Stan Fagerstrom
12-13-2002, 07:12 PM
Katie Watson
A Wonder With A Worm
By Stan Fagerstrom
Nothing can adjust the male ego faster than a largemouth bass. I've always thought that's probably why the Good Lord put them in the water in the first place.
But I've learned there's something else that will adjust your feelings of self-importance even faster. It's when largemouth bass and a beautiful woman team up to do the job. Believe me, friends, I know whereof I speak. Let me tell you why.
Earlier this year I was at El Salto Lake, that fabulous bass angling paradise tucked away in the Sierra Madres of Mexico a couple hours of driving time northeast of Mazatlan. On my third day there I managed to catch one of those lunkers El Salto has produced with such regularity in recent years. The fish was a tad under 12-pounds. It was my largest in a lifetime of bass fishing.
I caught that big one late in the day and I just couldn't wait to get back to Billy Chapman's Anglers Inn to let the world know about it. My companion and I were among the last fishermen to come in that evening. I grabbed a quick shower and headed for the dining area. I'm pumped and I'm proud. I'm fixin' to thump my own tub big time. Most of the other anglers were already on hand when I arrived, sipping on their favorite beverages prior to the evening meal.
Among them was a lady I had met earlier in the week. She smiled at me as I walked into the dining area. "Good evening, Miss Katie," I said, "by golly I got one today that weighed almost 12-pounds. And just how did you do?"
I'll never forget the lights I saw dancing in her eyes as she answered softly, "My largest today was 13-pounds, 8-ounces."
http://www.ifish.net/sfkwbb.jpg
Katie Watson is rapidly becoming a legend at Mexico's Lake El Salto. She has caught at least 25 bass of 10-pounds or more from that one lake alone.
It wouldn't have surprised me if the sound of the air going out of my balloon was audible on the other side of the lake! I didn't talk much about my big one the rest of that evening nor have I made too much noise about it since. I have made a point of finding out more about the gal who administered such a nifty job of male ego adjustment. It turns out I was just one of a long list of bass fishing males who have been humbled by the same lady.
The woman I'm talking about is Katie Watson and she hangs her fishing hat in Kellyville, Oklahoma. Kellyville's just down the road a piece from Tulsa. That doesn't even begin to tell the complete story. Katie, you see, is president of Red Wing Products. Her aerospace manufacturing company does contract work for the United States Department of Defense. She has been just as successful in the business world as she has in her piscatorial pursuits.
What we're talking about here is a woman who just might have caught more really large bass than any other female angler in the USA. You don't have to take my word for that. There are plenty of male plug pitchers around who will tell you the same thing.
One of them is Robert Montgomery, a senior writer for Bassmaster magazine. Bob has accompanied Katie to El Salto. "I've been down there with her several times," Montgomery says, "and she always catches more big fish than anyone else at the camp."
That 13-pound, 8-ounce fish she told me about that warm evening last June is Katie's largest fish so far. But it's by no means the only double-digit bigmouth she has led to the boat. "No one," Montgomery says, "catches 10-pound bass as consistently at El Salto as she does."
Consider what she did on a three-day trip to El Salto last year. In those three days she caught seven bass of 10-pounds or more. She was accompanied on that trip by a couple of male fishing partners. How did they do? Those two dudes, and they were both experienced anglers, managed to catch one 10-pounder apiece.
Just how many 10-pounders has Katie Watson caught? She hasn't kept an exact tally, but over the past six years at El Salto alone she figures she has caught and released 25 largemouth of 10-pounds or more. That, friends, is a bunch. Especially so when you stop to consider that most gringos, be they male or female, will never lay hands on even one that size.
Ask Katie what she gets most of her big ones on and she'll tell you it's plastic worms. But she doesn't restrict herself to one type of lure. "I really enjoy fishing topwater lures," she says, "but I don't get the big fish with them that I do with worms."
Dave Burkhardt, the owner of Outdoor Marketing Media and a good friend of Katie's, has had opportunity to share a boat with her at El Salto. He says her approach to worm fishing is slow and methodical. Katie says the same thing.
http://www.ifish.net/sfkwd.jpg
Katie Watson's favorite baits for trophy largemouth are plastic worms or worms used in concert with jigs. She says fishing them "slow and easy" is a primary reason for her unusual success.
"I do like to fish a worm slowly, " she says. She also says she concentrates on making her worm look like it's injured, figuring that might give those big broad shouldered boogers down there in the underwater cover additional reasons to grab it. She changes the colors of her worm often until the fish indicate a preference.
