ESPN Women's Tour

While the Feb. 22-24 Bassmaster Classic competition unfolds on South Carolina's Lake Hartwell, 12 Women's Bassmaster Tour pros will be competing on nearby but strikingly different Lake Keowee for the coveted crown of the second WBT Championship.

For the past few months, the pros have studied 18,500-acre Keowee to get ready for the Feb. 21-23 Championship event out of Greenville, S.C. The competitors have until Jan. 21 to learn the water, their last opportunity until Feb. 20, the final official practice day.

On Feb. 22 and 23, the women will bring their Keowee catches to the scales on the Classic stage in Greenville's Bi-Lo Center, just before the 50 Classic contenders begin their daily weigh-in. The winner of last year's inaugural WBT Championship, Pam Martin-Wells of Bainbridge, Ga., will attempt to defend her title and take home the winner's purse, $60,000 in cash and merchandise.

Directly north of Lake Hartwell, Keowee is a surprisingly different fishery. Separated only by the Keowee Dam, the two lakes are so diverse that Classic and WBT contenders could easily believe they are many miles apart.

"Keowee is filled with spots, but largemouth are few and far between," said Dianna Clark of Bumpus Mills, Tenn., two-time WBT winner and the 2006 Toyota Women's Bassmaster Tour Angler of the Year. "Classic pros will bring in bags of largemouths, and probably a few spotted bass, but Keowee will be all spots — maybe some largemouths, but not likely."

"It can be a very tough lake, but at the same time, if you figure it out, it can be a good lake," Clark said. "The person who wins will be the person who lucks up on kicker spots. If someone gets a big largemouth, it would be a total upset."

Keowee's spots undoubtedly will be key to WBT anglers. Gerald Foster, owner of The Fishing Hole, a tackle store on Lake Keowee, said spotted bass were introduced in about 1985, well after largemouth bass, which were stocked soon after the lake was built in 1971.

"The lake still has largemouth, but many more spots," Foster said. "They feed mostly on threadfin shad, but also blueback herring."

He said that Bluebacks, the staple forage of Hartwell's largemouth population, aren't prevalent in Keowee, but they're there.

Foster explained that Keowee is almost completely devoid of underwater standing timber, which is prime largemouth structure in Hartwell. Keowee's basin was clearcut before being brought to full pond in 1971, creating a clear, soft-bottom lake.

Defending champion Martin-Wells also took time in January to learn Keowee.

"There's a lot of water and just about anything you want, from 2 feet to 150 feet," said Martin-Wells, who was runner-up for 2007 AOY honors. "It's not a really big lake, but it fishes big."

Drop-shotting or other deep-water finesse techniques will be a primary pattern, said Sheri Glasgow of Muskogee, Okla., who bested Martin-Wells for the 2007 Toyota Women's Bassmaster Tour AOY award.

"It's a necessity to know how to drop-shot — not my favorite, but it's an available pattern," said Glasgow, a self-described "power angler" who hit Keowee for two three-day trips in January. "I actually had to break out spinning rods and reels."

"The spots move a lot. It's going to come down to skill and placement, to being at a key place at a key time," she added. "I think it'll be a good tournament, and everybody should go into it pretty much on the same level."

Clark agrees. "The Championship is going to be anybody's ball game," she said.

Besides Clark, Glasgow and Martin-Wells, the WBT Championship field includes four other repeat qualifiers: Cindy Hill of Smyrna, Tenn.; one-time WBT winner Juanita Robinson of Highlands, Texas; and two Arkansans — one-time WBT winner Lucy Mize of Ben Lomond and three-time event champion Tammy Richardson of Amity.

Five pros are first-time qualifiers: Audrey McQueen of Eager, Ariz.; Judy Wong of Many, La.; Penny Berryman of Hot Springs, Ark.; Marcia Rubin of Chagrin Falls, Ohio; and Secret York of Benton, Ky.

While the WBT pros face off for the championship title, 12 co-anglers will vie for a first-place prize of $34,500 in cash and merchandise. Co-anglers compete against each other from the back seat of the pros' boats.

The pros and co-anglers earned their spots in the championship by amassing the highest number of points in their respective divisions during the 2007 WBT season.

Women's Bassmaster Tour Sponsors: Toyota Tundra, Advance Auto Parts, Berkley, Legend Boats, Lowrance Electronics, Mercury Marine, Mustang Survival and Triton Boats.

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