August, 2005 -- The re-birth of the WBFA Outdoors Magazine, a quarterly publication of the Women Bass Fishing Anglers' Tour, is slated for mid-October 2005 because two sisters who live 1400 miles apart have volunteered their time and talent to once again make the magazine a reality. Denese Freeman of Lawton, Oklahoma and Linda Berry of Madison, NC agreed to take on the challenge at the request of Willie Cook, tournament director of the WBFA Tour. Willie and Carole Cook of Pelham, Alabama founded the WBFA in 1997 to provide a venue for women anglers to pursue competitive bass fishing among their peers.
Dubbing themselves as the "Sister Act", Linda and Denese bring a combination of 50 years experience to the drawing board as they prepare for the fall issue in October. The full-color magazine will incorporate some ideas from past issues, but Denese and Linda hope to give the old magazine a new look. The purpose of the magazine is to profile the careers of women bass anglers from all over the United States, Canada, and Japan and beyond. It will include articles that focus on fishing techniques, water safety, boat handling, and conservation. Advertisers will have the opportunity to showcase their products or services to a mass market of women anglers, their families, and friends who support the fishing industry. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, of the 34.1 million anglers, 26% are women.
Linda is the oldest sister and was born in Texarkana, Arkansas. Denese is the youngest sister and was born in Texarkana, Texas. The state line runs through the center of Texarkana and each were born in different hospitals in the same town, but different states. The sisters have always been close, but each had gone their separate ways during the past 39 years. Denese was just a baby when Linda graduated from high school and married and moved to California in 1966. Usually it is the older sister who is there for her younger siblings, but the situation was reversed in the year 2000 when Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer. When it was time for the radiation treatments, Denese flew to North Carolina, which is where Linda now resides, to be by her side. Since that time, they have become close as sisters and fishing partners. The only thing that separates them now is the 1400 miles between the towns they now call home.
The sisters are both avid anglers and have been since childhood. They credit their mother for giving them "fishing fever" while they were growing up in Hooks, Texas. Linda became a member of the WBFA in 1998. She gave Denese a membership to the WBFA for Christmas in 2002. They got to fish their first WBFA tournament together in 2003 at Grand Lake of the Cherokees in Oklahoma. This past October, they got to fish together on the Ohio River in Paducah, Kentucky with the WBFA. The tournaments give them the opportunity to spend precious time together, sharing their love for fishing, and just being sisters.
Both Denese and Linda look forward to the challenge before them, not only for the magazine, but also for the chance to work together. They plan to be a "tough act" to follow.