Aaron Martens Wins BASS Lake Havasu

Six years is a long time for an angler the caliber of Aaron Martens to go without a Bassmaster Elite Series victory. He had to return to a place that held many good memories from an earlier period in his life to end that dry spell. Martens, who grew up in Southern California, spent a considerable amount of time at Lake Havasu during his late teens and early 20s. There are more and bigger bass there now than there was two decades ago, but he discovered last week that the scenic water-storage impoundment on the Arizona-California border still fishes much like it did so long ago. He topped his runner-up finish at the Sacramento River the previous week by winning at Havasu on the circuit's inaugural visit to that venue. His bags got progressively bigger as the event wore on and culminated in a massive 19-05 haul on the final day as he rallied from 4th place to collect his long-awaited third Elite trophy. He edged another desert-lake powerhouse - Arizona's Cliff Pirch - by 2 pounds to claim the title. Both are three-time winners of the WON Bass U.S. Open that's contested annually at Lake Mead on the same Colorado River system. His 68-09 total worked out to an average of a little more than 17 pounds per day. The $100,000 top prize pushed his career B.A.S.S. earnings total to more than $2.4 million - quite impressive considering he's never garnered the huge payday that accompanies a Bassmaster Classic victory.

Martens got a look at Havasu for the first time in the better part of a decade in January, when he came out from his home in Alabama to spend a few days fishing the lake with longtime friend and top-flight Western competitor Justin Kerr. Perhaps 7 years prior to that, he'd visited for a day en route to a U.S. Open, but didn't fish. The 42-year-old recalls winning a few tournaments there half a lifetime ago, but doesn't remember which circuits they were on or whether they were championship-type events. "I didn't have any waypoints - I started with a clean slate on that place," he said. "It all came back to me pretty quick. One of the important things I remembered is you have to do a lot of thinking at Havasu and make sure you're doing the right thing. There's not a lot of room for error. "I did a lot of graphing and realized it's still the same old Havasu, so that trip really helped me a lot." The official practice period was shortened from 3 days to 2 in order to prevent putting the top finishers at Sacramento at a disadvantage (Martens, of course, was one of those). He spent much of the first day reorganizing tackle, then spent some of his remaining time looking for bed-fish. He located and marked well over two dozen active spawners. When he wasn't scanning for beds, he had a fairly easy time getting bites around the man-made habitat structures that are spread throughout the lake, but it seemed like the majority of the field was keying on those. After seeing all the pressure on the habitats, he determined that his main focus would be on tules - some in pockets off the main body of the lake and others located up the river.

Competition:

Martens was tied for 33rd place after day 1 with his lightest bag of the event. At his second stop he came across Edwin Evers (the eventual 3rd-place finisher who weighed a tournament-best 20-07 on opening day) and recognized instantly that Evers had deciphered the flipping bite in that area. Still, Martens managed to catch a 4-pounder and a 3 to go with three bed-fish to lay a decent foundation for himself. His day-2 weight was up by more than a pound and he climbed to 11th place, but he described that day as his toughest of the derby. He said he lost about 80 percent of his flipping bites until he switched to a larger, heavier hook. Fortunately, he'd pulled a 4 1/2-pounder and a 3 from the beds. He used a dropshot rig and a spinnerbait to pick up a few decent fish early on day 3. When he moved to the tules (the flipping action didn't get good until the middle of the day), he added a 4-pounder and a pair that exceeded 3 to climb to 4th place.

The morning of day 4 was slow for him and he was forced to start flipping earlier than he'd planned. He missed his first take, but took that as an encouraging sign that the reed fish would indeed bite that day. He'd saved a couple of areas so he could hit them hard on the final day, and that's where he go into the big ones that were feeding on blackbird in the tules. "I knew if I could get five bites there and land them all, I'd have 18 to 19 pounds," he said. "Besides the ones I caught, I set the hook on three other ones and missed them, and I had four or five more just pick up the bait and drop it." He said he's been wise to the blackbird phenomenon for more than 20 years and knew it was occurring when he found feathers in his livewell after day 3. "I've had bass spit up adult blackbirds in the livewell before," he said. "I've seen fish go after the birds and I've heard it lots of times. It's something that's normal at this time of year. "There's places where the tules are matted up and folded over and it's real thick. The birds are nesting in there and the bass eat them."

