Terri Talks

The new schedule is finally out for 2010, and I’m so excited. Two of the tournaments are going to be in Texas.  That’s especially great news in the current economy, since the people at ESPN/BASS who are in charge of our tournament trail tell me that the majority of women in the Academy Sports and Outdoors Bassmaster Women’s Trail (our official team name) are from Texas.  Yes, you heard me, the majority of women fishing professionally are not just from the south, but from Texas itself.  I think that says a lot of good things about the women of Texas.

The schedule starts at Wheeler Lake, in Decatur Alabama in March 18-20.  Lake Wheeler is part of the Tennesse River system, like Lake Guntersville, and is second only to Guntersville in size in Alabama.  Second stop is Lufkin, Texas at Lake Sam Rayburn.  According to the people at BASS, Big Sam, as it is affectionately known here, is the site of more BASS tournaments than any other lake.  We will be fishing Lake Sam Rayburn April 22-24, the week following the Annual Big Bass Splash otherwise known as the McDonald’s or Sealy Tournament, so that should be interesting.  Hope they leave a few fish for us to catch! In June, we head up to Temple, Texas to Lake Belton on June 10-12.  Lake Belton is one of the few lakes in Texas to have any Smallmouth bass in it, so that should be an interesting tournament.  Lake Sam Rayburn is mostly largemouth bass, but Lake Belton has largemouth, spotted and smallmouth bass, so the fishing could be very varied.  It is also the first time in ESPN/BASS history that they have had a tournament on that lake at all, so the Women’s Tour is paving the way to new ground.  The final stop of the regular season will be September 16-18 at West Monroe, Louisianna, where we will return to the Ouachita River for the second year in a row.  We will be fishing in the fall rather than the summer season that we fished this year.  After the regular season is over, we will return to Lake Sam Rayburn in Lufkin, Texas on October 15-17, for the Championship.  The woman who ends up in the Number One Position in the Toyota Tundra Angler of the Year Points Race after the Championship will again be going to the Bassmaster Classic in February 2011.  As in years past, the points from the lowest tournament will be dropped before determining which women are in the top 20 to fish the women’s championship in October.

Rod and I are both excited about next years’ schedule and looking forward to getting on the road again.  We are anxious to visit friends we made last year on the tour and make new ones this year.  It is both of our favorite thing about the Bassmaster Women’s Tour.

I need to update my website on my Sponsor’s page, with links and all that, but I wanted to write a brief blog about all of the new sponsors that I have gotten at the end of the year.  I say at the end, but more between the third (June) and fourth (September) tournaments, I seem to have acquired a number of new sponsors.  To be fair, I am going to introduce my new sponsors in the order in which I acquired them.

First off is Hawg Wild Custom Baits @ www.HawgWildCustomBassBaits.com.   Larry Rydach is responsible for the design and development of his “Larry the Lizard” bait, which I was first introduced to a couple of years ago.  I got a sample pack at an Emory/Lake Fork Area Chamber of Commerce function, and immediately took them out and fished with them.  As soon as I came back in, I went out and bought those lizards in every color and size available.  They are really unique - a rattle lizard that comes in a six-inch and 10-inch size, and catch huge bass.  He has also developed a frog that is new to the line, which also has rattles in the legs.  These baits are unique and work great to catch bass.

Next came Steve’s Custom Props @ www.stevescustomprops.com.  Steve is well-known in the Lake Fork area for his 17 years experience working on boat propellers.  After he worked on my boat and adjusted my prop (including grinding it, smoothing it, and adjusting the height), my boat performance changed dramatically.  I know get much better gas mileage, better hole shot (come up on plane faster), and my top speed went from about 60 mph to 74, and this was deep into the heat of summer.  I also burn much less oil than I used to.  I can’t say enough good things about what Steve can do for your boat performance, even without having to buy a new prop! If you need a new one, he’ll tell you, if you don’t, he’ll tune and adjust the one you have to give you optimal performance.  It would be definitely worth anyone’s time and money to consult with him and see if he can improve your boat’s performance.  With the cost of gas and oil today, consulting Steve will end up saving you money in the long run.

Next up is Dave of www.BayouTackle.com.  Bayou Tackle has a line of products that are very unique and highly fishable (meaning you’ll catch lots of fish using his products).  The first one I fell in love with was his special weighted hooks for wacky worm fishing.  No more sticking those stupid nose weights in the worm, just hang your worm on the specially weighted, weed-guarded hooks and go fish, weedlessly! In addition, he has a special VooDoo In-Line Buzzer that’s terrific.  He has tournament-fished for years, and his products aren’t the same-old ones that you see done and re-done again and again by tackle companies.  I am proud to be representing his products and helping place them in more tackle stores.  Until you can get them in stores, you can buy them on-line at his website.

