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Sylva’s Heather Broom to compete in televised bass fishing tournament
By Justin Goble
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Broom
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A local angler will get the chance to compete in a professional circuit – with a nationwide television audience looking on.
Sylva’s Heather Broom will take part in the Women’s Bassmaster Tour, which is set to start Thursday, April 10, in Lewisville, Texas. This year’s tour has five stops, ending with the WBT Championship in Hot Springs, Ark. Each tour stop will be televised on ESPN.
Broom said she spent a lot of time at local lakes as she was growing up. Though she didn’t fish at the time, she said that love of the lake rubbed off on her.
“My parents (Bruce and Robin Parris of Sylva) were always camping near the lake (Chatuge),” she said. “Dad would go fishing and the rest of us would go skiing and riding in the boat. I’ve loved doing things like that ever since.”
Though she picked up fishing as a hobby in the early 1990s, Broom said her first taste of professional fishing came when she went to the 1994 Bassmaster Classic tournament with her father. Though not competing in that tournament, she said she enjoyed the atmosphere.
“I really liked it,” she said. “I even met my husband Steven at that same tournament in 1996. He was a bass fisherman, so that was our connection. He liked to fish, and I loved spending time at the lake.”
From there, Broom said she fished off and on and participated in small tournaments. It was after she and Steven took part in the American Bass Anglers’ couples tournament last year that she thought about competing in a major tournament.
“I thought we did really well,” she said. “We finished second in the South Carolina division and fifth in the nation. When they had the championship on Old Hickory Lake in Tennessee, we came in 15th.
“At that tournament, I got to meet a lot of women who fish professionally,” she said. “I realized I could compete with some of them. So when the schedule came out for this year’s WBT circuit, it just fit. I decided to be part of it.”
A 100-boat field will compete at the first WBT stop, Broom said. Anglers will fish for three days, and at the end of each day they will allowed to keep their five largest fish. The woman with the heaviest total at the end of the tournament will be declared the winner.
Though fishing local spots such as Bear Lake for practice, Broom said she’s been trying to get as much information as possible on Lewisville Lake since she’s never fished there. Along with online resources, she’s been getting information from contacts provided by her sponsors, Vicious Fishing Line and Secret Weapon Lures.
“They gave us a lot of contacts, so I’ve been getting in touch with those people and seeing what the lake is like,” she said. “I’ve also been looking at maps and getting a lot of information online. It’s a lot like a research project. You just try and find as much information as you can before you go down there and hope you’re prepared.
“All in all, it’s really not that different from getting up and going fishing on a Saturday,” she said. “You have to do your everyday fishing to prepare for a tournament. But I’d say that it’s such a bigger deal than I thought it was. A lot of that has to do with it being ESPN, which has brought in a lot of sponsorships. There’s a lot more at stake, too. The winner will get a fully rigged bass boat and $1,000, which comes out to $50,000 in prizes.”
Along with getting information, Broom said she’s been practicing her fundamentals.
“You have to know how to present the lures, so I’ve been practicing that,” Broom said. “I’ve also been going out and trying to practice navigating as much as I can. In other tournaments, there’s been someone there to help me with that. But this is the first time I’ve had to do everything on my own, so it will be a bit of a challenge.”
However, one thing Broom said she couldn’t predict was the weather. That will have a major impact on the tournament, and she said the best she could do is try to prepare for anything.
“They’ll postpone the tournament if there’s fog, since they don’t want us out in our boats if we can’t see,” she said. “They’ll also do it if there’s a tornado watch or something like that. But that’s it. If it’s raining, sleeting or snowing, we’ll still be out there fishing. I’ve fished in the winter where it’s 16 degrees and in the summer when it’s 104 degrees. And the fish bite differently in every one of those situations. So a lot of things do depend on the weather. I know I’m packing everything from shorts and T shirts to gloves, toboggans and winter coats just so I can be ready.”
Though nervous about next month’s tournament and subsequent tour, Broom said she’s keeping a good outlook.
“I just want to be able to look back at all of this and say I was able to be competitive,” she said. “Of course I want to go for the big win. But if I’m able to hold my own with all of the women out there, I would be really happy.”
And because the tournament is such a “big deal,” Broom said she’s happy a lot more people, especially young girls are being exposed to the sport.
“A big thing I try to do is get people to take a kid fishing,” she said. “It’s such a wonderful sport. Had I not been exposed to it as a child, I wouldn’t be doing it today. I try to spend as much time as I can out on the lake with my girls. It’s great because there are a lot of big fish in the local lakes. I even had my biggest catch up at Bear Lake.
For more information about the tour, visit www.bassmaster.com/wbt or call Broom at 508-0891.
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