As I've mentioned, Katie Watson is just as talented in the field of business as she is at putting whoppers in her bass boat. In 1984 she was named Oklahoma's Business Person of the Year by the Small Business Administration. She is of Native American ancestry. She also recently received an award for excellence in a business operation from the Native American Association.
Katie is originally from Houston. She has lived in Oklahoma since 1980. She is a widow with a daughter, Regina, and three grandchildren.
It didn't take Katie long to discover that big bass were easier to come by down there south of the border. "I used to fish quite a bit in the United States," Katie says. "I first went to Mexico in the late 80s."
She started out fishing at Lake Guerrero, but has been concentrating on El Salto for the past five or six years. And it's El Salto where she's been meeting up with those big brutes so consistently. "I feel comfortable going to El Salto," she says. "You feel safe at a Billy Chapman camp. They take care of you." I know what she's talking about. Having visited Billy Chapman JR's Anglers Inn at El Salto myself a couple of times, I know just how efficiently that operation is conducted.
Getting to El Salto doesn't provide major problems for this award-winning Oklahoma businesswoman. "Our company has a twin engine Cessna 421," she says, "and a pilot is on our staff. We fly into Mazatlan when we're going down to fish at El Salto."
Those pot bellied Mexican bass aren't the only big fish that made the mistake of taking a whack at Katie Watson's lures. She has made three trips into South America for peacock bass. On her first trip to Venezuela she got one that weighed 18-pounds. She's also been into the Amazon a couple of times. Her largest peacock bass from that jungle region is 24-pounds. That's just a few pounds off the world record for the species.
How did she manage to catch that big peacock and the guy in the boat with her didn't? Same story, second verse. "My companion missed the big peacock when it tried to grab his surface lure," Katie says. "Then he missed it a second time. I threw in where that fish had swirled and hooked it on a crankbait."
I figure I know a little bit about the feelings that guy must have had as he watched his female companion fight and eventually boat that beautiful big peacock. I'll betcha those lights in Katie Watson's dark eyes were dancing the same tango they were doing when she deflated my balloon that warm evening at El Salto.
Like I said in the beginning---largemouth bass are plenty good enough at adjusting the male ego all by themselves. Put them together with a beautiful woman and partner you ain't got a prayer!
If you're interested in more details on how you can get to the lake where Katie has hooked all those monsters, go to http://www.hooksportfishing.com.
[ 12-18-2002, 06:18 PM: Message edited by: Jennie@ifish ]
A Wonder With A Worm
By Stan Fagerstrom
Nothing can adjust the male ego faster than a largemouth bass. I've always thought that's probably why the Good Lord put them in the water in the first place.
But I've learned there's something else that will adjust your feelings of self-importance even faster. It's when largemouth bass and a beautiful woman team up to do the job. Believe me, friends, I know whereof I speak. Let me tell you why.
Earlier this year I was at El Salto Lake, that fabulous bass angling paradise tucked away in the Sierra Madres of Mexico a couple hours of driving time northeast of Mazatlan. On my third day there I managed to catch one of those lunkers El Salto has produced with such regularity in recent years. The fish was a tad under 12-pounds. It was my largest in a lifetime of bass fishing.
I caught that big one late in the day and I just couldn't wait to get back to Billy Chapman's Anglers Inn to let the world know about it. My companion and I were among the last fishermen to come in that evening. I grabbed a quick shower and headed for the dining area. I'm pumped and I'm proud. I'm fixin' to thump my own tub big time. Most of the other anglers were already on hand when I arrived, sipping on their favorite beverages prior to the evening meal.
Among them was a lady I had met earlier in the week. She smiled at me as I walked into the dining area. "Good evening, Miss Katie," I said, "by golly I got one today that weighed almost 12-pounds. And just how did you do?"
I'll never forget the lights I saw dancing in her eyes as she answered softly, "My largest today was 13-pounds, 8-ounces."
http://www.ifish.net/sfkwbb.jpg
Katie Watson is rapidly becoming a legend at Mexico's Lake El Salto. She has caught at least 25 bass of 10-pounds or more from that one lake alone.
It wouldn't have surprised me if the sound of the air going out of my balloon was audible on the other side of the lake! I didn't talk much about my big one the rest of that evening nor have I made too much noise about it since. I have made a point of finding out more about the gal who administered such a nifty job of male ego adjustment. It turns out I was just one of a long list of bass fishing males who have been humbled by the same lady.
The woman I'm talking about is Katie Watson and she hangs her fishing hat in Kellyville, Oklahoma. Kellyville's just down the road a piece from Tulsa. That doesn't even begin to tell the complete story. Katie, you see, is president of Red Wing Products. Her aerospace manufacturing company does contract work for the United States Department of Defense. She has been just as successful in the business world as she has in her piscatorial pursuits.
