On the water during A-Mart LIVE

The morning starts in the lobby of our Lake Guntersville hotel as Aaron Martens, cameraman Rick Mason, Bassmaster.com writer Steve Wright and I meet for breakfast around 6:15 a.m.

It could be the Bassmaster Classic, or just a fun outing on the lake, but anglers are always concerned with what the weather has in store for them for that day.

It looks like there is some fog on the water early this morning.

Time to ship off to the boat ramp to start our day on the water with the 2015 Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year, Aaron Martens.

The sun rises over Lake Guntersville.

Fans see Martens and want a quick photo op with the 2015 AOY and two-time Elite winner from this season.

Fellow Elite Series pro, Kevin Hawk, is out on Guntersville this Thursday morning.

And we are off, following Martens to the area he wants to fish.

Bassmaster LIVE didnât start until 10 a.m., so for the first few hours of the day everyone fishes and talks in a relaxed format.

But yet, he is still focused.

Even in a relaxed format, the furious hog snatcher snatches bass.

Martens hoped to get a couple bigger than that during the Bassmaster LIVE segment, although he knew it would be tough on Lake Guntersville.

Martens tends to his tackle before the whole world tunes in and watches him fish for three hours.

The LIVE segment begins, and we are off and fishing.

If you know anything about Aaron Martens, then you are bound to know that he isnât a fan of shoes while fishing.

He has explained numerous times how fishing barefoot has helped heal his plantar fasciitis and foot spurs.

Now he is ready to go.

Martens shows off his flipping and punching setup for the day. This included a heavy tungsten weight, a Gamakatsu heavy cover flipping hook and a Strike King Rodent.

Itâs a pristine fall day on Guntersville.

There are some thick grass mats on Lake Guntersville.

This provides a great habitat for bass to hide, feed and ambush bait throughout the fall season. Martens explained that the grass he was targeting was hydrilla with milfoil mixed in.

Martens pitched his bait around the numerous grass patches while fielding questions and giving a three-hour monologue, which included various topics.

There is quite a bit of grass real estate that Martens has to work through.

Martens, an Alabama resident, reminisced on what was the best season registered by an Elite Series angler ever. Ironically, the lake closest to his home was his lowest finish of the season and the only event he didnât garner a Top 20.

Aaron Martens fielded questions from viewers at home while Tommy Sanders and Steve Bowman talked about his season back in the Little Rock studio.

Time to retie after flipping the thick grass for a good portion of the day.

A fish boils on the surface, so Martens heaves a frog out in hopes of initiating a strike.

He worked the frog brutally slow when he was inside the mat but seemed to speed up just slightly in open water.

Martens stares down his next grass mat target.

He was flipping and punching with a heavy Enigma rod, meanwhile he explained his frogging setup as well.

He actually prefers a 6-foot, 10-inch frog rod because it allows him to get more torque on his hooksets as well as giving him the ability to work his frog with a downward action without smacking the water.

Martens saw numerous bass surface and show themselves in the select holes in the grass mats.

This cover gives bass some shade as well as baitfish like bluegill a place to hide. At times, mat fishing can be predictable because of the ambush points that they provide for bass.

Martens is still fishing steady without the support of shoes.

As he flips onâ¦

During a commercial break he takes a moment to refuel with a snack. Most anglers have a ban against bananas in the boat. Not because they donât like them, but mostly due to concerns that bananas doom an angler’s day. Martens may have disproven that myth this year.

Bassmaster.com writer Steve Wright takes notes while listening to what Aaron Martens talked about.

After about a three-hour monologue from the Angler of the Year, Wright can probably get numerous stories ideas from what Martens spoke about.

A fish blows up in a mat and Martens makes a quick switch from a flippinâ stick to a frog rod.

And heaves itâ¦

He would make numerous casts to a blow up and work it slow each and every time to ensure that a fish could see it through the dense grass.

Martens stays focused on his frog to make sure he doesnât get a subtle bite.

Then he goes back to flipping.

Then he decides to make a change. The white frog was working earlier in the week when he fished with Mark Zona.

But as we know, Martens will adjust to the slightest change in the conditions and instead of a standard pearl frog, he ties on a brown frog with a white-ish belly.

A-Mart points out all of the little ripples and surface action to cameraman Rick Mason.

That stuff is pretty thick.

Martens feels his line because bass have been lightly biting his punching rig.

The 2015 Angler of the Year catches one for the Bassmaster LIVE crowd.

Looks like the fish bit his bait well as it is in its mouth pretty far.

Martens explains how the last few days have been slow during the day, but the hot times have been the first few hours of the day and the last few hours of light.

Martens throws back the Guntersville bass for someone to catch another day.

Then he takes the time to retie.

Aaron Martens is one of the fittest, if not the most fit, anglers on the Elite Series, and he was able to fish as much as he did this year because he would do numerous stretches to make sure his wrists, fingers and other muscles were properly stretched.

Bassmaster LIVE winds down and A-Mart keeps grinding along.

Once LIVE ends, Martens says he is hungry and wants to go get a burger.

So we take off and head to a local place on the water.

This tackle shop does three things well it seems: bass, baits and burgers. It sounds like an Elite Series anglersâ dream place.

All the tackle you could desire to catch a Lake Guntersville toad.

Cajun Baby Cliff Crochet makes an appearance as we walk in.

Before you know it, Martens and the rest of us head back out on Lake Guntersville.

Thomas Allen shoots some videos with the 2015 Angler of the Year and once they’re wrapped upâ¦

…Martens wants to fish some more.

Cameraman Rick Mason had to leave so the four of us went out and fished, talked and shared stories until the sunset.

And like most bass fanatics, Martens wanted to catch one more bass at least.

He flipped this one up as well, but the surface action was crazy.

Numerous fish blew up on a frog, but they wouldnât get it completely and we never got any in the boat.

Just a few more casts.

The sun sets and we decide to head inâ¦

After arriving to the ramp in the dark, Martens checks out his Mercury, which is now covered in bugs after the 70 mile per hour drive back.

Thanks for spending the day with Bassmaster fans across the world, until next time A-Mart.