Looking back
Scott Martin’s combined stringer of
hefty largemouths and smallmouths
A brief look back at Martin’s two
earned him his record-setting win.
previous Champlain wins is sort of
a prerequisite to better understand
how he “strategized” his way to win
No. 3.
“Lake Champlain is a real strate-
gy lake,” Martin says. “What I mean
by that is sometimes tournaments
are more about strategy than tech-
nique. At Champlain I can utilize
the two species – smallmouth and
largemouth – across four days to
formulate a strategy that has a bet-
ter chance at winning than just say-
ing, ‘Hey, let’s just go fishing and
see what happens.’”
Martin’s 2004 win came as a
result of what he calls “the small-
mouth numbers game,” which
involves sizing up dozens upon
dozens of bedding smallmouths dur-
ing practice to see which ones are
slightly bigger than the others. If he
shore rock piles and grass beds much like those Northern
finds 50 or 60 smallmouths on beds during a day of practice, he
bass in Champlain. And if you can find one area that is maybe
carefully identifies which 10 to 15 percent of them are slightly
a little deeper or where the weeds are a little thicker or the
bigger than the rest by catching fish and weighing them.
rocks a little higher than the rest of the area, that’s the juice.”
“If I have a pod of smallmouths bedding in one little area
Given Martin’s knowledge of the numbers game for small-
and one of them weighs just 2 or 3 ounces more than the other
mouths and the northern portion of Champlain for large-
ones, that’s the one I’m going to catch in the tournament,”
mouths, he was able to borrow from both wells of knowledge
Martin details. “And when I roll in there during game time,
to formulate a strategy for his third win.
I’m not looking at six or seven smallmouths wondering
which one is the biggest. I know exactly which one it is. I
catch it and move on to the next pod of bedders. It’s all about
this time
efficiency.”
When the FLW Tour visited Champlain in June, the water
Even if Martin’s smallies are just 2 to 3 ounces bigger per
was 2 to 3 feet lower than normal, and the water temperature
fish over his competitors’ fish, that’s 10 to 15 ounces more per
was hovering in the 68- to 72-degree range. Both largemouths
day and potentially 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pounds better over the
and smallmouths were at the end of their spawning cycle.
course of the tournament.
There were still plenty of smallmouths on beds, but they were
In 2009, Martin’s win demonstrated his knowledge of
a smaller class of late spawners, and the better ones on beds
Champlain’s largemouths, specifically how they relate to
had already lost weight from spawning.
reefs and isolated objects in the Missisquoi Bay region.
From this, Martin figured the best smallmouth bag he
“Missisquoi reminds me of a teeny, tiny Okeechobee,”
could “assemble” would top out at maybe 18 pounds.
Martin says. “In the summer, Okeechobee bass get out on off-
“At that point I knew pure smallmouths would not contend
for the win like they do earlier in June when they’re fatter dur-
ing that prespawn-to-spawn stage,” he says. “Largemouths
were going to be needed to push a bag past that 20-pound
range.”
But when Martin went to sample his largemouth lairs in
Martin won at Champlain by mixing smallmouths for