizes, but she made clear “that the title means so much more to me than the money.”
Martin-Wells was disappointed that she couldn’t capitalize on today’s sunny weather. “My pattern revolved around the sun and I expected a better day, but we had all that fog and I didn’t get my sun until 11 am,” she said.
She focused on boat docks with a Wave Trick Worm (watermelon candy) fished “really slow,” but when cloud cover moved the fish off the docks she caught a few fish on secondary points as well.
“I knew it was going to be close, but I wouldn’t do anything different,” she said.
Unlike the top two finishers, Dianna Clark couldn’t scratch up a limit all three days, but her three day catch of 12 bass for 23 pounds, 12 ounces were enough for a hard-earned third place finish.
She caught her fish dragging a V&M jig, a Carolina rig and a Blade Runner, but was disappointed that she couldn’t pin down the numbers she needed. “That flat out moved on me,” she lamented. She was in the same general area as Martin-Well’s but the two never overlapped their stops.
She believes the wind hurt her chances of victory – “when that comes in, they either don’t bite or else they get up and move.”
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