BASS champions visit White House
Pro anglers Alton Jones and Judy Wong knew that winning their respective league championships would do wonders for their careers. But what the newly crowned BASS champions didn't realize was that their most recent victories would earn them an invitation to tour the White House as well as the chance to visit one-on-one with one of the country's most noteworthy fishermen.
Jones, the Waco native who won the 2008 Bassmasters Classic, and Wong, winner of the recent Women's Bassmaster Championship, traveled with their families and BASS general manager Tom Ricks to Washington, D.C., on March 25, where they spent an hour in the Oval Office speaking with president George W. Bush.
Wong, who lives in Many, La., said she enjoyed and appreciated the chance to meet the president.
"It was very exciting and a huge honor," Wong said in a BASS press release. "When we learned that the president had cleared his schedule to spend extra time with us, we were elated. It's a memory I'll never forget."
Jones was so overwhelmed by the opportunity that he wrote an informative blog about the experience for the BASS Web site. Here are a couple of excerpts from Jones' blog, which can be read in full at www.bassmaster.com:
• "It probably sounds ridiculous to hear it, but for that hour I felt like we were just hanging out with George W. Bush," Jones wrote. "Yes, it was impossible to go very long without thinking, 'Hey, I'm sitting here with the leader of the free world!' But the experience was so cool, so unexpected and so intimate, that it really felt like a group of friends sitting around and talking about anything and everything."
• "I think one of the president's gifts is that he makes those around him feel truly important. We all came out of that office feeling good and important and knowing that we were capable of making a real difference. It was very special."
• "I'll never forget some of the things he said to my children. He talked about the decisions they would face in life and how taking the easy way out would be tempting even when they knew it wasn't best. He said, 'Popularity lasts a moment, but principles last a lifetime.'"
Jones won the Classic at Lake Hartwell in Greenville, S.C., with a three-day total of 49 pounds, 7 ounces. Cliff Pace of Petal, Miss., took second at 44-5, while Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich., was third at 43-8.
It was Jones' 11th Classic, and he won $500,000 for the victory.
Wong won the Women's Bassmaster Championship with a three-day total of 26-10 at Lake Keowee in Seneca, S.C. Wong just edged out Georgia's Pam Martin-Wells, who took second with a 26-4.
Wong won $60,000 in first-place prize money.
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