GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. – After spending the previous two days fishing with Mark Zona on Lake Guntersville for a future episode of Zona’s Awesome Fishing Show, Aaron Martens had a firm grasp on last Thursday’s bass fishing forecast. It was anything but promising, especially between the hours of 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., when Bassmaster LIVE on the Lake presented by Carhartt was scheduled.
But that didn’t keep the three-time Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year from putting on a show Thursday. Martens might be a more prolific talker than he is an angler, which is saying something for a man who has now won over $2.6 million in B.A.S.S. events and just posted what is considered the most dominant season in the 10-year history of the Elite Series.
The bass bite was dead, but there was no “dead air” during the broadcast. Forty-five minutes into the show, Bassmaster studio host Tommy Sanders noted, “I feel like the doorman at a restaurant. Open the door and say, ‘Enjoy yourselves folks. We’ll see you when you get out.’”
Unusual is the angler who, while catching a single 2-pound bass in three hours, can entertain with a monologue of bass fishing tips and personal history. Martens covered every subject from lure choices to tournament strategy to lizard wrangling (seriously).
It got even more unusual after the LIVE show ended at 1 p.m. Cast and crew motored to The Goose Pond Bait Tackle and Grill for a cheeseburger. It had already been a long day. Martens insisted on getting to the lake at 7:30 a.m., when it was 48 degrees, for some fishing time before the show. It was now 80 degrees under near-cloudless skies.
As the grind set in of being away for the past two weeks from his wife, Lesley, and children, Jordan and Spencer, who were a 90-minute drive away in Leeds, Ala., and being in a bass boat with hyperactive Zona the previous two days, Martens had a sinking spell. Earlier, he’d mentioned a desire to fish all day. He and Zona had found the best bass bite to be between 3 and 5 p.m. But with a cheeseburger in his belly, Martens was feeling the call of home.
There remained a bit of work to do for some short instructional videos that will soon appear on Bassmaster.com. But Martens planned to head for the house immediately after. No more flipping and frogging fruitlessly on Lake Guntersville, which had been thrashed by an Oakley Big Bass Tour all-time record 794 anglers the previous weekend. (A 9.42-pounder took first place.) October is one of Martens’ least favorite months to fish the lake anyway, and all the fishing pressure the previous weekend had made it even tougher. Guntersville bass fishing heats up again as the temperatures cool and the aquatic vegetation dies.
“I’ve probably caught more 30-pound bags in December than any other month,” he said. “I probably shouldn’t say that. That’s when the grass gets to be about half what it is now, and everybody else is in a tree-stand, hunting. Less pressure and less grass is good.”
But the man who loves to fish, possibly more than anyone on Earth, simply couldn’t help himself after the videos were shot. He and his three B.A.S.S. crew companions fished until dark, when the bugs broke out so thick you couldn’t take a breath without inhaling one.
You’ve got to be somewhat of a fishing freak to successfully compete on the Bassmaster Elite Series tour. After witnessing Martens’ refusal to quit with no money or prestige at stake on an obviously “off” Lake Guntersville last week, well, he’s got to be the king of bass fishing freaks.
If you didn’t watch the show, some highlights from Martens’ comments follow.
On getting information from outside sources prior to a tournament:
“I’m not going to say I’ve never gotten information because I’ve known (pro angler) Randy Blaukat for years. I’ve gone to Grand Lake with him to fish for fun because he’s been a friend of mine for over 20 years. So I can’t say I’ve never gotten help.
"But I really don’t. A lot of times I don’t know where we’re going until the week before. I keep it that way. I don’t want to know.
“Some places I’ll pre-practice (before the tournament waters go off-limits). I’ll probably go pre-practice (at Grand Lake) before the (2016) Classic I did go to the Sabine (last year). That helped. I did go to Chesapeake, just to get a feel for the place. It definitely helps.
“But whatever the conditions are when we get there, I’ll adjust to them.”
On his favorite species of black bass – largemouth, smallmouth or spotted:
“That’s a tough one. Largemouth could be it. I like catching them on a frog. Smallies are the meanest probably. Spots come in a close second as far as anger goes. Which could I do without? Three years ago, I would have said smallmouth. Now I’m not so sure. I don’t really have a favorite anymore. Maybe that’s why I’m doing better. I like them all.”
On his reputation for drop-shotting and Kevin VanDam’s disdain for it:
“VanDam used to tease me about it all the time. He’d say, ‘I see you’ve got your fairy wand on the deck.’ I was teased so bad about it. I’d say, ‘This fairy wand is going to haunt you, man.’
