Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 7, 1994 TAG: 9402080012
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Make that fisherwoman. Or fisherperson. Or just angler.
The number of women taking up fishing and other outdoor pursuits is one of the fastest growing segments of the outdoor scene.
Women aren't just showing up in the back seat of a bass boat. They have their own bass tournament circuit, their own tackle, their own seminars. In fact, they are beginning to teach the men a thing or two. Berryman will be one of the teachers this weekend at Bass Fishing Techniques 94 in Roanoke, which is two days of intensive instruction sponsored by Virginia Tech. She will be a professor of bass fishing, along with top male anglers, like Jimmy Houston and Woo Daves.
For Berryman, who lives in Dardenelle, Ark., the road to becoming a reel woman started early.
``My dad had four girls. He always wanted a boy. He loved to hunt and he loved to fish, and since he never ended up with a son he took all four of us hunting and fishing. If he'd had a boy, I don't know if any of us would have been included.
``I caught my first big, ole carp at age 4. All the parents along the bank were jumping and screaming. They were having as much fun as I was. At that moment something magic happened. `Gosh, this is fun.' It was a lowly carp, but to me that was the most beautiful fish in the world.''
Berryman got her first taste of serious bass fishing at age 17 on an outing with her dad.
``He usually took his fishing buddies bass fishing, but for some reason they couldn't go. It was a cloudy, rainy day. I always thought he was a little crazy because he always wanted to go fishing when the weather was nasty. `Sure, I'll go,' I told him. `But it's raining outside.' `Then it probably will be a good fishing day,' he said.''
Berryman's dad loaned her some baggy rain gear and tied what she called a ``buzz thing'' onto her line.
``I'd really never fished with artificials. I was watching the little bait dance and sputter across the surface and was fascinated that the little dude looked just like a little minnow jumping around, until a three-pound bass came out of a weed bed. When that fish bit, I really wanted to fish for nothing but bass.''
That's pretty much what she's done, entering her first bass tournament in 1979, becoming a pro in the mid-'80s and winning the Bass'n Gal world championship in 1992.
``I have never considered it a handicap being a woman. I think the most wonderful thing about fishing, it is the most nondiscriminating sport I've ever been involved in. It not only doesn't require you to be an athlete or to be a certain height or size or to be muscle-bound or to even be a certain age. It certainly doesn't require you to be a man.''
In fact, there may be some cases where a woman angler has an advantage, Berryman said. Women are likely to be more patient. They have more sensitivity in their fingertips. That makes them excellent plastic worm fishermen, she said.
There's more.
``I have a unique theory,'' said Berryman. ``I don't have any scientific basis for it, and I really don't talk about it very often, but a woman's body basically holds more water than a man's body, and we have our own unique cycles, so I think it is easier for a woman to become attuned with the aquatic world and its cycles in a more natural way than it is for a man.''
Even so, Berryman expresses little desire to join the B.A.S.S. circuit, which opened its big-money tournaments to women a couple of years ago following a ``females need not apply'' philosophy that reigned for more than 20 years.
Berryman sees some welcome trends for women anglers: tackle-makers are designing fishing gear for women, clubs are being organized for women, sports shows are designing seminars for women.
Bass Fishing Techniques 94 will offer two days of instruction beginning Saturday, 8 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Tanglewood. The registration fee is $74; $40 for children. On-site registration begins at 7 a.m.; preregister by calling 703-231-5183.
by CNB