Roland Still Rolling
COLUMN
FOR THE RECORD
As Roland Martin tells it, his first fishing trip with the Splendid Splinter“ wasn’ t so hot.”
It was in the late’ 60s at Islamorada, Fla., and Martin was substituting for another guide. The latter had asked Martin to take the famous, and famously cantankerous, Ted Williams fishing in his stead because of another commitment.
Martin obliged, and did his best to see that the former Boston Red Sox great was kept entertained. In an attempt to pass the time while waiting on the clear flats for the tide to change and the fish to bite, Martin decided to while away the empty minutes by making small talk with His Worshipfulness.
“ So, Mr. Williams, who do you like for the World Series this fall?” asked the towheaded Martin, a bright-eyed 20- something at the time.
“ Look, you blond-headed %$#@!, you don’ t know a $#@% thing about
Roland Still Rolling
COLIN
MOORE
baseball, and I’ m not *%$& going to talk to you about baseball. If you want to talk about fishing, that’ s fine, but don’ t %$@* talk to me about something you don’ t know anything about.”
Which suited Martin, because he didn’ t want to talk about baseball anyway. There came a time, not too much later, when Williams would frequently call Martin to talk about fishing, and to plead with him to go fishing. Though it puts thoughts into Williams’ mind that we can only conjecture, perhaps he recognized and respected the kindred, unfiltered talent that Martin possessed. The sports for which they became famous were different, but Martin had what Williams had in equal measure – a natural ability and a drive to be the very best at something, or certainly among the best.
Most people interested in fishing know Roland Martin the bass fisherman,
but few know that before he became a famous tournament angler, Martin was a saltwater fisherman. His apprenticeship began in 1958, during summer break from the University of Maryland, when Martin and a buddy decided to go fishing in the Florida Keys. Within a few years after that first visit he was guiding there, though his tastes in fishing were always ecumenical. In the’ 60s, when he was becoming a well-respected guide on the flats around Islamorada, he was also splitting his time and guiding bass fishermen on Santee Cooper in South Carolina.
One of Martin’ s Santee Cooper customers was Homer Circle, the eminence grise of fishing writers who recognized Martin’ s bass-fishing skill and potential when he met him. Uncle Homer wasn’ t the only one to encourage Martin to compete in bass tournaments, though he took some warming up to the notion. In 1969, when Martin attended his first tournament at Lake Eufaula on the Alabama-Georgia border and saw Bill Dance come in with a 15-fish stringer that weighed 83 pounds, Martin remarked to nobody in particular that,“ I’ ve got no business fishing against these guys.” Even so, several months later he was taking part in his first tournament, an event on Toledo Bend. Martin placed second there and then won the Seminole Lunker tournament on Lake Seminole. Motivated by the championship purse of a whopping $ 2,219, Martin decided he was, indeed, cut from competitive cloth.
During the next 35 years, he fished in 279 events and placed in the top 50 in 191 of them. He won 19 tournaments and was runner-up in 19, and was Angler of the Year nine times. This, in an era when one was as likely as not to draw a Bill Dance, Hank Parker or Rick Clunn as a boat partner, and then have to fish against him. Even so, Martin won more than $ 1 million, much of it during the years when tournament purses were notoriously meager. About the only thing that he didn’ t accomplish, despite 25 chances, is winning a Bassmaster Classic.
Martin has been reasonably successful in FLW Tour competition, too. He scored six top-10 finishes beginning in 1996 and was AOY runner-up in 1999. He’ s still fighting the good fight; in the challenging Costa FLW Series Championship on Kentucky
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FLWFISHING. COM I JANUARY 2018