ESPN Women's Tour

CELEBRATION, Fla. — The Mercury Marine Women's Bassmaster Tour presented by Triton Boats moves to Charlotte and Lake Norman, July 27-29, for its third tournament of 2006, which will be held in conjunction with the Bassmaster American presented by Advance Auto Parts on nearby Lake Wylie.

It promises to be a pivotal tournament. With three events remaining in the season, the Lake Norman event likely will shape the Toyota Women's Bassmaster Tour Angler of the Year standings and further clarify the qualifier's list for the first WBT Championship, Feb. 22-25 on Lake Mitchell in Alabama.

Qualifying for the championship is the high-water mark for the nation's top female pros. With the WBT, the women anglers now enjoy a big-league tournament venue backed by the most respected tournament organization in the country as well as its major media partner.

Lake Norman, an impoundment of the Catawba River, is the largest man-made body of freshwater in North Carolina, with 520 miles of shoreline. Norman has been transformed in recent years with the introduction of blueback herring as a food source for resident bass and the spread of spotted bass to go with the native largemouth.

"The ladies are going to really catch them," predicts Jason Quinn, a CITGO Bassmaster Elite Series angler who has guided on Lake Norman for years. "I feel like they're going to have a really good tournament.

"The fish in Norman have bit extremely well this year. Those spotted bass have really turned on. They can fish the boat docks and really catch them this time of the year."

Michelle Armstrong would beg to differ with that prediction.

A WBT competitor from Denver, N.C., she has struggled to locate legal-size bass on her home waters in recent days. And Armstrong also has heard similar stories from her friends and neighbors.

"It's going to be tough," she said. "The hot weather has the fish going deep, and I haven't heard of anybody catching a sizeable limit, either. Everything has been real small."

Armstrong reports that Norman's numerous docks have not been productive. That could be a result of the water level at about 3 feet below normal summer pool.

"I look for the fish to be caught on soft plastics, especially Carolina rigs around deep, rocky points," Armstrong explained. "We're going to be catching a combination of largemouth and spotted bass out there."

On the first two days of the tournament, daily weigh-ins will begin at 2:15 p.m. ET at Blythe Landing, 15901 NC Highway 73 in Huntersville. On Saturday, the top six WBT pros will transport their catches to Cricket Arena, 2700 E. Independence Blvd. in Charlotte to weigh-in with the Bassmaster American at 3:15 p.m., which is taking place on Lake Wylie. The WBT winner takes home a fully rigged Triton boat with a Mercury Marine outboard, valued at $50,000

Entering this tournament, Oklahoma's Sheri Glasgow leads the Toyota Angler of the Year race with 590 points, followed by Best Angler ESPY winner Tammy Richardson of Arkansas (562) and Georgia's Pam Martin-Wells (548). A pair of Tennessee pros, Dianna Clark and Cindy Hill, is fourth and fifth, respectively.

The Toyota WBT Angler of the Year will reward the top female angler with a 2007 Toyota Tundra Double Cab Pickup Truck.

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