Finally, for new Sponsors is Gamma fishing line.  I was persuaded by Pam Martin-Wells and Steven Wells to try the line because of its excellent properties.  I was sold on it after one use and strung it on all of my rods! With my disabilities, I can fish longer and easier using their special small-diameter, light-weight lines, with easier hook sets and better line strength and abrasion-resistance.  That translates to me being able to enjoy fishing more without pain.  That is one of the reasons Pam and Steven told me to try it, that it would make my fishing easier and more fun, and they were definitely right.  If you go to www.Gammafishing.com and enter TETX in the discount code section, you can get a 15% discount on all line you buy there.  I especially recommend that you read the recommended knots section for what type of knots you need to tie with this superior line.  I can’t tell you enough how great both the Co-Polymer and Flourocarbon line are, I’ve never seen anything like it.  I actually gave up using braided line in favor of their Flourocarbon, which is plenty strong to use for any fishing application, as long as you use the recommended knots.

Finally, I would like to thank my VERY SPECIAL Sponsors, who were with me for 2009 and will be continuing.  Thank you to Lake Fork Marina and Motel.  It’s a great place to stay and to shop, and the people are terrific to talk to if you just want to go into the marina and gab.  Firetrol Fire Protection Systems, thank you so much for your support and your commitment for another year.  If anyone has a business in need of fire alarms or fire suppression equipment, you couldn’t do better than to contact David Ellis at Firetrol www.firetrol.net.  I appreciate all of my sponsors and will update my website ASAP to reflect the new ones and link their URLs to mine. 

I will leave you with a final comment.  I don’t take a discount from any company, or agree to represent them, until I have evaluated their products at full price.  That is, I pay full price for whatever they are selling, and then only if I strongly believe in a company will I at sometime contact them and let them know how much I like their product.  That means I am a loyal customer more than anything.  It is only an additional benefit if I make some kind of financial arrangement to represent their company or its products - in truth, I would happily be a full-price loyal customer for any of my sponsors - I don’t do it for the discount, and I won’t take an up-front discount on anything, so that I am not biased or influenced in any way in the products that I use.  Just to let you know.  Some people do it differently, and I’m not saying that that’s wrong, I’m just clarifying that that’s not what I do.

After Bruce sent out my greeting to my fellow anglers, inviting them to take a look at my fledgling website, I was very pleasantly surprised at the response from my new colleagues.  I have now concluded that the women who fish the Womens Bassmasters Trail must be about the nicest women on the planet.   I have been warmly welcomed by everyone who has emailed me.  In addition, I have been given support, advice, and encouragement from all these women.  Never before have I experienced such a genuine offering of unlimited friendship.  I am overwhelmed and grateful.  Since making the decision to join the women as they fish this year, I have been excitedly anticipating the start of the season so I could meet the women of the WBT and make new friends.  I can’t wait to meet all of these nice women who have already contacted me, along with those I haven’t had contact with yet.  I am going to be going to the Bassmaster’s Classic in Shreveport, and have heard from many of the other WBT Anglers that they will be also.  I am hoping to meet many of my colleagues at that time.  Less than a month away!  I can’t wait. 

Thank you to all of you who have emailed me.   Many have invited me to link with their websites, and being invited to do so thrills me.  I have been following everyones websites, tournament blogs and journals, and am willing to link with you one and all.  I welcome all advice, suggestions, and input, and I love hearing everyone’s stories of how they got started, and how long they have been in the sport.  I am amazed and awed at what these women have done to pave the way for someone like me to be able to live her dream.

Thank you to all of the Women of the WBT.  You’re a terrific bunch and I’m pround to be among you.

Catch two fish and blog me in the morning!

Dr. Terri Elkins, M.D.

