By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor
Time is ticking down. The pattern that worked yesterday isn’t working today. It’s crunch time. There’s an hour left until the weigh-in starts. Your nerves are starting to fray. What do you reach for when you absolutely need to generate bites?
We’ve been asking pro anglers from the various leagues that same question as a way to find out what their ultimate confidence baits are regardless of the situation, along with the reasoning behind their choices. As one might expect, the answers have run the gamut, from big-line, big-weight flipping to light-line finesse and from topwater to slow-dragging baits.
While Aaron Martens does not like to be typecast as a finesse angler, his number one confidence bait could not be any more finesse if he wanted it to be – a Texas-rigged 4- or 6-inch Roboworm on a dropshot.
After checking out the latest installment in the series, head over to our Feedback page and let us know what your go-to bait is and how you rig it.
> Angler: Aaron Martens
> Confidence bait: Dropshot a Texas-rigged 4- or 6-inch Roboworm
> Gear used: 6’11” medium-action Enigma Fishing Aaron’s Edge spinning rod (largemouth) 7’2” medium-action Enigma Fishing HPT Tournament Series spinning rod (smallmouth), Shimano Stella spinning reel, 10-pound Sunline Siglon PE-8 braided line, 8-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line (leader), size 1 Gamakatsu Aaron Martens TGW dropshot hook, 6” Roboworm straight tail worm or 4”/6” Roboworm Fat Straight Tail worm (morning dawn), 3/16-oz. tungsten dropshot weight
> Origin: “We push ourselves all day to catch a big bag and then you find yourself with three fish near the end of the day and you go to that to get bigger bites.”
> Why he trusts it: “You can catch anything on it – big and small fish. You can catch keepers as good or better than anything. A shaky-head and a Neko rig are good, too, but the dropshot just outfishes the other stuff.”
> One more thing: “They’re all panic baits. You just retrieve them different. In MLF, the majority of the time it’s all panic unless you’re catching the crap out of them.”
