Y
ou may be wondering what makes Bass-
master Elite Series pro Aaron Martens
standout from the crowd as a pro bass
angler. To start, Martens has three Angler of the Year
(AOY) titles to his credit. He is one of the very few
anglers to win multiple AOY’s, and if you look at his
2015 season, he not only won the AOY, he dominated
the Elite circuit like no other angler has in the past.
One thing that sets Martens apart from the
other Elite anglers is his skill with his Humminbird
electronics. He is known for taking the time to work
with his electronics to find key pieces of structure that
hold some the biggest fish in the system.
Not only does Martens know how to locate big
bass, he also knows how to make them bite once
he locates them. Often that is with a dropshot and
mastering the dropshot has been another key to
Martens’ success. While we may never know all of his
dropshot secrets, he did reveal five of his best.
MOOD CHANGES
“Whenever you have a bite or mood change, it is the time to pick up a dropshot,” said Martens “Some of this you can see with your electronics. If the bass are relating close to the bottom this is perfect time to fish a dropshot presentation to trigger bites. If you see the bass up off of the bottom with your electronics, try to give the bass a moving bait presentation as a first choice;
but when the bites start to slow down, it is time to pick up your dropshot and go to work.”
If you follow Martens’ strategy of looking for and acting on bass mood changes, it will result in putting more bass in the boat and you just might find that a dropshot has taken the biggest bass of the bite.
DOWNSIZE THE WEIGHT
“One of the biggest mistakes that fishermen make when fishing a dropshot is to use too big of a weight,” he said. “Many fishermen are choosing to fish 3/8- to ½-ounce weights, when they should be fishing 1/8- and 3/16-ounce sized weights, the majority of the time”.
An oversized weight can take key action out of a plastic bait. Limiting the bait’s action will cost an angler bites. Decreasing the weight size, not only will change the action of the bait, it will also change how the bait looks to the bass.
“Your goal is to float your dropshot bait across the bottom,” he added. “You want your bait to glide, not drag along the bottom.”
When it comes to choosing a dropshot weight, Martens suggests using as the smallest weight possible that still allows bottom feeling. Bottom contact is key when fishing a dropshot, but
WINTER 2017
Texas-rig
75