The Fishing Doc

The Beginning:

Many people have asked me to tell the story of how I ended up going from being a physician specializing in Obstetrics and Gynecology to professional fishing.  For those of you who don’t know what an Ob/Gyn is, it’s a doctor who sees only women for women’s issues, like babies and hormone problems.  I’ve never heard of another woman Gynecologist, or doctor of any kind, who ended up fishing professionally.  Here’s how it happened, starting from the beginning…

A few years ago I had some knee problems, and doctors did a scope on my knee.  I got a resistant Staph infection and ended up on IV antibiotics and crutches for six months, and having multiple other surgeries and procedures to try to repair the damage from the Staph infection from the first surgery.  I ended up being worse after my surgeries than I ever thought about being before it, but through it all I persevered and continued my private medical practice as best I could.  I had started an office in Lancaster, TX in 2001, and was settling into the hospital there when I was challenged by the CEO of the hospital to fish in their annual bass tournament benefitting the Children’s Arthritis Foundation.  I learned how to fish, beat the CEO, placed second overall in the tournament, and learned I had a new passion - bass fishing. 

My knee problems continued, however, and it was discovered that I had ruptured discs in my back that were causing problems.  I underwent surgery for back fusion successfully, but during the recovery process, had a terrible fall, which messed up the hardware from the surgery, and left me even more injured than before.  Now I had problems with numbness in my hands and feet, more severe pain, and other problems.  A second major back surgery was unsuccessful in fixing the problems.  I developed even more severe nerve problems, and multiple procedures to attempt repair have also been unsuccessful.   Despite daily physical therapy, the pain, numbness and other problems continue.

Losing Everything:

I fell on September 28, 2004.  From there things went downhill.  Even with surgery and daily physical therapy, I never recovered.  Being left with numb hands made me face some hard facts.  I was not going to be able to operate on patients again, and even treating patients in the office was out of the question because I could miss important problems.  In addition, I was in uncontrollable pain and my bone wasn’t healing in my back.  My surgeon told me that it usually takes 4-6 months for bone regrowth after the type of surgery I had.  It wasn’t until a full year and a half after my surgery that the bone re-formed. 

After my fall and realizing I would never be the same again, I made the hard decision to shut down my medical practice.   Since I was bedridden and unable to work, I lost everything in my office to my landlord.  Bankruptcy followed, and I lost everything but my home.  My business, with all the equipment I had purchased, was liquidated by the landlord.  I lost my boat and even my car.  I was pretty philosophical at that point, however.  Since I was bedridden and my hands and feet were numb, I couldn’t drive anyway.  I also figured I’d never fish again.  Because of all of the hardware in my back and the extensive nerve damage, it is painful for me to stand or sit - (actually sitting is harder than standing) - so it was difficult for me to even sit in the car for long enough to go to my doctors’ appointments.  For the past five years, there have been plenty of months where the only times I have left the house have been to go to my doctors’ appointments.

Physical (and Mental) Therapy:

Since it was hard for me to sit in a car, even riding 20-30 minutes to do physical therapy seemed to take two steps back for every one step forward.  After a couple of years, we were able to put a shallow physical therapy pool at our house so that I could do therapy at home.  In the meanwhile I used a treadmill that sits beside my bed.  I use either the pool or the treadmill every day, depending on the weather.  I have found that if I feel too badly to do my therapy one day, it is even harder to get up the next.  Although I still spend about 90% of my time in bed, I have been able to build up my stamina and pain tolerance to where I can be on my feet or sit for awhile.  Not comfortably, however. 

My hands and feet are another issue.  My formerly pampered surgeon’s hands have become a mass of scars from the frequent injuries caused by the numbness.  All of the glasses in our house are plastic now, and we eat off of paper plates.  It’s hard to hold a grip when your hands are numb, something I learned to the detriment of our dishes and glasses.  I type incredibly slowly from what I used to be able to do, but since I can’t hold a pen and write anything readable anymore, typing is better than writing.  It seems the harder I try to do things with my hands, the more numbness I get.  As I type  I see the new scar on my left hand from my recent Thanksgiving incident.  Normally my husband does the cooking, especially involving things like ovens, but I had to do the mom thing and try to cook at least one thing for the big family Thanksgiving Dinner at my parents.  Rod painstakingly prepared the dressing according to my directions, but while the oven was preheating I decided to “help” and put the pan in the oven.  It wasn’t until I saw the smoke and smelled the burning flesh that I realized that I had my hand up against the bright red heating element at the top of the oven.  It’s been over a month since that third-degree burn, and it has yet to fully heal and appears as an angry red mark on the top of my hand, keeping company with all of the older whitened scars decorating my hands now. 

