Kim the Teacher

Kim Chambers likes to whip the boys bass fishing, but as she says with a grin, "I don't try and whip all of the boys all the time, I pick my fights carefully." Besides being a competitive fisherman, Chambers teaches women how to fish. If you have a girlfriend, a wife or a lady you want to get interested in fishing, but you don't have the patience or time or more importantly the understanding to teach that lady to fish, then consider the possibility of hiring Chambers as their fishing coach.

"The first thing I teach a woman is how to pay attention to the fishing environment and disregard that man sitting next to her and yelling at her. I teach women how to run a boat, how to watch the depth finder so they don't get in shallow water, how to trim up the engine so the boat will come out of the hole quicker, how to run a trolling motor as well as how to cast, retrieve and fish a wide variety of lours," Chambers said.

Chambers explained that when she first started fishing she was using a trolling motor that didn't have an arrow on top of it to indicate the direction the boat would go when you pushed on the pedal.

"I had to learn what the boat would do when I mashed my heal down on the pedal or when I put pressure on the front half of my foot. I had to learn how to set the speed on the trolling motor so that if I was in calm water I wouldn't have the trolling motor set so high that I would spook the fish. But, if I was fishing on a windy day I had to learn how to crank the trolling motor to hold the boat into the wind at the right angle to let me make an accurate guess."

Chambers also teaches her students how to clean the filters on the engines, how to check the oil, how to mix the oil and gas, how to check the fuses and she recommends that all women who fish by themselves carry a cell phone.

"Men forget that big water out on the lake can be very intimidating and very frightening for a woman, however, if a woman has a cell phone she knows all she has to do is make a phone call and she can get help."

Chambers feels that when a woman learns to load and unload a boat she builds a lot of confidence not only in her fishing ability, but also in her ability to be an angler.

"My biggest problem with loading and unloading a boat was remembering to put the plug in the boat. So I made myself a check list which included all of the steps I needed to go through to load and unload the boat properly. After I teach my students how to put the boat in the water and take it out, I'll give them the check list so they don't make the same mistake I made, Chambers says."

To learn more about Chamber's women's fishing school write or call Kim Chambers at 441 County Road 1534, Cullman, AL 35058, (256) 796-7560.

Tomorrow Chambers will tell you what type of rod and reel and lour she starts women fishing with and why.

Kim Chambers - Day One
Kim Chambers - Day Two
Kim Chambers - Day Three
Kim Chambers - Day Four
Kim Chambers - Day Five

John's Journal