Dandridge, Tenn.– Aaron Martins is looking to make some huge improvements to his season at this weekend’s Elite Series tournament on Douglas Lake.
After only about 30 minutes of fishing, Martins already had a strong 19 pounds of bass in the boat. He started culling early on, and kept improving, before finally weighing in a 23 pound, 14 ounce bag.
He credits breaking a personal rule for his strong early showing—he practiced.
Martins doesn’t usually practice before tournaments, but this time around on Douglas, he got in two sessions before off-limits, which helped him find potentially productive spots. Practice occurred when the water level was about 30 feet below full pool, which revealed spots that would hold bass when the water was higher come tournament time (a strategy we wrote about here on MVF in this article).
He found his success targeting schooling bass in deeper water, much like many other anglers on the day, but seemed to have more success.
This tournament is still anybody’s to take, as it is fishing small, and Martins only has a two pound lead. Stay tuned for more coverage as the tournament goes on, and catch the weigh ins live everyday on Bassmaster.com.