Fishing’s new ‘It’ girl

Karyn Sanchez shoots, scores at Forrest Wood Cup

Karyn Sanchez is proof that life can take you where you never expected to go. After all, the information technology manager from Texas never expected to be the only woman to qualify for this year’s Forrest Wood Cup.

Not only was Sanchez the lone female to compete in the exclusive event, she also became only the second woman to score a top-10 there, the first being Mary Parnell, who took seventh place in 2003 on the James River.

Sanchez’s story is one of determination and sheer talent, something observed by her father-in-law and husband when they took her out fishing and quickly realized she was a force to be reckoned with. She and her husband entered local couples’ tournaments, but typical marital bickering led him to encourage her to enter a few tournaments on her own. Never one to think small, Sanchez entered the 2006 Wal-Mart FLW Series from the back of the boat.

“Really, the idea was to try to learn what I could from some professional anglers,” she said. “The tournaments fit in with my work schedule, and I fished all of them.”

Her performance in the FLW Series led to an opportunity with the Wal-Mart fishing team, and Sanchez proudly wore their ubiquitous blue jersey on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour in 2007 because the tour schedule fit her life better than the ’07 FLW Series schedule. Juggling her life as a co-angler, a manager, a wife and a mother means Sanchez must remain ahead of the curve at all times. While many a man fishing the circuits has felt the pressure to balance work, family and fishing, it can probably be said that the battle is just different for a woman, plain and simple.

“When I fished the series, we had a newborn baby,” Sanchez said. “We had to make adjustments in our schedules and get grandparents onboard. So for the tour, we decided to get a fifth-wheel camper. Now that my son is almost 2, he travels with us a lot. I have a teenage daughter who travels with us as well, but during the school year, it is a struggle figuring out where she is going to stay.”

While arrangements can be a logistical headache for sure, Sanchez rests easy in the knowledge that she has her family’s ardent support. Her employer is also behind her, giving her ample time to practice and compete, although her work schedule does require her to make a choice between the FLW Tour and the FLW Series – she cannot fish both.

“My family is supportive and excited,” Sanchez said. “My father-in-law is ecstatic. He got my husband into fishing way before I ever knew him. He brags about me and sends updates to all his work friends.”

Because Sanchez wears far too many hats for just one head, she does employ a nanny that helps take care of her infant son as well as household duties while she works long hours to catch up after a few days on the road at a tournament. She has also learned to rely on the help of family.

“My mother-in-law, sister-in-law and my mom all help out with my little boy,” she said. “With my daughter, my mom sometimes comes and stays because the nanny doesn’t live with us. So when my son comes with us, my mom can stay with her, and we don’t have to uproot her from school.”

Becoming a role model

With her daughter at the impressionable age of 14 and a big fan of her mom’s fishing career, Sanchez is in a position to inspire not only her but girls and women everywhere who aspire to break into the male-dominated world of competitive fishing. Sanchez is certainly not the only trailblazer, just the latest to make the news after her phenomenal performance at bass fishing’s biggest event. Before her, women like Judy Israel, Mary Divincenti and Parnell paved the way for Sanchez to come along, and now she hopes to do the same for other women.

That said, Sanchez harbors no delusions about the challenges women face when they decide to hit the water competitively – challenges anyone faces, really, whether they be male or female. But while it is true that a bass sees no gender, other competitors do.

“The only word that comes to my mind is intimidated,” Sanchez said when asked what it felt like to be a female on tour. “I was so intimidated being a girl, not knowing how many females there were. It turned out there were quite a few, and there are more every year, so it’s been great. But you constantly have to give yourself pep talks and remind yourself, I can fish. I do know what I’m doing.”

While that is a uniquely female perspective, Sanchez does also wrestle with the same insecurities met by nearly all competitors, regardless of gender. Nevertheless, when those same issues are faced by a woman in a man’s world, it makes a difference.

“You’re not necessarily competing against other people; you’re competing against the fish,” she said. “I don’t know that that is any different being male or female, but being female puts a whole new spin on that. Breaking into a male-dominated sport is intimidating, and when you know that some of the guys have had lifelong careers and they are amazing anglers, you have to change your thought process. I’m here to learn and ask a lot of questions and absorb everything around me.”

Sometimes, though, the tables turn, as Sanchez has found herself on the receiving end of those questions. Mike Surman, her day-three pro partner at the Forrest Wood Cup, joked, “I told her if she didn’t put me on fish, I was going to throw her overboard. I was begging her to help me.” She must have done something right, as she earned her ninth-place finish that day, and Surman ended that particular day in fifth on the pro side.

