Pam Martin-Wells claimed her first Lady Bass Anglers Association (LBAA)Tournament win today as she brought a 12-pound five-fish limit to the scales. Martin-Wells total weight ended up being 29.67 pounds of bass in the two-day LBAA ProAm event in Guntersville.
“I basically did the same thing today that I did yesterday. I was really just jumping around today and didn’t get a bite until 11 o’clock,” the legendary angler from Bainbridge, Georgia commented. “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,” she commented. “Alabama always has been good to me as this is my fifth or sixth win here in the state,” Martin-Wells added, “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.”
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 Trussville, Alabama’s Kathy Womack with 26.96 pounds. Womack caught all of her fish in one place. That special place for Womack was a ditch that came up onto 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 stated. She caught her fish on a spoon and a football head jig with a crawfish trailer.
Third place went to Heather Broom from Sylva, North Carolina. Broom brought 26.83 pounds of bass to the scales for the event. Rounding out the LBAA Lake Guntersville ProAm Super Seven were Connie Buckner of Scottsboro, Alabama in fourth with 26.40; Pelham, Alabama’s Kim Bain-Moore was fifth with 25.14; sixth went to Lynda Gessner from Foristell, Missouri who had 22.50, and Gessner was followed in seventh by Mt. Juliet, Tennessee’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 commented. Buckner fished a Carolina rig mostly with a Zoom Brush Hog and a 10” Black and Blue 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, 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, Alabama with 9.19, Sharon Lawson of Red Bank, Tennessee with 8.63, and Regina Pierpaoli of Gallatin, Tennessee brought in 8.83 pounds.
Big bass awards for Lake Guntersville went to Lisa Johnson of Centre, Alabama 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. 1-256-582-3348. The Marshall County Convention and Visitors Bureau is hosting host the LBAA Guntersville Tour Stop. Visit them on the World Wide Web at http://www.marshallcountycvb.com/
Tournament headquarters and lodging for the 2011 LBAA Lake Guntersville event is at the aforementioned Val Monte Resort and Marina. Additional lodging is at the Days Inn of Guntersville which is located at 14040 US Hwy 431 South in Guntersville and their number is 1-256-582-3200.
The LBAA has two events remaining for the 2011 season. Next stop on the tour is Old Hickory in Tennessee on August 25-27. The LBAA 2011 Tournament Championship will be held October 6-8.
Sponsors of the 2011 Lady Bass Anglers Association Tour are: Wilkins Brothers Outdoors, Pro Tournament Scales, Todali Tackle, Dawn Outdoors, Red Dirt Bait Company, FINS Superlines, Rayjus Outdoors, Reactions Innovations, Kick `n Bass, Castaway Graphite Rods, Vickie’s Threadworks, Necessity Jigs, West Kentucky LED, SureLife, Arkansas Tournament Fishing (ATF), Fleck’s Hand Poured Baits, Ray Barga and Associates Inc., Nite Owl Productions, and River Runner Baits.
The LBAA 2011 Contingency Programs are Phoenix First Flight, Skeeter Real Money, the Legend Advantage Program, BassCat Quest, and Triton Gold.
For more information on the LBAA contact co-founder Cheryl Bowden @ 1-214-738-7518, co-founder Secret York @ 1-270-748-9041, or media specialist Larry Morris @ 1-540-239-7902. The LBAA has a presence on the World Wide Web, on Facebook, and at http://www.ladybassanglers.com/
