Aaron Martens Wins BASS Chesapeake Bay

Lots of pro anglers say - and many of them truly believe - that nearly everything must go right for them to win a tour-level event. The competition these days is so stiff that there's just no room for error and any type of slip-up will lead to settling for a placement other that 1st. That's simply not the case for Aaron Martens these days. His final day at the Chesapeake Bay Bassmaster Elite Series was far short of perfect, yet he still prevailed by almost 8 pounds. Martens' season to this point has unquestionably been one of the most dominant in the annals of the sport. His victory at the Chesapeake - a venue that had gotten dramatically stingier since it went off-limits a month earlier - was his second of the campaign and his sixth Top-15 finish in seven 2015 outings. He now holds a commanding lead in pursuit of his third Angler of the Year title with one regular-season derby to go. He led from wire to wire in Maryland en route to his fifth career tour-level triumph (he has four on the Elite Series and one on the FLW Tour). He also caught the biggest fish and heaviest bag of the event on day 4 after struggling for most of the morning. He averaged slightly more than 17 pounds a day on a fishery that completely confounded many of his fellow competitors, proving once again that he's a master of tidal waters and one of the best tough-bite anglers the game has ever seen. The $100,000 payday pushed his career B.A.S.S. earnings past the $2.5 million mark.

Martens visited the Chesapeake twice prior to the off-limits cutoff - once last summer after the Delaware River derby and again this past June. He saw most of the layout on one or the other of those excursions, but didn't explore the Middle or Gun Powder rivers. It was for that reason alone that he took a look at those two tributaries when the 3 days of official practice got under way at the beginning of last week. He was impressed with what he found in the Middle. "I just liked the looks of it," he said, "and it had fish. I got bit in quite a few places and they were good-quality fish. "In practice I fished everything in there - grass, docks and wood. (The fish) were on the hard stuff."

Competition:

As expected, most of the 107-angler field headed for the renowned Susquehana Flats when the tournament got under way. Just a short run from the launch in the North East River, the area features dozens of square miles of grass (both milfoil and eel grass) and harbors a huge population of largemouths. Martens rubbed elbows with his fellow competitors for awhile on day 1, but quickly grew weary of that scene and bolted for the Middle, which is approximately an hour south of the Flats. It was there that he compiled the majority of the bag that would give him a lead he wouldn't relinquish. He came in 2 1/2 pounds lighter on day 2, but his approximately 3/4-pound advantage grew by an ounce. It ballooned to 5 pounds the following day when he caught just about what he'd averaged over the first 2 days and the four other competitors who'd started the day among the Top 5 failed to box limits. The final day brought forth a measure of drama as fans following the action on BASSTrakk could see that Martens caught nothing for the first several hours while 2nd-place Bill Lowen quickly amassed a mid-teens sack that grew to the high teens as the day wore on. Martens, however, had anticipated such a scenario. "I even told (wife) Lesley not to freak out if I didn't have anything at 11 o'clock," he said. "I knew when I got there that the tide (the tail end of the incoming and the initial stage of the outgoing) would be the worst I could possibly have.

"Low incoming could be good, but once it got about halfway out, that's when the fish really started getting fired up. That's when I'd start moving faster and I wouldn't pick up the jig as much - I'd throw mostly reaction baits. It was time to get to work." He lost at least five quality bites before he put one in the boat, which he attributed to the fish not being fully ready to commit to the bait - a product of the tide having not yet reached its optimal stage. He eventually started landing them, though, and ended up with a stringer that was almost 3 pounds superior to any other caught during the event. The bag was topped by a 7-02 specimen that took big-fish honors for the tournament by well over a pound. That fish and several others he took to the scale came from a marina that he'd saved for Sunday afternoon. "I thought that place had the most fish, or at least the biggest ones," he said. "I'd never gotten close to it in the tournament before that. A lot of guys didn't fish it because they thought it was saltwater. It did have high salinity, but I've caught bass before from water that was a lot saltier than that. "I had it to myself, and I made the most of it."