Ups and downs

The learning curve is the reason why Sanchez began her career as a co-angler, and her continued quest to “absorb everything,” coupled with financial constraints, led her to sign up for the co-angler side again in 2008.

“I fished with my father-in-law and my husband for several years, and I think you get used to doing things one way,” she said. “The guys who are consistent are the guys who are very versatile and can change with the conditions. From the back of the boat, you fish so many different ways that you pick up a lot of new techniques and fish with baits you’ve never seen before. It’s educational, and I enjoy that part of it.”

The more Sanchez learns, the more of a threat she will become, as she has already demonstrated her raw talent on the FLW Tour. In fact, she scored inside the top 30 at her first two events in 2007, enabling her to rank in the top 10 for the first half of the season, something she did not expect. Her third tournament, she once again finished in check range before slipping a bit the final three events of the season.

“It was stressful to be that successful and then try to maintain it,” Sanchez says of the first half of the ’07 season. “My goal was to make the championship, and that was it. When I started staying in the top 10, then my goal was to continue to stay there. It added that whole element of, Am I doing what I need to be doing?”

When the tide turned during the second half of the season and Sanchez earned finishes of 112th, 71st and 196th, she refocused and returned to her original goal of making the Forrest Wood Cup.

“There was a lot of disappointment in myself,” Sanchez said of the reversal of fortune. “So I refocused. My original goal was to get into the championship, and it was a real nail-biter at the very end. At the Detroit River (the season closer), I knew it was going to be tough, and I think my brain got to me. I stressed out. I didn’t do very well at all, and my points plummeted.”

Nervous she hadn’t made the championship cut, Sanchez said she spent the weekend “bugging all the FLW people” until the final standings sheet came out, and even then she was afraid to rejoice until she received the official confirmation letter in the mail. The tense situation is why she considers the Detroit River the low point of her 2007 season.

“We had an awesome practice, and I was so excited,” she said. “But my husband wasn’t able to travel with me, so we didn’t bring the fifth-wheel, and I had to fly. It was my first tournament to travel to by myself, and my husband is my stability. He runs errands for me during the day and takes a lot of pressure off so I can focus on fishing. It threw me off not to have him there.”

Even so, Sanchez says she remains baffled by her dismal performance in Detroit, where she caught one fish in two days. Nevertheless, she didn’t sink so far that she exited the championship, so her season-low turned into a major accomplishment.

“I cried,” she said of making the Cup. “I was so excited that I literally cried. I was already prepared for the disappointment. I had convinced myself that I hadn’t made it, so that when I did, it was just an amazing thing for me.”

Making a name for herself

If Sanchez thought just making the Cup was exciting, she had no idea what was in store for her at the actual event. Not only did she earn the distinction of being the only female competitor in the 162-man field, she went the distance, earning a top-10 finish and ending the tournament in ninth. That experience, she says, was definitely the highlight of her year.

“I would have never dreamed I would make a top-10 at the championship,” she said. “I was just excited to be there. I would have loved to have won, but given the way the rest of the season went, I was just happy to be there and to represent the ladies.”

Sanchez said she tried not to stress over the fact that she was the only female there, and she said she did not approach the tournament much differently than she did the regular-season events. She made up her mind she was just going to fish for fun. Obviously, the mental freedom translated into serious success, as she wrote her name next to Parnell’s on the list of women with top-10 finishes at the championship event.

“That’s amazing for her and amazing for me,” Sanchez said of the accomplishment. “It was really an honor to be able to do that. I had seen Judy Israel at the Fun Zone after the fact, and we kind of laughed. She was so excited. I said, ‘I really want to follow in your footsteps (with a tournament win),’ and she said, ‘It’ll come. Just be patient.’

“It’s really amazing to be up there with those girls. Sondra (Rankin) and Pam (Wood) have done really well, and it’s great to continue that tradition.”

While Sanchez plans to stick with her day job for now and continue her career as an FLW Tour co-angler, she admits to daydreaming about what may lie ahead for her in the fishing realm. For now, though, she is content to learn what she can from the back of the boat.

“I’ve got some pretty high goals,” she said. “Originally it was to learn and have a good time, but I’m seeing that you can make a career out of this. I think eventually I’d like to make it a full-time career. I really love traveling with my family and being on the road, and I really enjoy fishing. It’s a natural thing for me. I’d like to do some more female things in a male sport and pave the way for other lady anglers.”

In that regard, Sanchez is already well on her way. To all the other potential female anglers out there, Sanchez says just go for it.

“Don’t be intimidated,” she said. “I really enjoy being a co-angler because of the ability to learn from all the guys. Fish don’t care. You hear that a lot, but really, they don’t. Just get your head on straight, have the confidence and know that you can fish.”