Georgia's Pam Martin-Wells Logs Her Third Women's Bassmaster Tour Victory

Written by BASS Communications

Thursday, 29 May 2008

Two lures she nicknamed "Randall" and "Bobby" helped Pam Martin-Wells of Bainbridge, Ga., to a winning overall weight of 36 pounds, 1 ounce, Saturday at the second stop of the 2008 Women's Bassmaster Tour presented by Academy Sports & Outdoors. "Randall is a friend of mine who taught me how to swim a jig, so a 'Randall' is a jig, and Bobby is my sister, and she taught me how to use a weightless Wave Worms Tiki Stik, which I used to catch all my biggest fish Thursday, so that's a 'Bobby,' " said Martin-Wells, who netted $1,000 and a $50,000 Triton/Mercury boat rig in the three-day competition on Alabama's Neely Henry Lake. She won by a margin of more than 9 pounds over two pros who tied for second place at 26-15: Juanita Robinson of Highlands, Texas, and Lucy Mize of Ben Lomond, Ark. Placing fourth with 26-10 was Kim Bain of Alabaster, Ala., the winner of the season opener last month on Texas' Lewisville Lake. Fifth with 25-4 was the 2007 Toyota WBT Angler of the Year, Sheri Glasgow of Muskogee, Okla., who recovered from a slow start 151; 33rd place on the first day 151; to make the top five. Martin-Wells said much of her weight came from grass along the shallow shorelines of Neely Henry, but she used a combination of techniques. "After I caught one fish this morning, it was on. I was culling by 6:30 this morning," she said. "But every day, the fishing's been different, even though I started in the same place each day, a 20-minute run from the launch ramp all the way to the southern end of the lake." She took her Saturday limit in 40 minutes, after which she culled to improve her weight to 13-11. "I started out each morning in grass," Martin-Wells said. "I had some deep patterns, but they weren't panning out because there was no current, no water moving. But today a ski boat kept running back and forth, and I thought, 'Maybe a fish will think that's current.' So I pulled over and caught a 4-pounder." Robinson, who won the 2007 WBT event on Texas' Lake Amistad, said lack of current during competition hours was an obstacle to beefing up the weight of her daily bags. "I had limits early. Today I was culling by 7 in one spot," she said. "But I just didn't get a big bite. I knew I had to get to them before the sun came up, and when it did, the bass disappeared."

 

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