Three days and eight bass later, Altman finished in second place in a 20-woman division, pocketing $2,500 along with winning a new 2009 Triton bass boat with a Mercury outboard motor.
After a 16 1/2-hour drive with her husband, Max, who is an avid bass angler and a teacher at Overhills High School in Spring Lake, Altman arrived for a day of practice, which didn't help her confidence.
"I think I caught one fish in practice, and I fished my butt off," she said.
Altman, who is a patient accounts representative at WakeMed Raleigh Campus, was competing as a co-angler, paired with a different professional angler each day. The professional angler drives the boat and decides on the pattern and strategy.
She did better on the first day, catching four keeper bass using a 3/16-ounce shakyhead jig with a Reaction Innovations Flirt worm rigged on it. Her 3-pound, 6-ounce first-day catch was good enough for second place.
Day 2 was much more tenuous. Altman caught only one bass -- which weighed 13 ounces -- and dropped to 13th place.
"I knew if the fishing stayed that tough, I'd have to switch up," she said.
As luck would have it, a cold front moved into the area for the third and final day. Altman and her boater targeted bass schooling in the main lake, and Altman had to switch techniques.
"I made a decision to throw a crankbait and a [Super] Spook Jr.," she said.
Altman said she went with the smaller model Spook top-water lure because it better matched the shad she saw schooling, much like a fly angler might match the fly hatch at streamside. Altman noticed that her boater was casting a larger lure to the same fish and and failing to elicit strikes.
The Spook garnered three bass, and a 300 series Bandit crankbait accounted for another, moving her back up to finish in second place at 8 pounds -- 1 pound, 5 ounces behind co-angler winner Barbara Gaskins of Suffolk, Va.
The cash she won will "take care of the trip with a little left over," and she's planning on selling the boat to fund her trips in 2009. It looks like she'll remain a co-angler.
"I would love to be a boater, but with my time here at WakeMed and no money sponsors ... my expenses would probably quadruple," she said. "Besides, I feel comfortable being a co-angler. I'm content with it."
Next up for Altman are some local tournaments on the Swain-Powers trail, the eternal sponsor search and general preparation for the 2009 Women's Bassmaster Tour, which starts in March in Louisiana.
