Rookie Year by Sara Jo

-Women Angler, first female to join a league of 29 other teams of men.

-First couple to fish this league together.

Overcoming so many challenges and learning so much is an absolute humbling experience to say the least. I am extremely Thankful for everything we accomplished and overcame this season.

Coming into the meeting back in December 2019, I was beyond nervous but confident. The thought crossed my mind of what did I get myself into after watching previous years weigh ins and seeing all these faces in person some I’ve known for years, some just in passing, and some I’ve never met.
I have never fished a tournament series before. I have done a lot of the 1 day tournaments throughout Minnesota as well as the Women Angler of MN and Wisconsin Women fish tournaments. But here goes nothing.

My first and only goal I/we made was to weigh in fish. I didn’t care where we placed (hopefully not last) each tourney but I was determined to never have a 0 bag!

Well lucky for us we succeeded and weighed in fish each tourney.
Tourney 1 and 2 we didn’t get full bags but we weighed in fish.
Tourney 3 FULL BAG! Yep we finally managed to get a full bag!
Tourney 4 came around I made a new goal with Matt before the start of that day that we are going to place in the top 20!!
Well we placed in the top 15 taking 13th place this did not come easy as our morning started out rough with an accident and we didn’t catch our first fish until a little after 11 am.
We even had a short ride in the hot heat and biggest gill for a short time as well. I WILL TAKE IT. It’s those little victories that make this all worth it. The small accomplishments each tourney making small goals and reaching them!
From equipment failure and accidents to hitting all our goals it was a wonderful, humbling and jam packed learning season!

As a serious female angler there are many obstacles you face. The biggest one is being judged a little more than the average fishermale. It’s an intimidating situation weather your the male or the female coming in. So many things go through your head for every Member Meetings, pre-fishing days and tournament days. But let me tell you how AMAZING most the guys are and were in the MN MADE club! I am so completely Thankful to be welcomed into a club with open arms. It’s truly a big fishing family I can not say enough good things about the hard work and Dedication Jake, Paul and the few other guys under the radar put forth to make these tournaments run smooth as well as the support, encouragement, help and all around great
Group of guys to fish with!!!

Lastly I can not say Thank you enough to fishing partner for life Matt!! Your truly an amazing and supportive fiancé all around but especially in my fishing world! I’m glad we pushed each other to reach our goals and can’t wait to see how much we grow.

There is so many things I could go on and on about but until next year....... 🎣🎣🎣

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