|
 |
| Search |
|
|
Observer Classifieds
Place a Classified Ad
Send a Letter to
the Editor
Send a Press Release
Staff Directory
Archives / Search 2003
Community Links
|
|
Top Stories
By Penny Fletcher
penny@observernews.net
She’s been written up in USA Today, The New York Times, national fishing magazines and more. A celebrity for breaking all kinds of glass ceilings for women, Judy Israel lives a quiet life in a new South County community overlooking a large man-made lake.
 |
| Top fisher woman Judy Israel of Valencia Lakes always uses her Ranger bass boat when traveling in competition for Team BP. Judy has placed in the Top 10 in 14 tournaments around the world and is the first woman to have ever won an FLW Tournament. FLW stands for Forest L Wood, founder of Ranger bass boats, and is a million-dollar tournament drawing big name companies as sponsors. Team BP also supports Judy so she can travel around the United States teaching children the love of fishing, nature and being outdoors. |
Except when she’s on a million-dollar tour.
Her love of fishing is a major passion in her life. And, as National Grandparents Day approaches, she wants to encourage others to pass along their knowledge of not only fishing– but other sports and outdoor activities – to their grandchildren as well.
Judy, at 63, is the leading female money winner in the FLW Tournament and the only woman to date that has ever won an FLW Tournament. (FLW stands for Forest L. Wood, founder of Ranger Boats and is billed as the largest tournament series in the business.)
“I grew up in the Bronx, New York. My dad used to take me out to the Hamptons in a skiff on weekends,” Judy said in an interview between tours last week. “It was a long ride, about two hours, out Long Island to get there, and we’d catch maybe 100 pan fish, usually flounder, every weekend. We lived in a big, tall apartment building and everybody always knew my dad would leave the (iced) fish for them to take. Free, when we got back. They’d all look forward to it.”
Although she knows she began riding with her father at age 3, her first real memories begin at age 5. She has a brother, but he wasn’t as into fishing as she was and this is how she and her father bonded, she said.
“Now I take my grandsons. Every year, I take them two places, fishing, and to a Yankees away game. We’ve been to Boston and Toronto and this year we’re going to Baltimore to see the Yanks play the Orioles. Baseball and fishing. There’s nothing more family-friendly. Nothing that you can do together like sports, the outdoors – just real old-fashioned family time. Those are the important things.”
The former elementary school teacher doesn’t limit passing her skills along to her grandsons however. As part of Team BP – with sponsors like BP Oil Company, Kellogg’s, Chevrolet, Wal-Mart, companies that make fishing gear and other corporate giants, when she isn’t on tour she travels all over the United States teaching fishing to children who belong to Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
“I just came back from stops all across the U.S., and in Detroit for instance, we had 35 kids, ages 8-to-10, and only three had ever fished before. By the end of the day they all knew how to fish and I know it’s a day they’ll never forget.”
Judy has worked with all kinds of children’s groups, including those with various types of physical challenges. And in tournaments, she fishes against mostly men, many who are less than half her age.
“She’s a great role model,” said Ashley Lynn, a spokeswoman for Team BP based in Chicago. “And with National Grandparents Day coming up what better way for grandparents to bond with their grandchildren. Just look at Judy!”
National Grandparents Day is Sept. 7 this year. The holiday was first proclaimed by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 as the first Sunday after Labor Day so the date changes each year.
Fishing has been such a big part of Judy’s life that it was the reason she and her husband, Abbie, moved to Florida 13 years ago.
“I used to tournament fish too but now I’m just her bass caddy,” Abbie joked.
Judy only fishes in catch-and-release bass tournaments. “We can catch three kinds, large mouth bass, small mouth bass and Kentucky bass,” she said.
She’s fished in the Amazon River in Brazil and all over the United States. Some of her favorite spots are Lake Champlain, located on the U.S.-Canada border and Kentucky Lake. But her “special” lake is Lake Okeechobee.
“We moved to Florida – to Clewiston, to Lake Okeechobee, to learn how to fish,” she said. “Oh, I had always loved to fish, but I wanted to learn to really fish. I was out on a boat with Roland Martin (famous television personality who hosts the show, “Fishing with Roland Martin”) and he told me just to get in the back of the boat and fish like the big boys do.”
She followed his advice and learned by doing.
There were 150 boats in her first tournament, two fishers to a boat, and she was so nervous she couldn’t set her hook. “I could feel them (the fish) biting the bait, but I couldn’t hook them,” she said. “I watched the others. I learned by watching and doing.”
Since then, she’s fished more than 100 tournaments, even though some of the men wouldn’t partner with her at first.
“She’s really a pioneer,” her husband said.
She always uses her own boat, a Ranger bass boat that is currently at her son’s home in Connecticut. “It’s powered by a 225-hp Evinrude,” she said. “I’m going to fly up there and take my grandsons to the Yankee game in Baltimore and take them fishing. Then I’ll pick up my boat (for the next tournament).”
To date, she has had 14 finishes in the Top 10 and Judy says she’s nowhere near ready to quit.
The couple moved from Clewiston to South County in November and plans to stay.
To find out more about the tournaments, or the companies that sponsor them, contact Ashley Lynn, a spokeswoman for Team BP in Chicago at (312) 729-4269, or email her at
alynn@golinharris.com.
What follows is a public comments section. This is not from the Observer News staff - it comes from other people and contains their opinions and theirs alone. The Observer News does not control the material that follows. We do, however, reserve the right to remove objectionable material at our discretion. By that we mean that we will edit or delete any content that we deem is inappropriate. By posting your comments, you are stating that you agree to these terms.
Click here to report a comment.
© Copyright 2008 by The
Observer
News Publications and M&M Printing Company, Inc.
Top of Page
|
|
|
Top Stories
Latest Headlines
|
|
