Forrest Wood Cup champ Scott Martin recently told BassFans that he could soon announce a series of new sponsorships. The first one went public this week and it's a close-to-home deal with soft-plastic newcomer Bruiser Baits (BruiserBaits.com).
Bruiser, out of Loxahatchee, Fla., bills its products as "made for fishermen by fishermen." The company first gained national notoriety when Brandon McMillan threw them last spring at the Okeechobee FLW Tour Open. McMillan set a new FLW Outdoors 4-day weight record of 106-10 with the Bruiser Intruder.
According to Martin, he first became acquainted with Bruiser when he stocked them in his Okeechobee store.
"A dad and three sons own it and they started from the ground up," Martin added. "They're attractive to me for that reason and a lot of others. The baits are made in the U.S., they can do custom colors for you, everything they make is absolute top-notch, and I'm getting in with them at the ground level."
The deal covers both Martin as a tour pro as well as his Scott Martin Challenge TV show.
Bruiser co-owner Jeremy Young told BassFan: "Scott got our baits in his store down there in Clewiston and he said, 'Look guys, I've been using your baits for a while and I truly love them. I have a soft-plastics opening and I'd love to be sponsored by you guys.' We jumped all over that and we've already sat down with him and started talking about product development and getting some prototype molds made."
> In addition to Bruiser, Martin earlier this week announced a sponsorship agreement with Fishhound.com.
