bass'N ~ Gals
First Woman in History WINS Red Man Tourament
First Lady of Bass Fishing Is
Mrs. Wanda Rucker

   Wanda Rucker becomes first Lady in history to win a Red Man event.

   When Wanda Rucker won a Red Man Tourament Trail Gator Division event on Lake Okeechobee in March 98, she did more than make history. She made a Statement:  If a petite, 5~foot tall grandmother can win a Red Man Bass Tournament, anyone can.

   "You don't really have to be the best,"Rucker Said. "You just have to have a love for fishing. The want ~ to to fish. It doesn't matter to the fish who's on the other end of the line. Man or woman, big or small, young or old. This is the only sport ot this magnitude where size and sex and stature doesn't make a difference. But you have to have that want ~ to."

   Rucker, who fishes four days a week, definitely has it. That's how she became the first woman to ever win a Red Man Tournament since Operation Bass began in 1979. That covers more than 2,500 Red Man touraments.

    A resident of Cocoa, Florida, Rucker, 48, has fished since she was a little girl growing up in Frankfort, Kentucky. She started fishing the Red Man Tournament Trail in October 1996 after her husband, Bill, began fishing the circuit. Her previous best Red Man finish was a fourth in March 1997 at Florida's Lake Toho when she weighed in over 21 pounds, setting a record for the heaviest stringer ever caught by a female angler.

   Fishing on Lake Okeechobee out of Clewiston on March 1, Rucker caught a five ~ fish limit weighing 16 pounds, 4 ounces, to beat out 341 other anglers and win the $4,438 first prize. Mark Rodgers of Naples, Florida was second at 14 pounds, 14 ounces.

   Rucker fished the tournament with Cecil Douberly in his boat. She had located fish at the north end of the lake, but was happy to fish her partner's spot close to Clewiston.

   "That morning there was a bad storm coming in," said Rucker, who didn't want to chance the long run to her fish. "We fished for about 30 minutes and then that storm came in really bad. We
pulled into a reed patch and sat there for over an hour. Lightning was dancing all around. It was
raining so hard you couldn't see anything".

   When the storm passed, Douberly resumed fishing a spinnerbait close to cover for the bass he had located the day before. Just for the heck of it, Rucker cast her black grape ~ green glitter Gambler worm into open water. She was promptly rewarded with a fish. Before long, Rucker had three keepers and her partner hadn't had a bite.

   "I threw in the middle of the open water," Rucker said. "That's where they were roaming. The rain made them move." Her partner eventually switched to her pattern and caught his limit within two hours. Meanwhile, Rucker still had three fish, having caught numerous non ~ keepers.

   Around 1 p.m., Rucker got a big hit and could not budge the fish, which got away. She threw her worm back, got another hit and again lost the fish. "Cecil said. 'Set that hook hard next time.' I threw back in there and I don't know if it was the same fish, but I caught a 6 ~ pound, 9 ounce bass," Rucker said.

   Another keeper gave her the winning stringer, but she did not think her total was that good. "I had no idea that would win or even get near the top 10," Rucker said. "Sixteen pounds at Lake Okeechobee? It never dawned on me. I wasn't excited or thinking about winning.

   "We were 20th from the end going out, so we were in the last flight to weigh ~ in. When we got back to the landing, my husband said , 'How'd you do?' I told him I had one nice fish. He said, 'Well, 14 pounds is leading.' I didn't even think I had 14 pounds, but Cecil told my husband I had over 14."

   Cecil was right. When the scales registered 16 pounds, 4 ounces, Rucker realized she'd won.
"We were probably about 10 from the end to weigh in and everybody behind us didn't have any weight, "she said. "I couldn't believe I'd won. And I had no idea that I made history as the first woman to win a Red Man tournament. It was really a big day for me. Matter of fact, it's the best day I've ever had."

