In windy conditions, Martin threw a
translucent pencil popper to create
more noise and attract more atten-
tion. This bait yielded a couple of his
larger fish.
He says the brush piles produced
when bait schools were closer to the
bottom. However, the fish seemed to
favor cane.
“The cane is more vertical, so
depending on the time of day those
fish can suspend at the depth in which
they feel most comfortable,” he says.
“The bait was at different depths based
on sun, clouds, water temperature and
time of day.”
OCTOBER 2017 I FLWFISHING.COM
maRtIN’S key to SUcceSS
Finding fish was only part of the challenge. The real key was getting them to bite.
To minimize the guesswork, Martin relied heavily on forward-looking sonar to help
him identify the position and mood of fish. It’s similar to how he made the top 10
at the Cup on Lake Ouachita in 2015, an event where many in the top 20 were also
targeting offshore schoolers.
“I could tell [on sonar] by the way the fish were set up in the cane if they were
going to bite or not,” Martin says. “When they were higher in the cane pile – with-
in 5 feet of the surface – you were going to get a bite. When they were 10 to 15
feet down, you had to do a few things like slow down your retrieve to get them
to come up and bite.”
Martin says the sonar also showed him how active fish were reacting to his bait.
Leveraging this perspective, he would vary his retrieve as needed to turn lookers
into biters.
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