PHOTO BY GARRICK DIXON
I remember Aaron winning on a drop-shot in 1998 or 1999 , and I started paying attention to him after that . Then , he moved to Alabama from California – that was really an influential reason why I looked at moving there . Watching him dominate in the early 2000s with a spinning rod really impacted my fishing . It was always on my mind to use my West Coast knowledge at the pro level . Watching him succeed gave me a lot of confidence that I could . He was just an incredible guy .
— Justin Lucas , MLF pro
SHARING & GENEROSITY
My mom and brother lived in Oroville , and BASS was having an open tournament on Lake Oroville in 1999 . Well , Aaron won that event , and it was so obvious that he was doing something totally different than what the rest of us were doing . He was catching fish out of 80 to 100 feet of water .
I waited at his boat tied to the dock as they finished the awards presentation , waiting for Aaron , and he was kind enough to spend an hour with me that afternoon : “ This is a drop-shot , dude !” He showed me the worms , the hooks , the rigging and explained how to fish it . And then he gathered up everything he had laying around his boat and gave them to me . He gave me the worms , the weights , the hooks … everything .
My very first cast ever with a drop-shot the next morning was a 3 1 / 2-pound spotted bass , caught on the things that Aaron gave me . I ’ ll never , ever forget that . But Aaron was like this to everybody : He genuinely wanted to help you . He ’ d spend an hour with you trying to show you how to build the perfect spinnerbait . That was just Aaron ’ s nature .
— Gary Klein , Bass Fishing Hall-of-Famer
PHOTO BY PHOENIX MOORE
Although Aaron was an astoundingly diverse angler who excelled at everything from punching to cranking , his career success and West Coast upbringing will forever link him to finesse techniques – specifically the drop-shot . American anglers first learned of the “ down-shot ” ( or “ lucky rig ”) in 1998 when Lucky Craft Lures creator Seiji Kato shared his then-littleknown dropper setup at a tournament at Elephant Butte Reservoir in New Mexico .
Aaron finished three places behind Kato at that tournament , and immediately glommed onto the down-shot as a tool for catching fish when and where they simply wouldn ’ t bite using the finesse technique of the time ( shaking a worm ). He would go on to win tournaments throughout the country on various iterations of the drop-shot , sharing the technique en masse to a generation of anglers .
“ As far as being a pioneer of finesse fishing , Aaron is in a category by himself ,” says Skeet Reese , another of Aaron ’ s closest , oldest friends . “ He ’ ll be forever known for that . Aaron could fish it all , but he was the greatest finesse fisherman in the history of our sport . People know about the dropshot because of Aaron Martens .”
Klein ’ s drop-shot story is one that many Western anglers who fished with Aaron in the late 1990s and early 2000s are familiar with , but only one example of his intrinsic generosity and eagerness to share . Oh , he could be fiercely protective of locations and his fishing space , but his willingness to lend a helping hand to literally anybody – even in the heat of competition – is the stuff of legend .
“ He was just selfless and generous ,” says Ish Monroe , who fished with Aaron from the time they were teens . “ I remember a tournament on Pickwick Lake where both of us made a long run to fish a marina by the bridge where a lot of the tournaments on that lake are held . I wasn ’ t catching anything there and Aaron was just whacking them . He tells me ‘ Dude , you gotta do this ,’ and literally gave me the bait he was using . He didn ’ t care that I was fishing against him ; he just wanted to look out for his fellow man .”
DECEMBER-JANUARY 2022 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM 39