Phil H. Shook Journalist Author Photographer

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“The Bass'n Gal”

How Sugar Ferris Invaded the most sacred Of Bubba sports - Bass Fishing

Dallas Life Magazine
By Phil H. Shook

Sugar Ferris has no trouble remembering the first time she competed with men in a fishing tournament.

It was at a lake near Shelbyville, Ill., in the mid-70s and she was the only woman among 230 entrants. A log hauler from Missouri drew her name as a partner. He was running around asking, "Who is Sugar Ferris? Who is Sugar Ferris?" when she walked up and introduced herself. He took one look, ran out the door and threw up - three times, she says.

Those were tough times for women on the professional bass fishing circuit - they didn't get much respect from their male counterparts. At bass tournaments, the women fished from the shore or played bingo to kill time until the men returned to the marinas for the weigh-in. It was unusual to see a woman alone in a bass boat on a lake.

And it wasn't just male anglers who disapproved of women on the water. In 1980, after a Florida bass club abruptly ended a two-year experiment that allowed female competitors in their tournament, the women anglers protested. The ensuing fuss attracted the attention of the national media.

Affecting an exaggerated Southern accent, Ms. Ferris re-enacts the response of one local woman to a question from Dan Rather: "Ahh just don't want my husband out there with those women. Ahh can tell you now, if you put ice cream in front of a baby, he's gonna eat it."

This was a wife who did not fish, Ms. Ferris explains. "She had, you know, the beehive hairdo, the false eyelashes and the leopard-skin pants."

It was Ms. Ferris who instigated a move to get women off the bank and into bass boats. In 1972 she organized a women-only tournament on Lake Livingston. The entry fee was $5, and about 90 female anglers showed up. At the time, Ms. Ferris was working for the Livingston, Texas, newspaper as an outdoor recreation writer, and she talked the paper into backing the event. "I had a little, young publisher and he was excited about it," she says.

Her Lake Livingston Progress National Female Bass Fishing Tournament - FEM for short - was held annually for five years. "Everyone thought we called it the FEM tournament because of the women's lib movement, but we just wanted something that would fit on a jacket patch," Ms. Ferris says.

Growing participation by women anglers in the Lake Livingston tournament attracted national attention and inspired Ms. Ferris to take the next step. In 1977 she moved to Arlington and organized the Bass'n Gal Association.

The Rebel Lure company unwittingly played a role in providing the association's name when they sent Ms. Ferris a complimentary tackle box. On the box was a gold plate inscribed "Bass'n Man Sugar Ferris."

"I ripped off the plate and sent it back to the company," she says. "I suggested they could find a better description to fulfill the female anatomy than 'Bass'n Man.' "

When the lure company sent it back, it said "Sugar Ferris Bass'n Gal."

"I always tease the men that if I had called it Better Homes and Bass Boats, I would have gotten a better response," Ms. Ferris says.

With her big, expressive face and a look of devilment in her eyes, Sugar Ferris has been disarming Bubbas and charming tackle company executives for years.

"She's a great lady who has carved a niche for herself in the annals of the fishing sport that will live forever," says Forrest Wood, founder of Ranger Boats. "She recognized an opportunity many years ago and had the fortitude to get in and make something happen."

The youngest of 10 children who grew up in a Livingston farm family that loved the outdoors, Ms. Ferris left her hometown after high school to attend college in California. Before she came back to take up outdoor writing and launch Bass'n Gal, she served as a counselor for emotionally disturbed children in Hawaii, worked for Gulf Oil in Houston and ran a political campaign for a state senator.

Ms. Ferris doesn't fish in Bass'n gal tournaments, but she has guided the organization for 15 years. Her husband, Bob, a big man with a friendly manner and a deep, booming voice that he cultivated as a country and western disc jockey in the early 1960s, directs advertising and promotions for the group.

The Arlington-based organization now has 28,000 members through 85 affiliate clubs across the country. It stages seven national tournaments annually, including the Bass'n Gal Classic Star, a women's world championship event. A recent tournament drew 145 women anglers from 26 states. Local chambers of commerce now court Bass'n Gal tournaments, and companies and trade groups help sponsor the events.

Several women who fish the Bass'n Gal tournament circuit are nationally known and make $100,000 a year or more in tournament winnings and fees from boat show appearances. Bass'n Gal also has its own national cable television show that is broadcast to more than 30 million homes.

But even with its record of accomplishment, Ms. Ferris says recognition still is slow in coming from some segments of the male-dominated bass fishing industry. Women anglers continue to have problems obtaining contracts to endorse products from some large companies that support men's fishing events.

"They need sponsorships and very few of our women have that," Ms. Ferris says.

"They still think of us as a passing fad. There is a little male ego there. They don't think women will stick with it - work the boat shows and do all the things that men do."

Ms. Ferris cites studies showing more than 22 million American women are active in fishing and that women spend an estimated $150 million annually on tackle and related merchandise. "That is more than a reel to put in the bottom of dad's stocking," she says.

A veteran outdoor writer, she is widely respected for her accomplishments, honesty and intelligence. She can tell a salty joke with wit or take a sledgehammer to any stereotype that slights women anglers. "I like to handle everything with humor and try to turn the screws once in awhile," she says.

On her office wall at Bass'n Gal's headquarters is a signed, poster-size photo of ex-baseball great Jim Palmer wearing nothing but Jockey shorts. "I have always been an admirer of Jim Palmer, even with his clothes on," Ms. Ferris says. "I stood in line with 400 20-year-old secretaries to buy that poster and get him to sign it."

In a recent Bass'n Gal magazine column titled "Fifty Something," Ms. Ferris reflects on her experiences with Bass'n Gal and the lessons life has taught her along the way.

Among her beliefs that have stood the test of time, Ms. Ferris says, are: "Fish don't know what gender is jerking on the other end of the line; women are as capable as men in handling a bass boat; men and women are as different as they are alike; and truth is slippery."

May 3, 1992