   The unprecedented victory was a tribute to Rucker's passion for the sport of fishing. And it never would have been possible without the help and encouragement of her husband, her mother, and her fellow tournament anglers.

   "Bill, he tells everybody he's my shadow now," Rucker said. "It used to be Bill and Wanda, now it's Wanda and Bill. You need a really supportive husband." Rucker also had a supportive mother. An only child, Rucker grew up "way out in the country" and fished creeks and ponds for bream and catfish with her mother, who passed away a couple of years ago.

   "She's the one who really got me into it," Rucker said. "She'd take me down to the creek bank with a picnic lunch and we'd spend all day fishing. Fishing was her relaxation and she passed it on. Every spare minute she had, she took me fishing. I never was afraid of the biat or the fish. I took my own fish off the hook."

   As a teen ~ ager, Rucker's interests turned to dresses and proms and she got away from fishing. She and Bill
 got married in 1978 and moved to Florida. At the time, Bill was an electrician and she worked in an office. Both
of them eventually ended up working at the nearby Kennedy Space Center. Bill still works there, disarming  booster rockets. Wanda left it September of 1997.

   "We bought a 14 ~ foot johnboat with a 25 horsepower Mariner and started fishing the St. Johns River," Rucker said. "When we first came down, we fished like we did in Kentucky, for catfish, bream, and turtles.

   "A few years later, one of the supervisors at the Kennedy Space Center said since we love to fish so much, we
ought to join his bass club. We were just getting into bass fishing then. We started fishing the club tournaments
and did pretty good.

   The Ruckers then bought a bigger, better boat and joined different tournament trails. For 10 or 12 years, Bill and Wanda fished all over Florida and in local tournaments as a team. They live on Lake Poinsett and frequently fish tournaments on the lake provided they don't have other events to fish in or practice for.

   About six years ago, Bill bought Wanda her own bass boat, a Lowe's aluminum model with a 48 Evinrude.
Rucker teamed with her girlfriend Debbie Lorton and fished the ABU - Garcia small boat tournament circuit.
"We were the only female team that fished that," Rucker said. "At one point there were around 90 - 95 men's
teams. We won one tournament and we placed in the money in several other tournaments."

   Rucker's favorite fishing partner remains her husband. One of their favorite tournament trails is the Guys & Dolls, in which teams consist of a man and a woman. The Ruckers fished the Florida, Georgia, and Alabama Divisions, won a Florida tournament and qualified for four Classics.

   "We make a real good team together," Rucker said. "I am the adventurous one. If there's a new bait that comes out on the market, I have to try it. Bill will stay with the basic, older stuff. Lots of times it works, lot of times it doesn't work."

   Rucker's strength is worm fishing and she excels at swimming a worm. It was Bill who persuaded her to start flipping. As he pointed out, if your partner in a draw tournament flips, then you have to flip, too, if you want to
catch fish. Her husband also helped inspire Rucker to fish the Red Man Tournament Trail.

   "Bill started a couple of months before me, " Rucker said. "I wasn't going to fish it because I would have to fish
with a man besides Bill. But I couldn't stand to sit on the bank and wait for him to come in and not go fishing.

   "My friend Mary Parnell fished Red Man for several years and she told me I should do it. And I'm glad I did. I really encourge women to fish the Red Man trail. The men are really good. Good fishermen and good people. I have learned a new technique from everyone I've fished with. And I've never had any problems fishing with them."

   The only drawback is the Ruckers had to stop fishing the Guys & Dolls trail after 10 years. "We decided to dedicate our time to the Red Man and EverStart tournaments," said Rucker, who is sponsored by Gambler Worms, Ranger Boats, and OMC and hopes to eventually fish the Wal-Mart FLW Tour.

   "If you spread yourself too thin, you don't get enough practice in. You have to be dedicated" she said. "Winning has kind of put a little pressure on me. I feel like now I have to do good to uphold this reputation. But I take it in stride. It's just a new and exciting adventure for me."