Winning Pattern:

Martens focused most of his attention on the many docks in the Middle. When the tide was right, he threw a spinnerbait and a ChatterBait, and used a jig to pick up a few bites during off-peak periods. He employed a dropshot rig for part of day 1 and sporadically throughout the remainder of the tournament. The ChatterBait produced his best fish on day 4. "I really wanted to throw a crankbait, but there was just too much stuff (for a plug to get snagged on) where I was fishing."

Winning Gear:

Spinnerbait gear: 7' medium-action Enigma Fishing rod, Shimano Metanium casting reel (8.5:1 ratio), 14-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, unnamed 1/4-ounce spinnerbait (green/blue pearl) with twin willow-leaf blades.

ChatterBait gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Enigma Fishing rod, same reel, 20-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper, 3/8-ounce Z-Man Chatterbait (green-pumpkin/blue), Strike King Blade Minnow trailer (blue gizzard).

Jig gear: Same rod, reel and line as ChatterBait, unnamed 3/8-ounce football-head jig (green-pumpkin), Reaction Innovations Smallie Beaver trailer (green-pumpkin).

Dropshot gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Enigma rod, same reel (7.4:1 ratio), 10-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper, unnamed 1/8- or 3/16-ounce weight, 1/0 Gamakatsu Finesse Heavy Cover hook, 4" Roboworm Fat (Aaron's magic).

Main factor: "Location was definitely key. Those fish were hard to catch, but I had them dialed in pretty good."

Chesapeake Bay Winning Pattern BassFan 8/18/15 (John Johnson)

Lowen's runner-up finish was his third on the Elite Series as he remains in pursuit of his first victory. It looked as if that initial victory might be forthcoming when Martens failed to boat a keeper for the first half of day 4, but it wasn't to be as the eventual winner ended up weighing a tournament-best bag. Lowen spent the event throwing a spinnerbait and flipping in Swan Creek, located about a dozen miles from the launch in North East, Md. "Practice wasn't bad," he said. "I had about eight bites the first day, nine or 10 the second and 12 or 13 the third. My primary area where I ended up catching them I found on the first day." A smaller tributary within the creek fed out into a flat and featured some shoreline wood. It had a ditch running through it to provide additional depth. He said there were "tons" of baitfish and other finned creatures swimming around. He could catch fish as long as the tide was flowing one direction or the other. The period between cycles, which lasted an hour or so, was always non-productive. "I caught the fish from 3 feet or less and most of them were relating to the wood or the grass," he said. "I was getting 10 or 12 bites a day and I'd just keep fishing around until I got another bite. "I didn't fish there the first day, but everything I caught on the second, third and fourth days came from there."

Flipping gear: 7'6" heavy-action Castaway rod, Team Lew's Lite casting reel (6.8:1 ratio), 15-pound Hi-Seas fluorocarbon line, 1/4-ounce Reins Tungsten weight, 3/0 Mustad offset-shank hook, unnamed creature-style bait (green-pumpkin).

Spinnerbait gear: 7' heavy-action Castaway rod, same reel and line, 1/4-ounce Tim Poe spinnerbait (white with double Colorado blades).

Main factor: I was able to keep my head down and fish through the tides. That area was just so unique."

Performance edge: "I'd have to say the rod, reel and line combo. The Team Lew's Lite would throw little baits wherever I needed them to go and I had the confidence in the line that I was going to get the fish out of that stuff."

Chesapeake Bay Winning Pattern BassFan 8/18/15 (John Johnson)

Chad Pipkens spent the vast majority of his time in the North East River, but would make a run up to the Susquehana each day to capitalize in the optimum tide. The Susquehana gave him at least one key fish each day, including a pair of 4-pounders on day 4. "I felt pretty good because I was getting five to eight bites a day in practice," he said. "Granted, that was in 14-hour days, but I wasn't hitting anything twice and I wasn't catching multiple fish anywhere - if I got a bite, I'd leave. "Every place I got a bite I'd add to my milk run, and the bites were all over 3 pounds. I knew if I could get four to six of the a day I'd end up with 12 to 17 pounds." He fished a lot of dock pilings and other hard spots that contained brush or wood. All of his weigh-in fish were enticed by a shaky-head. "I knew I'd run into bites if I just kept casting and putting my bait in high-percentage areas. I was trying to be in the right place at the right time."

