Editors Note: This feature on Bainbridge professional bass angler Pam Martin-Wells is the first in a series of features on the four outstanding sports figures who will be inducted into the Decatur County Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday, March 3, at Bainbridge College’s Charles H. Kirbo Regional Center.

Bainbridge professional bass angler Pam Martin-Wells has won 19 national professional bass fishing titles, and five angler of the year awards.

She also has 56 top-five finishes and 62 top-10 finishes.

When she fished on the Bass‘NGal Tournament Trail, she set a tournament record weight of 47.14 pounds at Lake Sam Raburn in Texas.

She has also been the top lady angler on the Lady Bass Fishing Association Women’s Bass Fishing Association, Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (BASS) and Forest L. Woods tours.

“It is great to be recognised by your local people,” she said. “I have promoted bass fishing on our Lake Seminole all over the country.”

Martin-Wells nailed down the 2011 Lady Bass Anglers Association (LBAA) angler of the year award Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011, when she won that tour’s inaugural classic on Kentucky Lake with a three day total of 25.60 pounds.

Martin-Wells, who had previously won tournaments at Guntersville Lake in Alabama and Old Hickory Lake in Tennessee, told the weigh-in audience that the key to her victory was persistence and keeping the faith.

“I just kept believing in the spot I was in and believing in myself and sticking to it,” she said.

She reported catching her fish on a Texas-rigged Net Bait Trick Worm.

On Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010, at Lay Lake in Alabana, Martin-Wells became the first lady in the 40-year history of the Bassmaster Classic to make the cut and fish the final day.

She put a five fish limit in the boat each of the first two days of the three day event, but she also had he first limit of the 51-angler field both days.