Untouched Water Key To Martin's 1-2 Punch

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

Remember working up the courage to ask your dad for the first time if you could take the family car out for a drive? You knew it was a 50-50 proposition, but a bit intimidating nonetheless.

That's about how Casey Martin felt on day 1 of the Lake Chickamauga FLW Tour.

He'd come off of his first spot with an empty livewell. Most of his other spots were covered up, including an area where he'd found a big school of bass – the "mega school" as he would later call it.

Mark Rose, who's widely regarded as the Zen master of ledge fishing on the Tennessee River, was already parked on the mega school. Out of options, Martin idled up, cleared his throat and asked Rose if he minded someone fishing behind him. Without hesitation, Rose invited Martin in on the spot and they both proceeded to have an excellent opening day, bagging nearly 23 pounds apiece.

From there, Martin gained momentum and never stumbled as he alternated between the mega school and a nearby big-fish hole that remained largely untouched through the event. By employing a variety of presentations, including a 13-wire umbrella rig, the 1-2 punch was the perfect recipe as he closed the season in historic fashion with an unheard of 25 1/2-pound daily average in late June to register his first Tour win.

"It took courage to ask him," he said. "It was more out of desperation because at that point I hadn't realized how good my big-fish spot was because I'd only caught one there in practice.

"I didn't have other places to go so it took a bit a courage for me to ask him. We both caught 'em that day. It was such a big school, though, that he knew if it wasn't me who asked him, it would be somebody else. If he'd have tried to run me off, I probably would've left."

A native of Canada, Martin moved to Alabama when he was a young kid, so he's no stranger to the ins and outs for summertime fishing on TVA lakes. He'd won three Tour events as a co-angler before making the move to the front of the boat this season. What was proving to be an average season for the rookie turned into a dream sequence as he climbed 16 positions in the points to qualify for the Forrest Wood Cup and then closed out his dominating win with a tournament-best 30-pound stringer on Sunday.

Here's how he did it.

Practice

Living in New Market, Ala., Martin has easy access to a handful of TVA lakes, including Lake Guntersville. Leading up to the event, he fished Guntersville each day to bone up on how schools would change and move around day to day and how they picked up on different baits.

"It fished pretty much the same," he said. "It's not a bad practice field. The thing about Guntersville is you can run a bunch of spots and find fish on most of them. You couldn't do that at Chick."

Once official practice got going, there was so much current ripping through Chickamauga that it was challenging to get a read on how the fish were setting up. He didn't find much on Sunday or Monday and considered locking up to Watts Bar Lake for the final day.

"They were pulling so much current that you couldn't easily graph the fish," he said. "On (Tuesday), they let up on the current and fish started to suspend and showed themselves. By then, most guys had gone shallow or were looking at mid-range stuff. Only a few guys were looking out deep on the last day."

The little bit of freedom allowed him to pinpoint a couple zones that held quantities of fish and also some bigger specimens, including the mega school, which was holding on a big ledge in 15 to 25 feet of water. Like many of his competitors, though, it was difficult to gauge the actual quality because setting the hook usually drew the attention of others (pros and locals) in the vicinity.

"I never looked at anything less than 15 feet," he added.

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 22-15
> Day 2: 5, 27-00
> Day 3: 5, 23-03
> Day 4: 5, 30-01
> Total = 20, 103-03

Being able to get on the school alongside Rose on day 1 was a key factor to Martin's success, but he still had to figure out how to fire them up and put them in a feeding mood. He swung through them with the Picasso Bait Ball Extreme umbrella rig and also threw an Omega football-head jig and a Z-Man ChatterBait.

"There was a little turn on it where the fish would just stack up and suspend," he said.

He also had a few other areas where he could pick off one or two fish, usually 4-pounders, that he'd hit throughout the day, but those were mostly one-and-done spots.

The area where Martin caught his biggest fish was a long point that separated two spawning bays. It was visible from where he and Rose were fishing so he could keep tabs on it.

