Universal Fishing Lessons from A-Mart
It’s been just under 20 years since I first met Aaron Martens at the 2004 Bassmaster Classic, less than three since he prematurely passed away. In between those two bookend dates, I spent a lot of time talking to him and writing about him, and a few days in his boat. He quickly became one of my favorite muses.
Aaron was completely unfiltered and occasionally unfocused, which occasionally made ghostwriting for him a nightmare, but the pros outweighed the cons – he thought and acted unlike anyone else on the pro tours. I learned a ton about bass fishing from him, but with the perspective of time I’ve also realized that his unintended lessons extended far further than just little green and brown fish.
I know that Aaron did some trout fishing as a kid in his native California, and I recall Randy Blaukat telling a story about an offshore trip they took in Cabo, but beyond that I don’t know if he really cared much about fishing for anything but bass. While I’m certain that he was fishy enough that he would have been good at pursuing just about anything that swims, I have to believe that his intense obsession with bass fishing left time for little else on the water. Nevertheless, now that I’ve thought about it, I’ve realized that the following A-Mart lessons go with me whether I’m chasing salmon or tuna or anything else. Here are some of the ones that stand out:
Don’t Limit Yourself – Aaron bristled whenever he was called “a master of finesse” or a “light line specialist.” Yes, he could use 5- and 7-pound line whenever necessary, and he was indeed better at it than 99.999% of anglers on earth, but he was exceptionally versatile. He won flipping and cranking, too. Indeed, when he won the Elite Series tournament on the California Delta in 2007, he two caught double digit bass in the same day, one dropshotting light line and the other using well-rope caliber braid.
Timing and Pace are Highly Personal – There are all sorts of timing factors that influence fishing success. In tournament fishing, you’re limited by how far you can run in a finite period of time. Otherwise, there may be bite windows, weather patterns or tide stages that matter significantly. You have to live with those objective factors, but you have to do them in the way that highlights your skills the best. Aaron was obsessive about his gear, everything from making sure that his worm was rigged perfectly straight to having his hook box organized properly. He’d spend what seemed like “too much” time getting there, but once set up the way he wanted, he fished with the utmost confidence. Find your optimal pace given the factors that confront you.
Tackle Trends are Only Suggestions – My first day in the boat with Aaron – indeed, the first day I met him – was during the 2004 Bassmaster Classic on Lake Wylie. We idled maybe 50 yards to the Buster Boyd Bridge and stayed there all day. He put on a clinic with all sorts of lures that the other competitors had either overlooked, dismissed or never heard of. From the then-relatively-unknown Scrounger to a Horsey Head, he caught fish that just about everyone in the field had driven over and deemed uncatchable – and he did it with lures they didn’t know. It’s ok to listen to trusted advisers about tackle, but make it a practice to “trust and verify.”
It’s Not the Color, it’s What the Color Represents – Aaron was colorblind but he was also incredibly picky about the color of his lures, especially his soft plastics. Asking him to explain what he saw, or why he saw something as better, was an exercise in futility, but it worked for him. This one is deeper than it sounds. He knew other shades that worked and how they appeared under the surface, and rather than viewing them through his own lens he put himself in the mind of the fish.
You Can Be a Good Person and Still be a Fierce Competitor – Competition at the highest level of any sport, especially if it involves a lot of money, makes people surly and occasionally abrasive. All too often it takes nice people and turns them into ogres, at least on game day. No one wanted to win more that Aaron, and he played his share of mind games on his competitors, but to the core he was one of the nicest, most giving people I’ve ever met. The biggest miracle of his life was not how well he fished but rather that the business never jaded him.
Fish Every Day Like it’s Your Last – For someone who spent a lot of time reorganizing his tackle on tournament day, Aaron nevertheless knew he was in a rush. Every fish mattered, every day mattered, every tournament mattered. I learned a lot from him through just occasional bursts of conversational energy. He gave the sport a lot more.
And while I don’t necessarily agree, Aaron was steadfast in his belief that “cats are gnarlier than dogs.”
