With GEICO sponsoring her, Christie Bradley is becoming a serious contender in the Women's Bassmaster Tour. KEN PERROTTE

Ken Perrotte's Outdoor column

Date published: 4/5/2007

GARY SCHEMBS' little sister, Chris- tiana, didn't know much about fishing as she watched him catch his first fish near Fredericksburg when he was 7 years old.

It wasn't a big fish, but 5-year-old "Christie" figured fishing must be something special if the big brother she looked up to could be so freaked out, whooping and hollering.

Schembs didn't know it then, but he had hooked a fishing buddy and landed a role as his baby sister's main mentor in the ways of all things angling.

"Gary told me he thought I had a natural connection to fishing," Christie recalled. "Our first tournament together as partners was a 1998 'His & Hers' event on the Rappahannock River that we won. When we fished together, we really worked in sync."

She also fished a few tournaments paired with Caroline County angler Allan Chenault, one of the region's most successful bass tournament competitors. Chenault taught her how to flip baits into thick lily pads to haul out hefty bass. He recalls seeing a competitive spirit in her, a "drive that made her want to catch fish and work all day to do it, if need be."

There was no catch-and-release when she reeled in Mike Bradley, whom she used to fish against locally in the Small Water Bass Club. They had spoken only in passing at events, but ended up fishing together in 2004 where, fatefully, the boat got stuck in the mud of a cove for three hours until the rising tide let them escape. A post-fishing steak dinner later led to a 2005 wedding. A leaping bass ice sculpture was the reception's centerpiece.

Now a 34-year-old systems engineer ("computer geek," she calls it) for GEICO in Stafford, Bealeton resident Christiana Bradley is emerging as a serious competitor in the Women's Bassmaster Tour, a professional national circuit that kicked off last year.

Last weekend, Bradley finished 14th in a field of 94 anglers at Arkansas' Lake Dardanelle. She weighed a limit of five fish Thursday, but managed only four keeper bass on each of the last two days to finish with a total weight of 31 pounds, 5 ounces.

Sheri Glasgow of Muskogee, Okla., took first place with 46 pounds, 1-ounce.

Date published: 4/5/2007