Southern gals git 'er done
By Greg Walker
Nearly 95 percent of the gals on the Women's Bassmaster Tour
(WBT) hail from the south (a
nd
we like that) and they know how to put fish in the boat. Nearing the
end of the qualifying season, they will be chunking and winding
fast, and furiously trying to be the second WBT angler to fish the
world's most prestigious professional bass tournament, the
Bassmasters Classic.
These tough competitors from the southeast, south central and southwest regions (and those other regions) have completed three of their qualifying tournaments, and it's Pam Martin-Wells of Bainbridge, Georgia in the lead. Martin-Wells, the WBT all-time money leader and three-time Angler of the Year (AOY) winner, took the first WBT qualifier March 26-28, on Lake Neely Henry in Gadsden, Alabama with a total weight of 38 pounds, 10 ounces. The tournament was her fourth BASS win and her second on Neely Henry.
It was a tough victory for the veteran angler, who said the current on the Coosa River impoundment was relentless.
"I had my foot on the trolling motor all the time. If I caught a fish, broke off, or had to cull, by the time I got through I was a half a mile from where I was fishing."
Martin-Wells won the 2008 WBT event on Neely Henry as well as the inaugural WBT Championship in 2007 on another Coosa impoundment - Lake Mitchell.
Going into the second stop April 23-25, at the top of the 2009 WBT Angler of the Year point's race, Martin-Wells maintained that lead with a seventh place finish in West Monroe, Louisiana on the Quachita, River, with a creel weight of 16.6 pounds.
Qualifier three was June 4-6, on the Arkansas River in Little Rock, and Martin-Wells took the number eight spot, and again it was enough to hold her AOY lead. Her winnings for the three events total nearly $60,000. She added another $1,857 last January when she competed against 200 male anglers in the Southern Open Division of BASS on the Harris Chain of Lakes in Tavares, Florida. She finished 23rd with an impressive 31.0 pounds.
Martin-Wells has accumulated 850 AOY points. She is closely followed by Juanita Robinson of Highlands, Texas, a one-time winner on the WBT, and a real threat at just nine points behind the leader with 841. Robinson improved with each event this season finishing 6th, 5th and 4th and will be fishing hard to push Martin-Wells from her lead.
Laura Gober of Pendergrass, Georgia is sitting in third place in the AOY race with 801 points. Gober also has one win on the WBT trail, and it was on the Red River, sight of this year's WBT Championship. This could spell big trouble for her fellow competitors. She has a fourth, eighth and 12th-place finish thus far and has a career record of 10 top 20 finishes.
The final WBT qualifier will be September 10-12 on Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, Tennessee. The season's AOY points will be tallied at the completion of the Old Hickory event, and the top 20 will advance to the WBT Championship on the Red River out of Shreveport-Bossier City, Louisiana. Winner of the championship will emerge as the 2009 AOY and earn a berth in the 2010 Bassmasters Classic, set for Feb.19-21 on Lay Lake outside Birmingham, Alabama.
Kim Bain-Moore of Alabaster, Alabama, was the 2008 Angler of the Year and qualified for the 2009 Bassmaster Classic. She was the first woman ever to compete in a Classic. She finished 47th among the 51 contenders. Bain-Moore has had a tough 2009 season and is presently in 55th place in the AOY point's race.