LADY CLASSIC CHAMP'S HOPES FOR WOMEN'S FISHING

Editor: Alisa Johnson is the defending Lady Bass Anglers Association Classic Champion. After that win, Alisa shared with us how she got into fishing, her feelings about the fellowship and comradery within the LBAA, and how she won the Classic. Alisa has given us great access to her 2020 season and we will share it with the 360Nation through a series of blogs. For the first in the series, we asked her what changes she sees in the LBAA for 2020, as well as changes she sees in women’s bass fishing in general and where she hopes to see it go in the future. Here are her thoughts: ALISA: Thank you so much for giving me this forum. The 2020 season for a lot of anglers is already underway. I feel like I’m getting a late start because I had a lot of boat work to do, and I needed some recovery time from some surgery over the past last five months. The pain of not being on the water was actually worse than the recovery. Now I’m healthy and healed and my boat is ready to get wet.

I have set some goals for this year, and #1 is learning how to pre-fish so that I get more tournament day benefits from that time. I want to better understand what the fish are doing and be able to recognize when and how to adjust what I am doing in order to fill that limit. In 2019, getting that limit was at times a struggle for me. I intend to do better in this in 2020. I plan to fish a number of tournament series this year, and some of them have already started. Nevertheless, I plan to jump in now that everything is ready. I’ll be fishing the District 111 South Toledo Bend Army Rec., the JC Outdoor at Lake Tyler- that’s a team event- and of course the LBAA events will be the heart of my season. To stay sharp I am planning on fishing a number of benefit tournaments along the way. Since I am still a relative new boater, I know the more I fish, the more confidence I’ll have . Fishing is a constant battle to adjust, adapt and overcome based on the conditions. As I improve in doing these, I know my confidence will rise.

The first LBAA event on the Cane River is right around the corner at the end of this month is postponed. It’s a new lake for me so google is my friend . I research all maps and even google earth, and YouTube. There is a lot of helpful information if you do your homework. There’s even information that will help set expectations for structure, water temperature and what stage of their annual cycle I can expect the fish to be.

When I look at the broader world of fishing, there is no question that women and bass fishing is

a hot topic now. Social media has helped tremendously by shedding a lot of light on women on the water and women fishing tournaments. My hope for the LBAA is that we continue to bring more boaters onboard. This will naturally create more opportunity for co-anglers, the non- boaters. The more women who fish the more the LBAA will become a positive avenue for women find a place for their passion for the sport. It will create platform for sharing that passion for exercising the competitive juices that many of us have. The one common drive that all the ladies have is the hope that the Lady Bass Anglers Association be taken seriously- especially when it comes to sponsor dollars. Right now, I feel that a only a very selective group of women have the financial resources to fish for a living. Most of us in the LBAA are wives, mothers, daughters, and caregivers working full time jobs while juggling our responsibilities to our families. Very few have the time or resources to fish 230 days a year. But never mistake this for a weakness. The fact that we can balance all this just makes us better friends and tougher competitors. The current group is dedicated to the growth of women in this sport.