Women’s Bassmaster Tour angler Janet Parker of Little Elm, Texas, lapped the entire Academy Sports + Outdoors Women’s Bassmaster Tour field April 25 in
Louisiana on the Ouachita River when she took her first BASS win by a margin of more than 8 pounds. A scheduled appearance the next day in Alabama gave her the opportunity to do two more laps &mdash victory laps, if you will &mdash on the track at Talladega Superspeedway. The U.S. Army Freedom Team Salute is a program of the Secretary of the Army and Chief of Staff of the Army. Founded in 2005, it recognizes “special supporters” of soldiers and the Army’s mission. She started her charity efforts soon after making an appearance to talk about fishing at an Air Force base and decided she wanted to do more. “Although I can’t begin to comprehend the sacrifices the military and their families make for our country, I want them to know that it is appreciated,” she said. About that second “victory lap” at Talladega: Parker was a passenger in a pace car. “I wasn’t expecting to do that,” she said. “The G force at 150 mph is incredible. It was scary and very exciting at the same time. The adrenaline going through me was about the same as when I caught my largest bass of 12 pounds, 5 ounces.” That bass, for the record, was not at a WBT event, but in Mexico at Lake El Salto last December,
A new way to promote recreational and tournament angling in Virginia got a kick start April 26 when it was unveiled on Hooked Up, the live show on that preceded the final-day weigh-in at the Advance Auto Parts Blue Ridge Brawl on Virginia’s Smith Mountain Lake.