Pam Martin-Wells claimed her first Lady Bass Anglers Association (LBAA) win today as she brought a 12-pound, five-fish limit to the scale. Martin-Wells total weight ended up being 29.67 pounds of bass in the two-day LBAA Pro-Am event in Guntersville.
“I basically did the same thing today that I did yesterday,” Martin-Wells said. “I was really just jumping around today and didn’t get a bite until 11 o’clock. I really have to credit being versatile along with being patient and persistent for helping to make this happen.
“My fish came from both the ledges and the grass with two of them coming from the grass.
“Alabama always has been good to me as this is my fifth or sixth win here in the state. But to win one in the inaugural year of the LBAA is great. I’ve been doing this for 24 years and have spent half of my life trying to promote this sport so that the young girls coming up will have something to do.â€
Martin-Wells is sponsored on the 2011 LBAA Tournament Trail by Legend Boats, Mercury Marine, Castaway Rods, Bass Boat Saver, Stay`N’Charge, Wingate Lodge, Lowrance, Solar Bat, and Berkley Baits.
Second place went to Kathy Womack with 26.96 pounds. Womack caught all of her fish in a ditch that cut into a flat.
“The shad would stay in this ditch and the bass would move into the flat to feed and that’s when I would catch them,†Womack said.
She caught her fish on a spoon and a football head jig with a crawfish trailer.
Third place went to Heather Broom. Broom brought 26.83 pounds of bass to the scale for the event. Rounding out Super Seven were Connie Buckner of Scottsboro, Ala. fourth with 26.40; Pelham, Alabama’s Kim Bain-Moore was fifth with 25.14; sixth went to Lynda Gessner from Foristell, Mo. who had 22.50, and Gessner was followed in seventh by Mt. Juliet, Tenn.’s Emily Shaffer with 19.82.
Scottsboro, Alabama’s Virginia Bucker led wire-to-wire to win the LBAA Lake Guntersville Co-angler event. Buckner snagged 17.88 pounds of bass to capture her first LBAA victory.
“I fished with Dana Davis and Susan Gregory and both were great partners and we caught fish both days,” Buckner said.
Buckner fished a Carolina rig mostly with a Zoom Brush Hog and a 10-inch Black and Blue Berkley Power Worm.
Following Buckner in the LBAA Lake Guntersville Co-angler Super Seven was Vicki Henderson of Ashdown, Arkansas with 12:94. Third went to Alpine, Alabama’s Kim Giddens with 12.31. Snohomish, Washington’s Bonnie Ward claimed fourth with her two-day catch of 10.03 pounds. Fifth, sixth and seventh places respectively went to Jada Tidmore of Union Grove, Ala. with 9.19, Sharon Lawson of Red Bank, Tenn. with 8.63, and Regina Pierpaoli of Gallatin, Tenn. brought in 8.83 pounds.
Big bass awards for Lake Guntersville went to Lisa Johnson of Centre, Ala., on the pro side with a 5.47-pound bass. On the co-angler side, Bonnie Ward claimed the honors with a 3.60-pound bass.
Saturday, July 9, the LBAA will host the Lake Guntersville Alabama Tornado Relief Charity Tournament. Entry fee is $100 per team with a guaranteed payout of $1,000 to first place. The highest finishing team with a female team member and the highest finishing team with a child age 12 or under will receive a $200 bonus. Membership in the LBAA is not required to fish this charity event. At the conclusion of the weigh-in, drawings for raffle items will take place adding another level of support that will go to help with tornado relief in Alabama. Numerous national and local organizations have donated raffle items for this event.
The LBAA Alabama Tornado Relief Charity Tournament will launch anglers at “safe light’ and the weigh-in will start at 2 p.m. at the Val Monte Resort and Marina at 7001 Val Monte Drive Guntersville. Call 256.582.3348 for information.
