Tommy Martin

When Tommy Martin first began tournament fishing in 1968, little could he have known that it would lead him into a thirty-five year career. A career that has seen him go from guiding on Lake Sam Rayburn, Texas, in the late 60’s, to guiding on Lake Livingston, Texas, in 1969. From there, he moved on to fishing the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society’s tournament trail in 1972. Since then, he has won 19 national tournament titles, with over one million dollars in prize money. He has qualified for the prestigious BassMasters Classic 19-times and captured five different B.A.S.S. tournament championships: the ’74 Classic; the 1974 Arkansas Invitational; the 1981 Texas invitational; the 1983 Texas Invitational and the 1995 Oklahoma Invitational.

Along with winning the 1974 BassMasters Classic, he became the first professional angler, in B.A.S.S. tournament history, to win both a B.A.S.S. Classic and a regular season tournament, during the same season, when he captured the Arkansas Invitational on Beaver Lake. A feat that has rarely been accomplished since.

He has won tournaments in three different decades. Something that only a couple of other anglers in professional bass fishing have ever accomplished. Today, even though he is in his early sixties, he continues competing successfully along the Citgo BassMaster tour. Tommy Martin has competed in over 280 B.A.S.S. tournaments since he first started fishing them and has taken home a check in more than half of these events.