Winning Gear:

Flipping gear: 7'8" heavy-action or 7'6" extra-heavy Enigma Fishing rod, Shimano Metanium casting reel (8.5:1 gear ratio), 30-pound Sunline SX1 braided line, unnamed 1/2- or 3/4-ounce weight, 4/0 Gamakatsu Heavy Cover hook, Strike King Rage Craw or Zoom Speed Craw (green-pumpkin). He used the heavier rod and weight and the Speed Craw to penetrate the thickest vegetation. "The flappers on the Rage Craw were too big for that and they were grabbing onto stuff," he said. "A lot of that stuff was hard to get through."

Dropshot gear: 6'11" Enigma Fishing spinning rod, Shimano Stella 2500 spinning reel, 10-pound Sunline SX1 braid with 8-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon leader, 1/8- or 1/4-ounce River2Sea cylinder dropshot weight, No. 1 or 1/0 Gamakatsu Finesse Heavy Cover hook, 6" Roboworm Straight Tail worm (Aaron's magic or MM3). He used a dropshot rig for bed-fishing, but wasn't ready to reveal the bait. "I want to keep it a secret for now and maybe catch some more fish on it," he said.

Main factor: "Those blackbirds saved my butt. They're what I was keying on the last day."

Performance edge: "I visibly saw most of the fish I fished for, even the ones that weren't on beds, so I'd say my Solar Bat signature series sunglasses with the blue-mirror lenses. I used my eyes a lot both at Havasu and the Delta."

Havasu Elite Series Winning Pattern BassFan 5/12/15 (John Johnson)

Like Martens, Pirch was on everybody's watch list coming into the event. The two-time defending WON Bass U.S. Open champion (and overall three-time winner of that annual Lake Mead derby) can catch fish anywhere, but he's at his best in his native Mojave Desert. He led the standings after days 2 and 3, but failed to get the big bites he needed over the weekend and came up 2 pounds shy of Martens' total. Nonetheless, he performed superbly on the Western swing (he was 7th at the Sacramento River/California Delta) and now sits at No. 4 in the Angler of the Year race. He threw a lot of reaction baits in practice in a quest to locate groups of quality fish that he could exploit with a dropshot once competition got under way. "Interestingly enough, I thought I could do well on some of those (moving baits) in the tournament, but I never did catch anything even though I spent a significant amount of time doing it," he said. He shared one extremely productive area with Omori, Justin Lucas (8th), Chad Morgenthaler (14th) and Jeff Kriet (19th). He regretted leaving it and heading upriver on day 3, then watching Omori and Lucas combine to weigh in nearly 39 pounds of fish.

Dropshot gear: 7'2" medium-action Phenix M1 Series rod, Ardent Bolt 2000 spinning reel, 8-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 1/0 Roboworm Rebarb light-wire hook, unnamed 1/4-ounce cylindrical dropshot weight, 6" Roboworm Straight Tail worm (various shades of purple or brown, including oxblood light and purple blue neon).

Main factor: "Just knowing how the fishing on these Southwest lakes usually plays out."

Performance edge: "I fished a lot of (man-made) habitats, and my Lowrance unit was important for seeing exactly what I was fishing. Also, my Typhoon Polarized Optics allowed me to see a lot of it visually."

Havasu Patterns 2-5 BassFan 5/6/15 (John Johnson)

Evers spent the tournament flipping heavy cover about 10 miles up the Colorado River. "It's a beautiful lake and really a neat place," he said. "Having never been there before and not knowing any better, I just started flipping up shallow (in practice) and got some bites." The 20 1/2-pound stringer he brought to the scale on day 1 was the biggest of the tournament. "I figure some of those fish were still spawning. I caught some in the slack water and some in the current from a foot to 4 feet of water. I caught a few on a frog when it was a little calmer or when I didn't have something to flip to. "A lot of the fish I caught were ones I shook off in practice. I marked the waypoints, then I'd go back in the tournament and make that exact same flip and catch that fish."

Flipping gear: 7'6" extra-heavy or 7'3" heavy-action Carbonlite rod, Johnny Morris Signature Series casting reel (7:1 ratio), 55-pound XPS 8 braided or 25-pound XPS fluorocarbon line, 1 1/2- or 3/4-ounce tungsten weight, 4/0 Mustad flipping hook, Zoom Z-Hog (green-pumpkin).

