Even though Lake Martin is just 3 hours south of Lake Guntersville in Alabama, expect things to be much different this week on the short turnaround. For starters, the weather looks like it will be stable and warmer for the field in practice and tournament days. Secondly, Lake Martin is on the other end of the spectrum in the way this fishery is set up in comparison to Guntersville. Martin sets up more like Smith Lake in Alabama or a typical Ozark fishery. Much deeper, lots of rock, not much for grass, tons of small creek arms and guts to spread the field out on and chock full of spotted bass as the predominant bass species. While there are some bigger game changing largemouth in this fishery, I would expect that most anglers bags will be built around spotted bass and hopefully a largemouth or two as kickers.
On top of all that, with the technology wrinkle that Bassmaster rolled out in 2026, the anglers WILL have access to Live Sonar for this event. This should allow anglers to better target the top-end size class of the spotted bass and keep pace with them as they shift through the event. It also creates another level of complexity for anglers that are changing their electronics setups between events on this back to back event.
If the final Bassmaster Open event of 2024 is an indication, expect tons of limits, but average size of bass will be much smaller than Guntersville and weights will likely be really tight. One final note, there is an emerging population of blue back herring as a forage species in Lake Martin as well.
So what does that mean to you? You need to decide if you are going to choose anglers that are really adept at consistently targeting better than average spotted bass with electronics or anglers that may have higher risk but more likely to run into a few big largemouth each day to anchor their bag and your Fantasy team.
I personally will probably lean into younger anglers in this second event of the season.
BUCKET A: MCKINNEY
In many ways, I feel like Lake Martin will probably fish similar to Smith Lake in Alabama and Trey McKinney was one unfortunate phone call from potentially winning the event on Lewis Smith Lake in 2024. McKinney has finished second in AOY two years in a row and is coming off a Top 10 at Guntersville. He will likely be a force this week at Martin.
Stats Pick: Dakota Ebare is the highest finisher from the 2024 Bassmaster Open on Lake Martin that is in this Bassmaster Elite Series field. Where he took 3rd to punch his ticket to the Elite Series and his best Bassmaster finish to date and he is coming off the momentum of his first Elite Top 10 at Guntersville.
BUCKET B: MARKS
Paul Marks had a solid 6th place finish on Lake Martin in 2024 and has a known prowess for excelling at spotted bass fisheries. He won on Hartwell last year and Lanier is one of his favorite training grounds.
Veteran Option: Although his Bassmaster resume might be short, Cody Meyer is a long time tour level veteran. His 5th place on Lake Martin was his final stop before arriving on the Bassmaster Elite Series. Cody Meyer even held the world record for largest spotted bass for a few months.
BUCKET C: WILLIAMS
Tyler Williams loves to force feed the bass a jig just about everywhere he goes. That could be a great strategy to bring slightly better than average bass across the stage on a fishery like Lake Martin. He employed this very strategy just up the road two years ago at Lewis Smith Lake.
Newly Local: Easton Fothergill is from Minnesota, but has spent more time in Alabama the last four years as a graduate of Montevallo. Guntersville didn’t go the way Easton wanted, but look for him to bounce back to form on the fishery that was his final stop of his dominant 2024 Bassmaster Open performance.
BUCKET D: DAVIS JR.
To me, Will Davis Jr. is the perfect blend of experience and skill set to be a threat to win on Lake Martin. He has experience on this fishery and seems like he is a contender anytime big spots are in play, yet he still has the ability to chase down a largemouth kicker when needed.
Low Percentage Play: Bucket D is littered with both Alabama and new school anglers that should thrive at Lake Martin this week. If you want to go away from the crowd, take a hard look at Robert Gee. He nearly won on Lewis Smith Lake two years ago and since he came up just short of qualifying for the Classic in his hometown he probably has a little extra motivation this week.
BUCKET E: WAGNER
I could have probably just copy and pasted the reasoning from Bucket B as Emil Wagner and Paul Marks are cut from very similar cloth when it comes to spotted bass. Look for Wagner to dig his way out of Bucket E this week and be a solid performer for your Fantasy Fishing squad.
Auburn Tigers: The easy pick here would be Jordan Lee, as he went to school at Auburn just 45 minutes from Lake Martin and is probably upset with his performance at Guntersville, but maybe the sneaky pick is Sam Hanggi who is also a Auburn alumni and a little more off the radar for your Fantasy competition.
Falcon Rods Bassmaster Drain the Lake Challenge
We are in stop two off season six of the Falcon Rods Bassmaster Drain the Lake Challenge. This additional Fantasy Fishing game not only offers a fresh way to play the game, but a completely separate prize pool. Drain the Lake is an elimination / survivor style game where you can only use an angler once all season.
For 2026 we will have 10 events and 101 anglers. You will need to use up 80 of the 101 anglers. Who are you locking in for the second event?
Here is my Martin Lake Drain the Lake roster:
Justin Atkins
Tyler Williams
Robert Gee
Logan Parks
Kyoya Fujita
San Hanggi
Matt Arey
Justin Hamner