Shaky-head gear: 7'11" medium-action Powell 712 rod, Abu Garcia Revo Premier spinning reel, 12-pound Sunline SX1 braid (main line), 10-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon (leader), various 1/8-ounce shaky-head jigs with Gamakatsu hooks, Damiki Cutter worm or unnamed finesse worm (junebug or green-pumpkin).

Main factor: "Not staying in one area for very long and continually looking for active fish."

Performance edge: "The 360 Imaging on my Humminbird unit allowed me to find every key piece of structure where I was fishing. It just made me so much more efficient."

Chesapeake Bay Winning Pattern BassFan 8/18/15 (John Johnson)

Swindle logged a Top-5 finish despite staying within a half-mile of the ramp on all 4 days. He caught some of his weigh-in fish from rocky areas with a crankbait and flipped for some that were holding tight to woody cover. With less than 2 hours remaining in the 2 1/2-day official practice session, he still hadn't gotten a single bite. Just before he had to pull out and head for the registration meeting, the tide in the North East River got lower than he'd seen it to that point, exposing numerous logs. He flipped two of them and got a bite from each, then had to hustle to make the meeting. "The more I stayed in those areas, just idling around, I'd find additional logs. Each day I gained more and more targets. "I'd struggled so bad in practice, running all over, that I just didn't know where else to fish. Sometimes a fisherman without options can be dangerous because he just fishes what's right in front of him."

Cranking gear: 7' medium-light Quantum Smoke PT rod, Quantam Smoke PT casting reel (6:1 ratio), 10-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, Zoom Ed Chambers Mutt crankbait (chartreuse/brown back).

Flipping gear: 7'4" heavy-action Quantum EXO Tour PT casting rod, Quantum Tour MG casting reel, 20-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon line, unnamed 5/16-ounce weight, 3/0 Gamakatsu straight-shank worm hook, Zoom Z-Craw (black/blue).

Main factor: "Staying out late before the meeting and seeing the tide that low. I had no idea there were that many logs in that area.

Performance edge: "The SideImaging on my Humminbird was a key tool. I was idling in 3 or 4 feet of water and looking 40 to 50 feet out to the side, so I could find those logs without having to get on top of them and disturb the fish."

Chesapeake Bay Winning Pattern BassFan 8/18/15 (John Johnson)

Davy Hite fished a single area in the Gun Powder River throughout the event, throwing a 5-inch Yamamoto Senko and any type of cover he came across. He fished the Senko both weightless and on a shaky-head. "I stayed mentally into this tournament a whole lot better than I did at the St. Lawrence (where he logged a triple-digit placement)," he said. "At that one I just ran around and almost fished too hard. I tried to make things happen instead of settling in. "I didn't do that here; I settled in pretty good. I hate to say I'm happy with a 5th-place finish, but I don't think I was on the fish to do any better. That's what I found." His best action came toward the end of the outgoing tide, and that period arrived later each day.

Weightless Senko gear: 7' medium-heavy CarbonLite rod, Johnny Morris Signature Series casting reel (7:1 ratio), 14-pound XPS fluorocarbon line, 4/0 VMC worm hook, 5" Yamamoto Senko (purple laminate or green-pumpkin). For his shaky-head rig, he used a 6'6" medium-action rod, 8-pound fluorocarbon and a 1/8-ounce VMC jighead.

He caught one weigh-in fish on a 1/2-ounce VMC Swinging Rugby Head jig with with an unnamed creature-type bait.

Main factor: "I figured out in practice that it was going to be a really tough tournament, and I found a pretty decent area and just put my head down."

Performance edge: "It'd have to be that 5-inch Senko. I only weighed one fish on another bait."

Chesapeake Bay Winning Pattern BassFan 8/18/15 (John Johnson)