Despite three days of tough fishing in central Illinois, Aaron Martens has something to be positive about: He left biting fish today on Lake Decatur. He’ll face off against Edwin Evers in the All-Star Final tomorrow.
“This place is hit-and-miss,” he said up on stage today after weighing in eight pounds and change, besting his bracket challenger Ott DeFoe. “Edwin’s a fierce competitor, but I’m not worried. I’ll be fine. Well, I mean, if I have two fish a 2 o’clock I won’t be fine, but otherwise I think I’ll be OK."
Despite the unique format, Martens isn’t approaching this tournament any differently. The word he used to describe his feelings toward tomorrow is “excited.”
“I want to win this thing really bad. Making it to the final day is super exciting,” he said. “Also, if I win this thing, it’ll be a great ending to a season that was part sucky and part good; I started off kinda slow and I ended up tenth, so it was pretty decent. A win here would really build my confidence going into the Classic.”
At the conclusion of the weigh-in today, B.A.S.S. emcee Dave Mercer asked Martens if he’s going to crush Evers. His answer was classic Martens.
“Gosh … I sure hope so.”