Aaron Martens: Feeling Better

Posted on Monday, June 04, 2012 by Aaron Martens

It’s been a strange year for me so far … can’t really explain it. I couldn’t do a thing right during the first three (Elite Series) tournaments, and then all of a sudden I was in a position to win at Douglas Lake.

I felt good at the tournament at Douglas because I had some spots where I knew I was going to be able to find fish. It’s a lot more fun going into an event that way. It’s certainly less stressful when you know you’ve got places to go.

I did something a little bit different at Douglas. I pre-fished, and that was definitely the reason I did so well. I don’t usually pre-fish; most of the time I go in cold turkey and don’t even read up on the lakes. I might look at fishing reports to find out things like how tournaments there went and what kind of weight it took to win. But what I look at is really public stuff. I just don’t do a lot of the same research that other guys do.

That’s one of the reasons I like Major League Fishing so much. I like the idea of hitting water with no practice. In fact, I look forward to the future and hope we go to lakes that nobody has ever fished before.

Even though I say that, I have to admit that pre-fishing Douglas was the right thing to do. I went up for about a day and a half in November, when the water was real low. Then I went back for two and a half days in March. It turned out to be a huge advantage. It was an event I thought I was going to win.

Though I didn’t win, at least it helped me get back in the points race, and I definitely needed that.