THINGS DON’T ALWAYS GO AS PLANNED

Editor: Angie Scott is a woman on a mission. That mission is to lead by example in introducing other women to the outdoor life. Angie strives to be, as her podcast touts, the Woman Angler & Adventurer. Every week her podcast features a very interesting interview with people and organizations working to make a difference for women in outdoor sports- hunting, fishing, camping- and highlighting their businesses and charitable initiatives. Angie will be a guest speaker at the Outdoor Media Summit 2022 in Lake Tahoe on Oct. 30- Nov. 1, where she will speak on monetizing podcasts. In addition to advancing women’s participation in the outdoors, Angie herself is working hard to become a winning tournament angler. She is new to that scene, but like everything else Angie does, she is all in. She recently qualified for her 2nd Lady Bass Anglers Association’s Lady Bass Classic and, now that that event is “in the can” as they say in the film industry, Angie has had time to reflect on the event and her tournament season in general. Here are some of her reflections.

Now that we’re back home and have had time to reflect and analyze, I wanted to do a more detailed dive into the 2022 Lady Bass Anglers Association Lady Bass Classic on Logan Martin in Lincoln, AL- a look behind-the-scenes. I’d say the overall theme of the event for me would be “Things don’t always go as planned”. Looking back, I guess that can easily apply to my entire season! Tournament life is not an easy road. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication. Long hours studying maps, preparing gear, and a lot of time on the water. Sort of like the postman, tournament anglers have to get out there and fish in some brutal, sometimes dangerous conditions, when most sane people just roll over and pull the blanket over their heads. At times like that I always remember words of encouragement I received from highly respected female kayak tournament angler Kristine Fischer at the beginning of this year when I was going through a tough time trying to figure out how I was even going to make this season happen. She said, “Most don’t make it because they get discouraged and quit. That ain’t you.” That really turned my attitude around. I was determined to fish, and with the help of so many key people on my team we made it happen to the point where I qualified to fish the Classic for the 2nd year in a row.

This year’s Classic was held at the Lincoln Tournament Venue on the banks of Logan Martin. Team Scott hit the road on Friday the 14th to set up camp at Riverbay Resort in Lincoln. We arrived later than planned due to bad traffic in Birmingham, so we hurried to drop the boat and the Lance Truck Camper Mobile Podcast Studio and hook up everything. Then we ran to Pell City to stock up on groceries before settling in for the night. The first official day of practice started the next day and I couldn’t wait to get out there and start checking things out. Saturday morning, I squeezed in a podcast interview with Kay Cole Donaldson, director of the Alabama Bass Trail. We were hoping to do the interview in person, but something came up and the timing didn’t work out. It was still good to be sitting lakeside and speaking over the phone with Kay about how the trail got started and what it’s like being a tournament director. Being flexible not only applies to fishing, it applies to podcast schedules as well. Ironically, Kay was involved in the planning of Lincoln Landing, the new tournament site on Logan Martin. The City of Lincoln pulled out all the stops to make the perfect tournament destination.

After wrapping the interview, I got out and checked out a couple of places I marked on my map that were near the resort. To my surprise, there wasn’t much of anything going on at either spot. I had to rethink the rest of my practice plan. Saturday was a short day because I just couldn’t miss the epic Alabama/Tennessee college football game. What a great game to watch sitting outside on a fall afternoon in Alabama. Our neighbors at the campground were Alabama fans- they were pretty quiet throughout the game, while we hooted and hollered for Tennessee.

Sunday I was out early to see if I could formulate a game plan for the morning bite. I had a couple of areas in mind to start. The first spot didn’t produce, but at the second. I caught a spotted bass right away with a finesse-style chatter bait. Unfortunately, that was about it. I ran to a few other areas- nada. I knew the conditions would be changing by the time the tournament started, but I was beginning to scratch my head. Sunday was another shortened practice day because of football as I had to watch my Minnesota Vikings beat the Miami Dolphins.

Monday was the day to really dig in. I wanted to “fish some history” from last year’s Logan Martin event. I made the run down to Cropwell Creek to check out my honey hole- there was no activity. I wasn’t surprised, it was much later in the year than last year’s event and conditions were totally different. I checked another area that was good for me last year and got a nice spotted bass on a square bill crankbait. After finishing that pocket, my motor wouldn’t start. I switched over to the other battery and it fired right up. Looked like I either didn’t get a good charge or I had a bad battery. I was getting low on gas, so I ran over to Town & Country to fill up. As I was filling up, I was trying to decide whether to continue fishing or head back to try to figure out the battery issue. The next thing I know, I see another angler, Nikki Jo Hatten. We exchanged numbers so I could call her in case I had any trouble. That made me feel more at ease, but I ultimately decided to run back to camp and see if the battery would take a charge. Better to get this worked out now than after the tournament started! We plugged it up and since we had some time to wait, we drove over to Lincoln's Landing to check everything out. Last year the venue wasn’t quite finished. It is very impressive!