Hi…as most of you know, I am Robin McFarlane, but what you don’t know is that I am an addict; an addict to fishing that is. I just can’t get enough of fishing and the more I fish the more I want to fish. And so, the “wanting more” has led me to fish the 2006 inaugural Women’s Bassmaster Tour.

With this being the first year of the tour, I decided to try my addiction as a co-angler, fishing Neely Henry in Alabama, Lewisville in Texas, Dardanelle in Arkansas, Norman in North Carolina and Bull Shoals in Missouri. Each day of the tournaments I fished with a pro that provided new techniques to the various types of fishing, along with theories as to why the weather affects the fish, why the fish were or were not biting, when to use certain lures…and so forth.

After each day on the water, when I walked away, I know that I had gained a new friend and picked up some knew knowledge that I did not have when I left the boat ramp that morning, whether I had fish to weigh in or not.

If I had to look back on this circuit and try to pick out one thing that stands out it would be the day that I fished with Katrina DeHaven from Arizona. First and foremost, Katrina is petrified of snakes and while fishing Lake Lewisville, back in a small pocket, we saw several large snakes swimming around. Katrina made a comment that “Gosh, these snakes sure are big”. My response back was “Naw, they are little compared to their Mommas”.

Well, while working along the westerly bank in the pocket, I noticed a catfish that was actually on the bank flopping around trying to get back into the water…or so I thought!

I just couldn’t see a fish dying like this, not when it would be so easy just to go over and push it back into the water. When I brought the fish to Katrina’s attention, she agreed that it just wasn’t right to let this poor catfish die.

Just about the time Katrina bends over to put the trolling motor on high, we noticed that there was a water moccasin attached to the catfish and it was proceeding to swallow it. The catfish was actually flopping around, trying to get away from the snake. Katrina frantically and quickly changed her mind and told me that we weren’t going over to help the catfish after all.

“No problem” I said. I will just throw my Spook at the snake and scare it away. Wrong! I didn’t scare the snake at all. It was too involved in swallowing the catfish and had no clue that I was trying to get it to back down. After several attempts at trying to scare the snake, I told Katrina; “Just let me try one more time to help this catfish out”.

This time it worked! I had a 4’ moccasin swallowing a catfish, hooked on my Spook. At this point, I just wasn’t sure what I was going to do , since the snake was still trying to swallow the catfish and was not happy that he had been hooked in doing so. So, I did what I thought was best. I told Katrina “We have a problem.”

Katrina’s response was; “No, you have a problem and the only solution I see is to cut your line”. In the mean time, Katrina was trying to get as far away as she cold by standing on the very tip of the bow of her boat. She took her scissors out and offered them to me to cut the line. She also informed me that “I would have to walk to the front of the boat to get the scissors and oh, by the way, leave your rod in the back of the boat”.

“Gosh”, I said to myself, I really don’t want to cut my line. I wanted my Spook back. I had been catching fish on it. Katrina (thinking I would go for it) offered me a brand new Spook, still in the package, but (I thought) “What’s the big deal? This snake is only 4’ long and it will eventually come off.” I started reeling the snake and the Spook toward the boat.

But it wasn’t coming off and it is amazing how much bigger something is, the closer it gets to you in a situation like this. And boy was I wrong about it coming off! While reeling it in, I noticed that I had hooked the snake about a foot behind it’s head and the snake was madder than all get out.

Fortunately, about that time, a gentleman came walking up on the bank and asked what we were doing. Katrina told him that she was fishing with a crazy woman and “Lord help her”! Once this gentleman saw what was going on, he also agreed with me that it was not big deal. He said to just reel the snake with the catfish in it’s mouth towards him and he would get it unhooked, get the catfish back in the water and return my Spook to me. But how was he going to do this? He found a log laying on the bank and took a couple of good swipes at the snake. The snake let go of the catfish, but it was too late to save it, as the catfish was already dead. He then killed the snake and removed the Spook and threw it back to me.

While all of this was going on, you could still hear pleadings from Katrina not to bring that Spook into the boat. Finally, I talked Katrina into letting me keep my bait. Although, for the rest of the day, she refused to turn her back to me, for she was afraid of what I might want to save next.

So, when it came time to weigh-in our fish, as with most B.A.S.S. tournaments, Katrina went on stage ahead of me because she was the pro. While on stage, she talked about the snake situation and how she had fished with a crazy co-angler from Texas who honestly believed in releasing any and all fish back into the water, no matter what they are attached to. She said she was surprised that I didn’t take the snake back and make something out of it, since I was from Texas.

Well shoot, if I had thought of that, I probably could have put it in the small plastic bag that I carry with me for trash! Although, I can bet that if I would have suggested doing that, chances are I would still be sitting on the bank at Lewisville with my plastic bag.

Now this is just one of the funny things that happened to me this year on the Tour. I fished 5 tournaments and had a blast at all of them. Not only did I experience fun times, but I met some wonderful women, gained fantastic new friends and re-kindled friendships with old friends who all have the same addiction that I have and that is….FISHING!

I am looking forward to the 2007 WBT Tour. I will be fishing Amistad, Lake Dardanelle, Guntersville, Kentucky Lake and the Red River. The only difference between my 2006 circuit and the 2007 circuit is that in 2007 I will be going as a pro and trust me; I will be ready for anything that my co-angler throws at me, especially when they say “We have a problem!"