Frog gear: 7' medium-heavy CarbonLite Rod, same reel, 50-pound XPS 8 braid, Snag Proof Bobby's Perfect Frog (black).

Main factor: "Just covering a lot of water, putting my head down and fishing what was in from of me."

Performance edge: "My Wiley X sunglasses - I saw a whole bunch of those fish before I caught them."

Havasu Patterns 2-5 BassFan 5/6/15 (John Johnson)

Omori was fearful that his fourth straight bomb might be forthcoming when he arrived at Havasu. Instead, he departed with a much-needed single-digit finish that he hopes will give him momentum for the season's second half. "I didn't expect to do well and I thought I'd just be fishing for a check, but I ended up with a chance to win it," he said. "It's weird that I did well on a technique that's one of my weaknesses." Instead of pounding the shallows, which he's always inclined to do, he fished drop-offs with weed or grass. He threw a swimjig and a dropshot rig and all of his fish were all post-spawners. He flipped up four fish on the final day when that action finally died. "They were all skinny ones," he said. "I don't weigh mine on a scale, but I almost never misjudge the weights. I was misjudging them every day. "It was my first time on the lake and I didn't know what to expect, but sometimes it works better that way. I made adjustments and that's why I had better results. There are way better (deep-water) fishermen out there than me."

Swimjig gear: 7'3" medium-action Daiwa Black Label rod, Daiwa Tatula casting reel (8.1:1), 16-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, 3/-4-ounce Blade Runner jig (green-pumpkin), Yamamoto Heart Tail swimbait trailer (green-pumpkin).

Dropshot gear: 6'3" Daiwa spinning rod, Daiwa spinning reel, 7-pound FC Sniper fluorocarbon, 3/8-ounce teardrop Ultra Tungsten dropshot weight, No. 1 Gamakatsu Split Shot/Drop Shot hook, Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm (green-pumpkin).

Flipping gear: Same rod and reel as swimjig, 56-pound Sunline Super P.E. braided line, 3/4-ounce Ultra Tungsten weight, 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook, Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver (black/blue flake).

Main factor: "Not overthinking a place that doesn't fit my fishing style."

Performance edge: "My Lowrance HDS-12 - it showed the fish clearly off the bottom."

Havasu Patterns 2-5 BassFan 5/6/15 (John Johnson)

When the schedule for his rookie season on the Elite Series was released, Havasu was the event that Williams dreaded the most. Gin-clear water has never been his forte. It turned out, though, that he could catch fish at Havasu with the same techniques he favors in water where the lake bottom can't be seen from 15 feet above - flipping and throwing a swimbait. "Practice was phenomenal," he said. "I was catching 30 to 40 fish a day on a topwater, then I actually cut the hooks off the bait and still boated two 3-pounders - that's how hard they were biting it. But that almost completely went away. "I ended up fishing on the south end and I was pretty much by myself the whole tournament. The fish were set up on different stuff every day and I had to work until I found them." He found them on rocks on day 1, on large boulders on day 2, clinging to wood on day 3 and in matted reeds on day 4. "The second day I broke a real big one off and that was the day I only had 11 pounds - I had two little 13-inchers in the boat. But in 4 days I only lost one fish that really cost me, so I can't complain too much."

Swimbait gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Abu Garcia Veracity rod, Abu Garcia Revo Premier casting reel, 17-pound Hi-Seas monofilament line, Sebile Magic Swimmer (blue Althea).

Flipping gear: Same rod, reel and line, 1/2-ounce shooter jig (crawdad or white), Zoom Speed Craw trailer (green-pumpkin or white). "Bait color didn't seem to matter if you found one ready to eat," he said. "It was all about finding what they were set up on every day, then you could usually go to other places and run the same kind of stuff."

Main factor: "Adjusting every day - the quicker you could get onto what they were hanging on, the quicker you could go run that pattern all over the lake."

Performance edge: "Probably the GPS on my Humminbird 1198. I could keep finding identical stuff to run even if it was a couple miles down the lake."

Havasu Patterns 2-5 BassFan 5/6/15 (John Johnson)