Aaron Martens' Pattern, Baits & Gear

Aaron Martens made two separate trips to West Point Lake prior to it going off limits to competitors on April 1. While there was no way for him to anticipate the weather patterns that would develop between then and tournament time, he was able to drive around and read his electronics and mark potential fish-holding areas. Even though he'd fished there in 2011, he said he's more comfortable when having scouted a body of water instead of showing up blind for practice. When he arrived for official practice, he figured there would still be some fish spawning, but high water made some of the nests hard to see. "I was focused on bed-fishing if I could find enough of them," he said after notching his 11th career runner-up finish in B.A.S.S. competition. "I didn't know it was going to be as cloudy as it was. It was like pre-dawn cloudy all week. It was weird. That made it much tougher. More sun would've made it better. The weights would've been a few pounds higher, I think." He tried to unlock a topwater bite in practice, but had more success fishing a soft jerkbait rigged weightless. He also caught keepers on a shaky-head, keying on points and shoals and the backs of shallow pockets and creeks where schools of shad congregated. "They were definitely keying on shad," he said. "You couldn't see them really good, but the shad were spawning before it got cloudy and cool. That's one the reasons the fishing would've been better. When the sun went away, I think the shad backed off and the bass just backed off with them. "I was seeing a lot of shad in 3 to 4 feet of water right on the grass line and some fry guarders would come out and nail the shad here and there. That's what tipped me off to it."

Soft jerkbait gear: 7' medium-action Megabass Diablo casting rod, Shimano Metanium casting reel (7.0:1 gear ratio, 12-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, 3/0 Gamakatsu Offset G-Lock light wire worm hook, Zoom Super Fluke (glimmer blue and mardi gras). He tied on the glimmer blue under cloudy conditions and broke out the mardi gras or watermelon version when the clouds parted. He also dipped the flukes in JJ's Magic Dye, which he thinks triggered some bites.

Jerkbait gear: 7' medium-action Megabass Orochi XX Flatside Special casting rod, same reel, 10-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, Megabass Ito Vision 110 Magnum (pro green).

Shaky-head gear: 6'11" medium-action Megabass Orochi XX Dropshot Series spinning rod, Shimano Stella 2500 spinning reel, unnamed 3/16-ounce jig, 6" Roboworm straight tail worm (bold bluegill).

Main factor: "I made a couple scouting trips there. I went there one day last December and spent two half days there right before off limits. It seems like most of the time I pre-practice, I do pretty well."

Performance edge: "My Roboworms. I caught a few key fish on the shaky-head during the tournament."

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