I like to take a fast-paced but disciplined approach to tournament fishing, so the Bassmaster Elite at Lake Martin really fit my style. I thought this lake set up very well for what I like to do, and that led me to a fourth-place finish.
Lake Martin is one of those fisheries where you can catch a lot of fish, but you really have to work to find the bigger bites. I knew that going in, so I built my game plan around working with what the lake had to offer.
Martin is also one of those lakes where you have many different options on how to tackle it and the techniques you use. So, I went into the tournament with multiple game plans actually. I started deep each morning, fishing ditches in 30 to 70 feet of water just to get a limit.
Ideally, I’d get a couple of 2-plus-pounders right away in the morning before the sun got high. From then on, I was doing a mixture of sight fishing and pitching docks, laydowns and that sort of thing on the bank the rest of the day.
That’s my favorite type of tournament, where you can just run on the fly and do whatever pops into your mind. That’s what I did in practice, so I was very comfortable going into the event.
My strategy worked out well, because after I got a good limit each morning, I went shallow. I knew I only needed two or three bites the rest of the day to be where I needed to be. Starting deep in the morning was mostly just a confidence boost.
My shallow stuff didn’t really get going until the sun got high and started warming up the backs of those pockets. Once that happened, the fish would start funneling back there seeking the warmer water.
The fish were definitely starting their prespawn movements — especially the spotted bass. I was even seeing some starting to pair up on some of the gravel points and secondary points in some of these pockets.
Like much of the field, I was throwing the dice-style baits. I caught some on a Neko rig and then I was throwing a big swimbait as well. I was mixing it up. I also caught some on a fluke in about a foot of water in the backs of those pockets.
The ideal pocket for me was a very slow tapering layout. Ideally, there would be about a foot of water for a good portion of the back of the pocket. That just allowed the sun to quickly heat it up, while it allowed me to see the fish with my eyes and pick off my targets.
The one thing that surprised me was how little the largemouth played for me. Throughout the week, I think I weighed six largemouth.
After practice, I thought the largemouth would play more than they did. I caught some great big largemouth in practice, and I had a good pattern going, but it kinda fell apart on me in the tournament.
That’s still a little puzzling to me, but overall, this tournament was a good example of how staying on the move and adapting on the fly often turns out well. My style is to cover water and try to put my bait in front of more bass than the rest of the field.
That really works with a place like Lake Martin, where there are only so many big bites to be had. My style fits Lake Martin well, and that’s why I did well there,
