the patterns
As Martin fished his way in and out
and around dozens of points, drains
and pockets, he began to see patterns
with regard to how each species pre-
ferred to set up.
“The smallmouth bites usually came
from the steepest sides – that real
‘bluffy’ stairstep rock,” he says. “If it had
an isolated tree on it, all the better.
“As I ventured farther into the pock-
ets, the sides would flatten out just a lit-
tle bit with a few more trees. That was
spotted bass territory,” Martin adds.
“Then the largemouths seemed to prefer
During the week at Cumberland,
Scott Martin was very vocal about
how his many years of experience
at Beaver Lake benefited him in
Kentucky.
“Going to Beaver Lake so many
years with FLW is really what taught
me how to win this tournament,”
Martin remarks. “I know that
sounds funny, but Beaver Lake is
really the lake that taught me how
to fish ‘free,’ how to fish new water
every day, how to fish conditions
and patterns.”
Early in his career Martin classi-
fied himself as a “spot fisherman,”
only fishing spots where he had
previous history of getting bites.
“I used to get killed at Beaver
because I was always trying to fish
places where I had bites before,
and fishing like that just doesn’t
work there,” he says. “Cumberland
was very similar in that regard. I
fished a lot of new water each day
and had confidence doing it thanks
to my Beaver Lake experience.”
Martin’s Beaver Lake experience
also tipped him off to his winning
move on the final day: switching to
a wake bait.
“That wake bait deal is some-
thing I totally learned at Beaver
Lake, too” Martin says. “Anytime it
would get slick and sunny in the
prespawn on Beaver Lake, a wake
bait would really shine. Once I
started seeing fish follow my jerk-
bait and not eat it over and over
again [on day four at Cumberland],
my gut told me to tie on a wake
bait, and it produced several key
fish for me on the last day.”
82
The only change Martin made to his
program all week was on the final day
when he tied on a wake bait.
“It got sunny, slick and still,” Martin
recalls. “Fish were following my jerkbait
and not eating it. Once the sun got up
and there was no shade in those pock-
ets, those fish became really wary.
“I needed something that would
help camouflage the bait. And then it
hit me: a wake bait. I didn’t even know
if I had one in my boat. I dug around
and found an old Bomber Long A
with r