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Hello Fellow Big Fishers!
I thought I would give you all an update as to my first stop on the WBT trail on Lake Neely Henry in Gadsden, AL last week.
Believe it or not, I camped (in a tent) by the river for the tournament. I love camping much more than staying in a hotel. Unfortunately, there were thunderstorms all weekend!
There were large storm cells producing hail and a lot of rain throughout the tournament. My boater and I were in and out of rain gear all day!
I had crazy technical problems both days. The second day was the worst. Get this, I can go fishing at home with one rod and never have any problems. When I have 4 to choose from, crazy things happen! I had a screw from my new spinning reel pop off and fall in to the lake and for some unknown reason, a full reel of line on my other spinning reel popped off at once and proceeded to fly into the lake along with my favorite lure! I ended up fishing with two bait casters the entire day in the wind!
My boater and I were fortunate enough to weigh in a fish at the very first WBT stop. There were many "Pro" and "AM" anglers that didn't weigh in a single fish. I fished the co-angling position for this stop.
I told my crazy stories on the weigh in stage and gave everyone a good laugh though!
Out of 206 women, I was also fortunate enough to be shown first two different times on the ESPN commercials for the WBT! I may not have won it all but I had an incredible time. The TV coverage was pretty cool too! Look for me this Saturday- I'm the one with the pink cowboy hat, pink shirt and long blonde pigtails!
There were also two different photography boats for ESPN and Bassmaster that stayed with us for 30-45 minutes. Hopefully I'll show up in some print articles too. I am so excited to have Big Fish Tackle in my corner and am utilizing every bit of exposure I get to promote the site. The more people we have, the more fun it will be right?
You can check out some pictures from the WBT by going to my page here at BFT under "Jen Carroll".
Thank you BFT members and Big Fish Tackle for all of your support and encouragement. I'll be hittin' em' hard on my home lake in Lewisville, TX May 18th-20th don't miss it!!!
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That's awesome Jen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Way to get out there and tackle the big time. Congrats on the weigh-in!!!!!!! Keep us informed, it's great to hear how one of our fellow BFT'rs is doing on the Tournament Trail!!!!!
Keep up the good work!
Bryan
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way to go Jen,we support you 100%
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Thank you so much for rooting me on!
I fished Lewisville last Saturday and caught some really nice bass. I went to quite a few awesome fishing spots which will be great if the patterns hold. Who knows though after the crazy last minute weather changes on Neely Henry!
The hardest part of being a co-angler, is not being able to go to where you know the fish have moved to. If the patterns change (which most likely they will) then I will still do my best to fish where they are!
This is all very exciting! I'll be fishing almost everyday now in preperation for the big day! The best thing about it, is that I only live 30 minutes away instead of 15 1/2 hours!
Thanks again for your encouragement.
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Make sure and keep up up dated on your progress! [cool] You Rock!
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[font "Times New Roman"]Last Saturday I went fishing on Lake Lewisville with my husband and my friend Bret Myers. Bret fishes the Bassmaster Elite Series and is an awesome fisherman. I was so excited when he invited me along! [/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]We caught several good bass (all within the tournament length regulations) and had an incredible time. The weather was overcast with a little drizzle here and there. The wind picked up a lot as the day went on. Since we've had so much rain lately, the water was really stained. Lewisville water is stained anyway but on this day it was even worse. [/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]I started out fishing my spinner bait and caught a good keeper right away. A few more were caught on crank baits until we got into some stumps at which time I switched to a pumpkin/orange jig. I pulled a three a big bass right off of a stump on the very first cast which was nice![/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Had this been the actual tournament, I would have weighed in 5 nice bass![/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]I'll be pre fishing again this coming week so I'll keep you posted! If you want to see a couple of my bass, I posted a picture from last Saturday in my photo gallery![/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Thanks Big Fishers for all of your support!!![/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][#ff4040][size 3]Good Luck to you Jen! Looks like you have the fish figureed out for now on that lake. I have a feeling you'll do pretty good, since it's pretty much like your "home" lake. Odds in any sport tend to favor the teams that have home field advantage. Keep us posted on how you do.[/size][/#ff4040][/font]
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way to go Jen and good luck, sorry about you reel mishaps. Luckily it sounds like your still giving them a run for thier money
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Good Morning!
Well, I just finished re-finishing some of my lures for this weekend’s tournament on Lake Lewisville. I’m so excited and energized! Hopefully I’ll get paired with a boater that has fished the area at least as much as I have and knows how to change correctly when the fishing patterns do.
In this tournament I’ll be wearing a tournament shirt that I designed. I’ll start marketing my entire “aLURE Fashionable Fishing” line within the next month. I haven’t liked any of the fishing attire I’ve seen for women. None of the manufactures have created anything that makes me feel like a girl when I were it. It's pink of course!
The article attached is from the Associated Press. I am mentioned twice and have my picture in it as well. Not bad for my first stop as a co-angler out of 206 other women!
Don’t forget to watch ESPN2 this Saturday because I’m on the official WBT commercial (pink cowboy hat). Maybe I'll get lucky and get an interview this time!
Registration is tomorrow night. I’ll keep you posted on who my boater is and details as the tournament progresses.
Thanks Big Fishers for all of your support!
P.S. I copied the article to a word document because I thought it would open easier. Unfortunately the formating changed when I transfered it but the contents are still the same.
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]Jen,[/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]You go girl![/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]Hopefully we will see you on a wheaties box soon![/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]Hello Fellow Big Fishers![/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]My tardiness in updating you is because I left after my tournament in Lewisville to help my parents with the remodeling of their home. They are moving shortly so my brothers, sisters and I pooled our knowledge of foundation leveling, plumbing, electrical and interior design to fix up their new home! Since I am the youngest of twelve children, we had quite a bit of knowledge available! [/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]The Lewisville tournament was an educational fishing experience. The fishing was really tough with the winner weighing in approximately 21 pounds for a 3 day tournament with a five fish limit. The biggest bass caught was just over 5 pounds.[/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]My first day out, my boater and I fished marinas and long rows of tires. This was somewhat tough fishing for a co-angler because you are fishing the same places immediately behind another fisherman. I changed up my strategy often trying to pick up bass but they just weren’t where I was. I did catch the first fish of the day…a 1 pound sand bass! I didn’t get so much as a bump the entire rest of the day! [/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]My second day out, my boater and I caught a lot of bass but none of them measured 14 inches for either of us. I caught 4 bass that were approximately 12-13 inches. We saw a ton of poisonous snakes which I found out we were BOTH scared of! I pull out 5 foot long chicken snakes out of my chicken hutches every day….but water moccasins are a different story! [/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]All in all I still had fun even though I didn’t weigh in fish. I did get a big round of applause when my boat took off though! I had a lot of supporters both at the tournament and here at Big Fish Tackle. THANK YOU SO MUCH! The next tournament is in North Carolina in July. My traveling there is not definite but I will keep you posted when I know for sure![/size][/font]
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[size 3][font "Times New Roman"]Thank you again for all of your support! [/font][/size]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3] As Always ~ Best Fishes,[/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]Jen[/size][/font]</P
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