After Long Absence From Tournaments, Fired-Up Scott Martin Headed To Toyota Team Championship
After fishing Bassmaster tournaments from the mid-90s to early 2001, Scott Martin stepped away from tournament fishing for nearly a decade and a half so he could spend more time with his family.
But now he’s back and has served notice he is still just as good an angler as he was before.
Martin and teammate Cole Winn are heading to the Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship next week on Lake Guntersville after winning the Carolinas Bass Challenge 2015 Classic Oct. 23-24 on Clarks Hill Lake. Winn and Martin, both from Salulda, S.C., completed the 2 Day CBC Classic with a whopping 44.69 pounds, earning them a brand new Skeeter ZX200 Package with a 200 SHO Yamaha.
Although they did not join up until after the Lake Murray tournament, the first of the South Carolina Division for 2015, they are one of 22 teams from the Carolinas Bass Challenge to qualify for the Toyota Team Championship, the second year in a row CBC has sent that many teams, according to Brett Collins who directs the series.
Martin grew up on Lake Murray, fishing team tournaments with his eventual brother-in-law, 1999 Bassmaster Classic Champion Davy Hite of Ninety-Six, and with his dad, the late Russell Martin who was a local bass tournament icon in South Carolina.
“The Clarks Hill tournament brought back memories of one of the last years Davy and I fished the South Carolina Team Trail,” Martin said. “We won the Clarks Hill tournament back in the early ’90s before Davy started fishing what is now the Bassmaster Elite Series. Winning that tournament was one of my first big licks as far as winning that kind of money.”
Martin ventured into the Bassmaster series himself, fishing 44 tournaments over a decade or so, earning almost $84,000, with four top 10 finishes, including a win in the 1998 South Carolina Invitational at Santee Cooper, and qualifying for the 1998 Bassmaster Classic on Hick Rock Lake in North Carolina.
“Cole and I did not fish the same areas at Clarks Hill that Davy and I did back then, but we fished the same way,” Martin said. The water was dirty just like it was when Davy and I caught them oh so many years ago. I just knew we had a chance to win.”
Martin said he will depend on the knowledge of Lake Guntersville he developed in two previous tournaments there to help him and Winn prepare a strategy for next week.
“I made a check in a Bassmaster tournament there years ago and back in ’99 my dad and I fished there in a Jerry Rhyne tournament. It was a different time of year, but we won that tournament and we won a boat,” he said.
“There are basically going to be two scenarios. It all depends on how cold the lake is and how much cold weather they have had. If the grass is still in good shape I imagine it will be a grass scenario. But if the grass is dying, then the fish will have left it to go out to deeper water and suspend,” Martin said.
“When we get there for the official practice on Monday and Tuesday we are going to look for good grass in some of the areas I am familiar with. We’ll see if we can get bit in the grass. You have to either punch through the grass with a jig or fish the edges and breaks with a spinnerbait or a shallow-running crankbait.”
If the fish are not in the grass, he said, the suspended bite will be a total gamble.
“We’ll have to find the bait and the fish will be with the bait. It will be just like finding stripers on Lake Murray when the fish are hung up with those bait balls. We’ll fish jerkbaits, swimbaits, that kind of deal.”
Martin was away from competitive fishing for a long time, except for some local tournaments with his dad, including crappie fishing.
“He always said from the bottom of his heart I had the potential,” Martin said. “I enjoy fishing with Cole. He is young, energetic and he is a good fisherman. I give him a lot of credit for getting me back into it.”
And now that he’s back – and winning – Martin said he is in it for the long haul.
“I am pumped up to be back in it. I’m looking forward to next year. We feel like we can make a good showing in the tournaments and make some money next year,” Martin said. “Even though we missed the Lake Murray tournament this year, they are going to Lake Murray in May – and that is going to be a lot of fun.”
Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship
Dec 9-12, 2015
Lake Guntersville
Lake Guntersville State Park
