Wire to Wire Victory is 1st
by John R. Pulliam

photo by Richard Freeman
Jerry DeBin of Academy Sports and Outdoors
presents Denese with her trophy.

Denese Freeman of Lawton, Oklahoma, achieved one of many goals in the opening event of the 2008 BASS WBT tournament trail.  Through-out 2 ½ years of fishing the WBT as a co-angler, she has secured her first co-angler tournament victory, with an impressive 3 day total weight of 18 lbs., 10 oz., which bested her closest competitor by 4 lbs., 6 oz., on Lake Lewisville.

Wednesday night brought rounds of severe storms, some of which even contained tornadoes, to welcome the anglers of the WBT to Lake Lewisville.  The rain finally exited the area just in time for the ladies to launch on Thursday morning, and thus began Denese’s wire to wire victory.

Dealing with winds and overcast skies from the storms the night prior, Denese found the bass bite to be slow, but did put 3 bass in the live well, each of which were 3 lbs. or better.  By employing both a Texas-rigged Yum Dinger in the “Mardi Gras” color, as well as Texas-rigged Zoom Fluke in the “Green Pumpkin” color , she was able to bring 4 bass to the scales overall, and lead the first day with 12 lbs. 2 oz.  For the first day’s competition, Denese was paired with WBT Pro Angler Pam Martin-Wells of Bainbridge, Georgia.

Day 2 competition brought warmer temperatures to the tournament, but a slow bite was still encountered by Denese.  For the 2nd Day’s competition, she was paired with WBT Pro Angler Melinda Mize-Hooper from Ben Lomond, Arkansas.  Denese, however, overcame the conditions that Lewisville presented to her, and brought a single bass to the scales, which also won the Big Bass of the Day, which weighed in at 5 lbs. even.  With this kicker bass, her overall weight settled at 17 lbs. 2 oz.

The final day’s competition brought blustery conditions with an even slower bite.  Denese was holding onto a comfortable 5 lbs. lead on her nearest competitor, but felt that the lead could slip away if the right bass were found.  For the final day’s action, Denese was paired with WBT Pro Angler Kelley Shepard, from Colorado.  It would ultimately prove that the one bass that Denese brought to the scales would not be needed, but nevertheless, she found a way to make a bass bite her Texas-rigged Yum Dinger, and added an additional 1 lbs. 8 oz. to her overall weight and secured her first WBT co-angler victory.

When asked about her tournament performance, Denese said, “I had a game plan in mind when I came into this tournament and I stuck to it throughout each day of the tournament.”  “The Yum Dinger in the 'Mardi Gras' color is my confidence bait and it proved to be my go-to bait in this tournament.”

Denese went on to explain that she used a size #5 clam shot weight, placed 10-12” above the Dinger and Fluke, and used Owner hooks to rig her plastics. “Those Texas bass sure did tear up my fingers, and they still hurt, but those are wounds and scars that I am proud of…”, said Freeman, in retrospect of the surreal events of the weekend.