Accomodations to Fish:

It was my husband’s campaign to be able to get me out of the house for a little while to fish occasionally.  First he constructed a special bed  for me in the backseat of our pickup so that I could lay down to travel.  By laying down to travel, the pressure on my spine is minimized, and all that I have to deal with is just the bumpy roads.  Rod then rigged my rods with floaties, so that if/when I dropped them he could fish them out.  Next were rod and reel grips to increaase my sensitivity and help me turn the reel crank with numb hands.  he also taught me to “feel” the fish bite with other parts of my body, such as my abdomen where I now rest my rod handles.  He then taught me how to keep hold of the rod and hold my grip (it is more natural to relax a grip when your hands are numb), and encouraged me to change the rod from hand to hand so that I could work out numbness from one side to the other.  He tied on all the lures and put all the line on the rods, something he always does for both of us to this day without complaint.  It was also his idea to get back braces, and pillows and blankets to be able to lay down on the boat.  Because my problems with my feet make it impossible for me to use a trollingmotor foot pedal, he changed ours out and got a remote-controlled one.  I could spend the day listing the accomodations that my engineer/mechanic husband has dreamed up to help me fish.  It is absolutely incredible all the changes he made to accomodate my limitations.  The bottom line is that, after a fashion, I could fish. 

The next item a woman thinks of regarding any activity she is going to be doing is, “What can I wear?”  Rod was even the instigator of my getting different clothes to fish in since my old ones wouldn’t work.  Pretty much everything I wear now is pull-on due to my hands.  In addition, my knee gives me pain and problems, even just due to something like material rubbing  against it, so I have to be careful about that.    Sometimes I get brave and wear some of my old clothes.  It is all well and good to have your husband hook, zip and snap your clothes for you- that is until you have to go to a public restroom and can’t take him with you.  Enough said.

Even though I budget my energy and pain tolerance levels in order to compete, I have a down-time for every out-of-bed event.  Some days are better than others and some activities are more taxing than others.  It has been known to take me a week or two to recover from a day of fishing.  Now for the crucial question.  How am I going to fish WBT?

Fishing the Dream: The WBT:

Since becoming an angler, I dreamed of fishing professionally with women.   I learned as an adult that I am naturally competitive , and  I actually did  fairly well and held my own in fields of men, even with my issues.  In 2007, when I placed first in one of the hours and was tied for the day for the boat (top prize for under-the-slot fish) in the Berkley Big Bass Tournament on Lake Fork, I realized that I might be able to fish the WBT.  Since its inception, I had been following (and envying) the women fishing the tournament trail.  Following the trail news I found out that there were many retired women fishing, including an incredible 82-year-old woman.  I then found out that a pregnant woman given restrictions by her doctor was able to place second in the Championship in 2008.  There were also reports of women dealing with multiple other very serious health issues and still fishing the WBT.  Not only were there women, but there were women like me - who dealt with and accomodated their disabilities in order to fish.  When the 2009 WBT schedule and rules were posted, I voraciously read every word.  Once I found out there were four well-spaced tournaments, I knew I would have my built-in recovery time, so I decided to give it a try.

No Hindrance:

My major concern from the very beginning of deciding to fish the WBT was that I not be a liability to someone fishing with me.  Following the WBT guidelines as our example, Rod and I set out to fish tournaments with me as the boater and him as the non-boater, to make sure he could fish unhindered with me in front running the boat and doing everything I would have to do during a tournament by myself.  We have successfully fished many tournaments in this manner and Rod managed to win a boat last year, so we know that this arrangement works just fine.  Rod is still in charge of all boat maintenance, but he has taught me everything I need to know to pilot the boat safely, without undue jostling of my injuries.  The things I have learned have not only made me a better, safer boat captain, but will also ensure a smoother, more enjoyable ride for my non-boater.  I have learned that the adrenaline rush that the tournament setting provides helps mask the pain during tournament hours.  I only stay at hotels where I can do my physical therapy every day whenever I am away from home.  The WBT Trail of four tournaments and a Championship is spread over an eight-month period of time, giving me plenty of recovery time for each tournament.  I don’t need any special accomodations to fish, other than those Rod has already done, and I promise  my colleagues that I would never do anything that would hinder another woman’s ability to fish and win in her category. 

The Bottom Line:

The bottom line is that I enjoyed being a ladies’ doctor and have missed the socialization that is part and parcel of groups of women.  Even better is being with a group of women doing something that they enjoy.  I credit my husband taking me fishing as the sole reason that, when I lost my career and everything else, I didn’t become overwhelmingly depressed.  Even being predominantly bedridden and in constant pain has not done this either, since I have something that I can look forward to, even on my worst days.  I get happy every time I am heading to the lake to go out and fish.  You can ask my husband - he’ll tell you how almost every time we head out on the lake I will invariably say, “I forgot how much I enjoy this and how happy this makes me.”  And it does.