BassFan chatted with Scott Martin about a few topics – one, his dad, and two, his new sponsor. First dad, who recently announced he'd return to competition next year in the Bassmaster Opens.
"I'm going to be teaching Roland Martin a thing or two about fishing tackle," Scott said. "We have to go through all his tackle and get his reels set up right. He wants to know all about swimbaits and all the cool new stuff. There's definitely a lot of work to do."
Scott used a relatively recent fishing outing as an example. "The last tournament deal dad did was Ultimate Match Fishing 2 years ago at Lanier. Dad was all excited and we drove up separately for practice. We went to two different areas of the lake and later called each other on the phone. Dad was really catching them good on a jig, and he asks me, 'Matter of fact, do you have any pork chunks? I'm about to run out.' I told him I didn't even know if they made them anymore. I didn't even know if he could get them on eBay. He said all his lids were rusted and the juice dried up.
"I asked him what kind of line he was using, and said big, old 25-pound fluorescent blue mono on a big, old and nasty flipping stick."
Scott said when he pulled up to his dad's boat later on and saw the oversize jig, "It looked like a mangled up baby squirrel. Here I am with my super-light Kistler flipping stick, 25-pound high-end fluorocarbn, jig all trimmed up, trailer matched perfectly, but he's catching them better than me on a mangled baby squirrel."
A side note: Although the elder Martin cited the new Bassmaster Classic qualifying structure as the enticement to exit retirement, he might also be eyeing KVD's 19-win mark. The two are tied for most BASS wins, although historians will have to sort through the stats, since KVD claims two 12-boat, 2-day wins under the BASS post-season format.
The other news from Scott Martin: He inked a sponsor deal with jackplate manufacturer Bob's Machine Shop. He's run a Bob's plate on every one of his boats for the past 20 years, so the deal just made sense, he told BassFan. The deal covers his tournament competition and Scott Martin Challenge TV show, about to enter its seventh season.
"Obviously, there are other jackplate companies out there and they all have their selling points, " Martin said. "But the thing for me is, I've run Bob's for 20 years and I've never had a stitch of a problem in fresh or saltwater. There's never been a time when I hit that button and the plate locked up. They're American-made, dependable and they never rust out, ever."