"When there were no boats around on days 1 and 2 , I'd sneak in there and get back out," he said. "They were post-spawn fish moving out and looking for shad to feed on. It wasn't really a timing spot because there weren't a ton of fish there, but every 45 minutes I could go there and get a good bite, usually between 4 and 8 pounds."

His 22-15 stringer put him in 3rd place, 3 ounces ahead of Rose.

"That was huge," he said. "I knew if I had another good day on day 2, I was going to make the Cup."

The mega school spot attracted more attention on day 2 and the way the boats aligned, Martin wound up with the best angle on the fish. He couldn't trigger bites with the umbrella rig or jig or ChatterBait and eventually resorted to 6-inch Roboworm rigged on a dropshot.

"It wasn't the rig that day," he said. "I think I had the line on where they were, though, since I was on the outside. JT (Kenney) was throwing a rig on the other end and not getting a bite. I had the line where they were actively feeding."

He caught 20 pounds out of the mega school and then made some key upgrades from his big-fish area, including a double that resulted in a 7-11 and a 5-pounder, that pushed his weight up to 27 pounds and gave him the lead.

By day 3, his one-fish spots were spent so he focused on the mega school since those he was sharing water with missed the Top-20 cut. The umbrella rig was the big producer Saturday as he hauled in another 23-pound bag to extend his lead to 10 pounds.

He used the same formula on the final day and it resulted in the second-biggest bag of the season in a Tour event as he closed out the win and season in style.

He notched a Top-10 finish in the season opener at Lake Okeechobee, but struggled mostly the rest of the way. Never did he think he'd win an event as a rookie.

"No, the trophy is great and everything's great," he said, "but the money's the huge factor for me. I do this pretty much out of my own pocket and this allows me to do this for a couple more years."

Pattern Notes

> Having the community hole with a massive school of fish was one thing, but having another group of big fish that saw nothing but Martin's baits all week was his saving grace.

"That was a huge factor," he said. "I knew the mega school was thinning out and it was getting harder to get the bites there. I was tempted to go into the (big-fish spot) on Saturday, but I'm glad I didn't go."

> When he chunked the rig, he'd let it fall to the bottom before he started cranking it back.

"I was sitting in 22 to 26 feet and throwing up onto 12 or 14," he said. "They were suspended right off the ledge."

Gear Notes

> Umbrella rig gear: 7'11" extra-heavy Duckett Fishing casting rod, Shimano Chronarch casting reel (5.5:1 ratio), 25-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, Picasso Bait Ball Extreme, 3/8-oz. Omega swimbait heads, Zoom Swimming Super Fluke Jr. (albino), 6" Strike King Shadalicious swimbait (blue gizzard), 6" Basstrix swimbait.

> He used the five-arm version of the Bait Ball, but only used three hooks to stay in compliance with Tennessee law. He used 10 teaser baits. Of the 20 fish he weighed in, 12 came on the rig.

> Dropshot gear: 6'10" medium-action G. Loomis spinning rod, Daiwa Sol 2500 spinning reel, 10-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 3/8-oz. Picasso tungsten dropshot weight, 1/0 Roboworm Rebarb hook, 6" Roboworm straight tail worm (green-pumpkin and morning dawn).

> He rigged his bait 12" to 15" above the weight on his dropshot setup to catch them when they were suspended just off the bottom. When they suspended high, he picked up the rig.

> Football jig gear: 7'1" heavy-action G. Loomis GLX casting rod, Shimano Chronarch casting reel (7.1:1 ratio), 15-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 3/4-oz. Omega Custom Tackle Derek Remitz football-head jig (Ozark special), NetBait Paca Craw trailer (green-pumpkin).

> ChatterBait gear: Same rod/reel/line as jig, 5/8-oz. Z-Man ChatterBait (white), 5" Castaic Jerky J swimbait (albino).

The Bottom Line

> Main factor in his success – "Finding the right schools and finding a group of big fish and knowing how to adjust over the 4 days and not burning through them. Saving some fish for the final day was key."

> Performance edge – "My Lowrance electronics and their mapping are critical when it comes to ledge fishing."

Notable

> Click here to check out Martin's web-based reality series called Circuit Breaker. The Chickamauga episode should be posted in a couple weeks.

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