THE TOURNAMENT REPORT
Support the Martens Family
Fellow MLF pro Gerald Spohrer recently launched a GoFundMe campaign to
help support the Martens family as Aaron undergoes treatment. Anyone interested
in making a donation can do so at gofundme.com/f/aaron-martens-and-family.
AARON MARTENS:
“He’s just … Aaron.”
By Joel Shangle
It’s a hot July afternoon
on the upper Mississippi
River in Wisconsin, and right
in the middle of a stream-ofconsciousness
chat about
the point angle and diameter
of fishing hooks, Aaron
Martens spots something
that galvanizes his attention.
The southern California
transplant steps on his
trolling motor, kicks it up to
high and makes a beeline for
a sandy spot on the bank.
There’s a pile of tree
branches spilling into the
water just downriver, and at
the speed that Martens is
pushing his trolling motor, it
seems like a safe assumption
that he’s seen something
at which he dearly
wants to make a cast. But
as he noses the boat directly
into the bank, leans forward
and stretches the 7
1/2-foot rod in his hand as
far out as he can reach
without falling out of the
boat, it becomes clear that
he’s not interested in fish at
the moment.
“Hey there, little snake,”
Martens says as he pulls the
rod back, with a 6-inch snake
wrapped around the tip.
Martens coaxes the
snake from his rod onto his
hand, and then spends the
next couple of minutes
allowing the tiny serpent to
weave its way through his
fingers while he observes,
engrossed in its movement.
He identifies the species as
easily as he identifies fish on
his electronics, giving his
co-angler for the day a
quick rundown of what this
snake likes to eat.
“I know all that because
my daughter, Jordan, loves
snakes. I mean, she really
loves snakes,” he says. “Hey,
can you take a picture for me
to send her? Oh man, Jordan
is going to LOVE this.”
With that, Martens hands
over his phone, poses for
several snapshots of the
snake winding its way
around his hand, and then
leans back over to gently
allow the little critter to slither
off his fingers and back
onto the sandy beach.
“Bye, little snake. Thanks,”
Martens says as he trolls
downstream, chattering
about the terrarium he built
for Jordan’s snakes before he
goes back to the business of
finding fish.
He finds plenty of them,
of course (happily talking to
his co-angler the whole
time), because that’s what
Martens is known for by the
millions of people who have
paid attention to his 23-year
professional career.
But it’s the brief
encounter with the snake –
that five-minute blip in a 10-
hour day – that really defines
Aaron Martens to the people
who know and love him best.
“From the day I met him
when he was a 14-year-old
kid, Aaron has been the
same person: He’s the most
genuine, kind, sweet person
there is,” says John Murray,
who has been friends with
Martens since the two competed
in tournaments in
California in the early 1990s.
“He’s just … Aaron. Anybody
who really knows him knows
exactly what I mean when I
say that. There’s no perfect,
easy way to describe him,
because he’s just such a
unique person. Big, big, big,
big, big heart.”
This spring, Martens’ big,
big, big, big, big heart was
paid back to him tenfold,
with an outpouring of concern
and love for him and his
family as he began the fight
of his life. A pair of tumors
were removed from his brain
in April. On May 14, Martens
began radiation and
chemotherapy as part of his
treatment.
“It brings me to tears, the
amount of love and prayers
people have shared with us,”
Martens says.
Postcript: Martens has
just finished his first day of
radiation at Grandview
Medical Center in
Birmingham. He looks calm,
almost serene, as he delivers
an update to friends and family
on Instagram.
“All right guys, I just finished
my first round of radiation,”
Martens says. “It wasn’t
so bad. Great people here [at
the cancer center], very easy.
This is the beginning of the
fight, you know? The rest of
the fight. Thank you, and
thanks for your prayers.”
He ends with a thumbs up.
“I want people to know I’m
doing okay,” Martens says
later, when asked about his
IG post. “I don’t want people
to worry about me.”
“Aaron obviously loves to
catch fish, but he’s not motivated
by the same things the
rest of us are,” Murray adds.
“He’s always thinking of other
people. Always. It’s never
about him, ever. It’s always
about his family and his
friends. That’s just what
makes him Aaron.”
80 FLWFISHING.COM | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | JUNE-JULY 2020