ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MAHLER
Rose stares down his target on his electronics.
Then, he intently scans the horizons,
head rotating side-to-side, peering
over his shoulder as if making sure no
one is going to steal a base – or move in
on his ledge. Rose then lightly lifts his
cap up, twice, and sets it back perfectly
on his head. He delivers a slider with his
6XD, right down the middle of a ledge,
and those Tennessee River bass swing
for it every time.
I have covered Ott DeFoe on the professional
circuits since his first year on
the FLW Tour, and his on-the-water
demeanor has always been the same:
extremely relaxed while maintaining
acute focus. His fishing presence
reminds me of a rhythm guitar player in
a band. While the singer screams and
the drummer smashes cymbals, DeFoe
is barefoot, laid back, keeping time on a
six string and always in the groove.
Given today’s young guns who make
the run-and-gun style of fishing look
cool, I still respect the old-school ways
and enjoy watching veterans of our
sport at work. Two originals I have
taken a lot of notes on through the
years are Mark Davis and Larry Nixon.
Both of these decorated pros remind
me of great blue herons in how they
still truly stalk fish. In the way a heron
exhibits the principles of patience while
wading a bank for dinner, both Nixon
and Davis have a way of hunting bass –
waiting them out and forcing them to
surrender. While the youngsters blitz
the banks and the graphing wizards idle
for mega-schools, both Nixon and
Davis can be found lurking in between,
slowly but surely closing in on their
quarry.
Due to Jacob Powroznik’s recent
phenomenal success on the Bass Pro
Tour and in the MLF Cups, I have
grown to enjoy watching him fish. When
Powroznik goes toe-to-toe with a bedding
bass, it reminds me of a barroom
brawl. It’s as if the bedding bass made
some kind of insulting gesture at
Powroznik. He then shakes his head in
disgust, picks up a rod and bows up to
the fish. The fish taunts him one too
many times, and the gloves come off. A
few chaotic moments later, P-Roz has
the fish pinned to a Brecknell scale.
SCORETRACKER® update: Jacob, that
6-pound, 10-ounce bass will put you in
the lead.
Aaron Martens is by far one of the
most entertaining pros to watch fish.
Martens is a dynamo, and his ability to
multitask while fishing is his signature.
He probably covers more ground running
back and forth in his boat than
most people walk in a day. He once had
the nickname “Spin” for his boundless
energy. While fishing, Martens can also
neaten the rods on the deck, clean his
sunglasses, investigate a “weird funk” in
the rod locker, straighten out his toe
socks, closely examine some kind of bug
that just landed in his boat (Whoa, stink
bug, bro!), clean water spots off his gunwale
and count the number of flakes in a
plastic worm. It always leaves me wondering
how he even has time to reel in
so many fish.
Aaron, you are truly one of a kind.
You’ve got a lot of people out here praying
for you, bro.
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2020 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | FLWFISHING.COM 21