By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor
Marty Robinson kicked off his season at the Bassmaster Classic back in February, marking his first career appearance in the sport’s headline event. It was a reward for his furious second-half rally in 2011 that saw him climb to 35th in Angler of the Year (AOY) points.
He’s carried that momentum over to the 2012 season, posting three Top-35 finishes in four events.
Those results have him currently 19th in the Toyota Tundra B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year standings. It’s the first time in his 5-plus seasons on the Elite Series that he’s cracked the Top 20 in points.
He’s set a fairly attainable goal for himself for the second half of the season and if he meets it, it’s likely he’ll be starting off 2013 at Grand Lake in Oklahoma, site of next year’s Classic.
“I feel good about it,” he said. “It’s about what I was hoping for. If I can come out 3 for 4 (cashing checks) in the last four I should be pretty high in the points and should make the Classic.”
Taking The Next Step
Over the last couple seasons, Robinson has been able to avoid the bombs that can undermine an Elite Series angler’s Classic dreams. He’s fished 50 Elite Series tournaments in his career and through the first 25 tournaments he had eight finishes of 80th or worse. In his last 25, he’s trimmed that number to five and only one (80th at Pickwick last year) has come in his last 15 events.
As with most any endeavor, with experience comes knowledge, and as his career has progressed he’s been able to make better decisions on the water when the need arises.
“I think I’m fishing a little different,” he said. “Like the two Florida events (this year), when I didn’t really catch them first day I just up and abandoned everything and went to a totally different section of the lake the second day. I think decisions like that have paid off for me.”
He made a similar call to leave some shallow fish at Douglas Lake after day 1 when it became apparent the better bites were in deeper water. The decision resulted in a 14th-place finish.
“I knew I couldn’t go back there and catch another good bag so I didn’t fish anything on day 2 that I fished on day 1,” he added.
Five years ago, he’s pretty sure he wouldn’t have been so bold.
“I probably would’ve gone back and fished the same stuff or at least given it a try,” he said. “I’m fishing the conditions a lot better. Plus, over the years you gain a lot of knowledge fishing the Elite Series. You learn a lot of new patterns and techniques you can incorporate into your fishing. You do become a better fisherman fishing the Elites quick because if you don’t, you’ll go broke. You need to learn fast or fall to the wayside.”
The plumber from Lyman, S.C., who’s always quick-witted on stage, has just two 12-cuts to his credit, but he feels like he’s closing in on the type of consistency it takes to turn what have been 3-day tournaments for him into 4-day events.
“I’m making good decisions to get there,” he said. “I just have to maybe execute a little bit better, obviously. I can look back at several tournaments where I had several opportunities to make the Top 12 and I just didn’t execute well enough. I’ve had some chances to make it and I just couldn’t put it together.
“It’s frustrating in a way but it also tells you that you made the right decisions to the make the cut or you had the right fish on to make the cut. It just all needs to come together.”
Not A Mystery Fan
When handicapping the rest of the season, Robinson said he’s feeling good about Toledo Bend later this week. He was 18th there a year ago, missing the 12-cut by less than 2 pounds. The Mississippi River should be a level playing field, he thinks, due to very few anglers in the field having much experience on it. He’s also comfortable with the season finale set for Oneida Lake in August because, “you can pretty much fish your strengths there,” he said.
His hang-up, however, is the recently revealed mystery venue – Lake Michigan, scheduled for the week after the Mississippi River.
“I’m not too crazy about (Green Bay),” he said. “Any time we go to one of the Great Lakes it scares me because I’m one of those people that has a big problem with motion sickness. You’d think a guy who’s on the water as much as I am, it wouldn’t bother me, but any time I get on one of those big lakes and we get those rollers, it tears my stomach up.”
He recalled his first experience fishing a Great Lake back in 2007 at the Lake Erie/Niagara River Elite Series. The practice days were slick and calm as the wind stayed down.
“I loved it. I really enjoyed it and thought it was great,” he said. “Then the first day of the tournament, the wind blew 15 mph and we had 7-foot rollers and I was sick as a dog the first 30 minutes. I pretty much fished on my back the whole day just dragging a tube around.”
He salvaged a 33rd-place finish, but upon returning to Buffalo the following year he wasn’t as fortunate. Faced with stiff wind the whole tournament, he posted a career-worst 105th finish.
“If it’s rough, you can probably look for me to do bad,” he said of Lake Michigan.
