Judy Israel

Judy Israel has taken to the sport introduced to her by her husband and has made great strides for women in fishing

Judy Israel does not come across like a Gloria Steinem. Then again, she isn’t trying to promote sisterhood or further women’s social issues. She is just trying to catch fish. And the efficiency and consistency with which she has done so is advancing women’s acceptance in a sport stereotypically thought of as being a good ol’ boys club.

Following a disappointing shutout on the third day of the EverStart Series tournament in early April, Israel stood in 11th place among co-anglers in that series and held the same position in the co-angler standings on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour. In just her fifth year in competitive bass fishing, she has earned more than $15,000 in prize money and a couple of serious looks and small deals from sponsors.

Israel, who grew up in the Bronx, fished for flounder as a child from her father’s boat on family getaways to the Hamptons. By the time she was a teenager, she turned her attention to other endeavors. Years later, her husband, Abbie, began fishing in his free time on business trips to Florida. He so loved it that he began to take his family to Lake Okeechobee and reintroduced his wife to her childhood pastime.

“He’d come home and tell me, `Judy, it’s the best thing in the world.’ Once I went down there with him, I was interested in it again,” she said.

That was 15 years ago. In recent years, that interest was expanded by the challenge of switching from live bait to artificial lures. Instead of a gradual conversion to artificial lures, the Israels decided to plunge into a venue where live bait is forbidden.

“People would kid me and say that I needed to throw away those shiners and start fishing like a man,” she said. “So about five years ago, we began fishing tournaments.”

Having no experience with the restrictions of bait at tournaments, Israel became a sponge in the back of the boat, absorbing all of the techniques and styles she could by watching her professional at the front of the boat. A quick study, Israel earned a check in her first tournament and was immediately addicted to the competition.

Over the past four-plus years, Israel has continued to cash checks, learning from her professional partners along the way.

“In the beginning, I was too embarrassed to ask questions, so I would just watch the pro,” she says. “Fortunately, I’m a pretty quick study, and I’m still learning. Even in my last tournament, I learned a few things.”

In that tournament, an EverStart Series event, Israel and her husband became the first husband-wife combination to survive the weekend cut. Saturday was unkind, however, and both of the Israels blanked and headed home.

Home is now Clewiston, Fla. The Israels retired from their home security business, Best Alarm, in the south Bronx and left it for their son, Eric, to manage. Abbie ventures north to check in on things once each month, but Eric’s mother usually sees her son on weekends at fishing tournaments as they have made it a family affair.

“My husband is very proud of me in what I’ve learned and how well I’ve done,” she says. “I’m more competitive than he is. I’m not saying he doesn’t try hard, but I’m driven. I really want to go out there and compete.”

While acceptance on the circuits has been easy to come by and Israel has encountered no problems from wives not wanting their husbands to fish with a woman, in her second tournament, she got a taste of male chauvinism.

“In my second tournament, a gentleman wouldn’t fish with me because I’m a woman,” she remembers. “I just never really have understood that. My husband used to go to work with a secretary, and I never thought anything about that. This is the same thing. Fortunately, no one else has ever felt that way since that one incident.”

Operation Bass officials advised the unwilling partner that its tournaments were open draws and he had to fish with the pairing assigned to him. He decided to withdraw from the tournament. Israel was teamed with a different boater and has never seen the angler who refused to fish with her since.

“I was upset by it, but you go on,” Israel said. “Everyone else has been so accepting that I’m not going to let one person get to me.”

It is the acceptance anglers have of one another that makes fishing such an enjoyable, fulfilling lifestyle for the Israels. As they travel the country, they make friends and forge bonds that they never imagined when they fished that first tournament five years ago.

“What is wonderful about (fishing) is seeing America. And as we do that, we meet so many wonderful people,” Israel says. “You can go to the fishing tackle department at Wal-Mart and make new friends anywhere in the country. We met people that way five years ago and we’re still friends.

“I’m from the North and they may be from the South or the Midwest or wherever, and it doesn’t matter. Fishing people are the best people in the world.”

Israel and her husband are likely to meet plenty more of those people as she has no plans on slowing down her new venture. She says she still has a couple of years of learning to go before she will be ready, but she plans on fishing from the front of the boat down the road.

“It’s tougher from the back of the boat and that was probably the most difficult thing for me in the beginning,” she says. “From the back, you have to throw 20 feet further. I also needed to know more about the kind of equipment needed. Now I have that distance down.”

Israel says that flipping remains her most apparent weakness and is reluctant to flip even when her partner is catching fish that way.

“When I draw someone who’s flipping, I try something else, but whatever is catching fish is what I’ll do,” she says.

She prefers buzz baits and used them for a recent fourth place finish at Lake Eufaula, with a 17-pound limit.

Israel believes that if she continues to be a good student of the sport and can achieve professional status, she can also enjoy the perks, such as sponsorships, that many of her male peers enjoy.

Meanwhile, she keeps casting that extra 20 feet and learning all she can from her professional fishing partners. And her family continues to watch her grow, enjoying every step of the journey.

“This is something we enjoy together as a family,” Eric says. “My mother just happens to be the best at it.”