“I’ve caught lots of big fish on a drop shot. I caught an 11-2 on 8-pound test at the (California) Delta. There are times it might not get the attention of those big fish. But if you fish a tour or multiple states, you better know how to drop shot.”
On his favorite angler and fishing fast:
“Kevin VanDam is my favorite angler. That boy likes to move.
“What happens when you move fast like that, you’ll come across a stupid fish occasionally. You think, do I fish slow and try to catch the ones that are there, or do I fish really fast and look for a stupid one. He’s not stupid, he’s just aggressive, ready to bite. No matter how tough it is, there’s going to be a fish that will bite immediately.”
On his favorite way to catch bass:
“My favorite way is probably what we’re doing here – throwing a frog and flipping. But I do whatever works best, a drop shot or Carolina rigging, at times, which is my least favorite.
“Bass fishing is all about finding the best way to catch them. I’ll do whatever it takes – a hair jig on 4-pound line. I think I can do all the techniques out there pretty good. I’ve kind of mastered them all.
“Over the years, a drop shot has been what a lot of people thought was all I did. That’s pretty funny. It’s one of my least favorites. But it’s very productive. A lot of our tournaments are in the summer, and a drop shot is hard to beat.
“And in a lot of tournaments I ended up the last two days catching them on a drop shot, but I caught them the first two days on a crankbait or a football jig. “
On his favorite lake:
“August anywhere. The fish are in living mode. They’re not wanting to spawn. They’re already past post-spawn. They’re starting to feed again. They’re just acting like bass. Anytime the fish are like that you can pattern them.”
On fish care:
“I feel really bad when a fish hits the (boat) carpet. That’s a really important thing to let people know. If a fish hits the carpet, especially during certain times of year, you’ve killed that fish. It’s that serious. Even a net is kind of bad. That’s why I’m glad B.A.S.S. made the no-net rule.
“But carpet is terrible. It takes their slime coat off. There are tons of parasites and (bass) get like a fungus on their skin when don’t have enough protection. When you catch a fish, you can tell right away whether or not it has hit the floor. Fish care to me is extremely important, especially in the summer. You should leave your (livewell) aerator pumps on all the time.”
On paying attention to the condition of the bass he catches for subtle clues:
“See how lean they are,” Martens said after landing a 2-pounder. “Obviously, they aren’t getting fat yet. In another month he’ll be a half-pound heavier.
“Every fish I catch wherever I go, especially if it’s the first one, I always look at them, especially their physical condition. Dirty teeth, clean teeth, sharp teeth, dull teeth. Scars on the face from digging in the rocks. Pay attention to everything you can.”
On striped bass:
“Don’t get me started on that. I believe stripers kill everything. It’s like putting poison ivy all over a park where kids play. That’s how bad stripers are for fishing. They kill lakes. It’s unbelievable. It’s like a cancer.”
He came back to the subject of stripers later, after talking about not letting a bass hit the boat carpet, saying, “That and stripers are the two biggest things I dislike. I know guys are out there saying, ‘I love stripers.’ Well, just put them in certain lakes. Don’t put them in clear reservoirs. And don’t put them in lakes that can’t sustain a shad population.
“If you want to catch bluegill and crappie, keep the stripers out because they’ll kill all those too.”
The Guntersville pattern he and Mark Zona found the previous two days:
“It’s not like anybody is whacking them. We talked to probably 20 anglers at lunch one day, and we didn’t talk to anyone who was catching them. From daybreak until about 8:00, we caught three or four decent fish. From mid-morning until about 2:30, you might as well go home. From 3:00 to 5:00 it’s pretty good. Frogging and flipping is what we were doing. But it’s all slow. We tried crankbaits on the outside edge (of the grass), a worm and some other topwater baits.
“We probably caught 12 to 15 fish (Wednesday). Nothing over 5 pounds. Our best five maybe weighed 18 pounds. Our biggest the last two days was less than 6 pounds, which is not very good for Guntersville.
“You’ve got to crawl a frog. You can’t work it fast. (When flipping) it’s almost like you’re bed fishing. You let it sit like 10 seconds. After 10 seconds, one will swim off with it. That’s how tough it is right now.”
On winning the final day at Chesapeake Bay, when the tide got right late in the day, after he knew Bill Lowen already had 18 pounds to move into first place:
“I’m 43 years old now. I’m sure I’m more patient than I used to be. I think in the past I didn’t have the patience and the knowledge to do what I do now. I overheard one of the spectators saying Lowen had 18 pounds. It’s hard for that not to get in your head when you hear he’s got 18 and you’ve got nothing and he’s kicking your butt.
“It could have been different 10 years ago. I may have gotten in panic mode and left at 9 o’clock. I’m sure that has cost me tournaments in the past.”