What we're talking about here is a woman who just might have caught more really large bass than any other female angler in the USA. You don't have to take my word for that. There are plenty of male plug pitchers around who will tell you the same thing.
One of them is Robert Montgomery, a senior writer for Bassmaster magazine. Bob has accompanied Katie to El Salto. "I've been down there with her several times," Montgomery says, "and she always catches more big fish than anyone else at the camp."
That 13-pound, 8-ounce fish she told me about that warm evening last June is Katie's largest fish so far. But it's by no means the only double-digit bigmouth she has led to the boat. "No one," Montgomery says, "catches 10-pound bass as consistently at El Salto as she does."
Consider what she did on a three-day trip to El Salto last year. In those three days she caught seven bass of 10-pounds or more. She was accompanied on that trip by a couple of male fishing partners. How did they do? Those two dudes, and they were both experienced anglers, managed to catch one 10-pounder apiece.
Just how many 10-pounders has Katie Watson caught? She hasn't kept an exact tally, but over the past six years at El Salto alone she figures she has caught and released 25 largemouth of 10-pounds or more. That, friends, is a bunch. Especially so when you stop to consider that most gringos, be they male or female, will never lay hands on even one that size.
Ask Katie what she gets most of her big ones on and she'll tell you it's plastic worms. But she doesn't restrict herself to one type of lure. "I really enjoy fishing topwater lures," she says, "but I don't get the big fish with them that I do with worms."
Dave Burkhardt, the owner of Outdoor Marketing Media and a good friend of Katie's, has had opportunity to share a boat with her at El Salto. He says her approach to worm fishing is slow and methodical. Katie says the same thing.
http://www.ifish.net/sfkwd.jpg
Katie Watson's favorite baits for trophy largemouth are plastic worms or worms used in concert with jigs. She says fishing them "slow and easy" is a primary reason for her unusual success.
"I do like to fish a worm slowly, " she says. She also says she concentrates on making her worm look like it's injured, figuring that might give those big broad shouldered boogers down there in the underwater cover additional reasons to grab it. She changes the colors of her worm often until the fish indicate a preference.
As I've mentioned, Katie Watson is just as talented in the field of business as she is at putting whoppers in her bass boat. In 1984 she was named Oklahoma's Business Person of the Year by the Small Business Administration. She is of Native American ancestry. She also recently received an award for excellence in a business operation from the Native American Association.
Katie is originally from Houston. She has lived in Oklahoma since 1980. She is a widow with a daughter, Regina, and three grandchildren.
It didn't take Katie long to discover that big bass were easier to come by down there south of the border. "I used to fish quite a bit in the United States," Katie says. "I first went to Mexico in the late 80s."
She started out fishing at Lake Guerrero, but has been concentrating on El Salto for the past five or six years. And it's El Salto where she's been meeting up with those big brutes so consistently. "I feel comfortable going to El Salto," she says. "You feel safe at a Billy Chapman camp. They take care of you." I know what she's talking about. Having visited Billy Chapman JR's Anglers Inn at El Salto myself a couple of times, I know just how efficiently that operation is conducted.
Getting to El Salto doesn't provide major problems for this award-winning Oklahoma businesswoman. "Our company has a twin engine Cessna 421," she says, "and a pilot is on our staff. We fly into Mazatlan when we're going down to fish at El Salto."
Those pot bellied Mexican bass aren't the only big fish that made the mistake of taking a whack at Katie Watson's lures. She has made three trips into South America for peacock bass. On her first trip to Venezuela she got one that weighed 18-pounds. She's also been into the Amazon a couple of times. Her largest peacock bass from that jungle region is 24-pounds. That's just a few pounds off the world record for the species.
How did she manage to catch that big peacock and the guy in the boat with her didn't? Same story, second verse. "My companion missed the big peacock when it tried to grab his surface lure," Katie says. "Then he missed it a second time. I threw in where that fish had swirled and hooked it on a crankbait."
I figure I know a little bit about the feelings that guy must have had as he watched his female companion fight and eventually boat that beautiful big peacock. I'll betcha those lights in Katie Watson's dark eyes were dancing the same tango they were doing when she deflated my balloon that warm evening at El Salto.
Like I said in the beginning---largemouth bass are plenty good enough at adjusting the male ego all by themselves. Put them together with a beautiful woman and partner you ain't got a prayer!
If you're interested in more details on how you can get to the lake where Katie has hooked all those monsters, go to http://www.hooksportfishing.com.
[ 12-18-2002, 06:18 PM: Message edited by: Jennie@ifish ]