It’s no surprise Scott Martin wants to win the Bassmaster Classic, for himself and his father, Roland Martin.
Roland Martin, known for decades on television as the Great American Fisherman, was the golden boy of B.A.S.S. in its infancy, racking up a record nine Angler of the Year titles from 1971-1985. Despite 25 Classic appearances, Roland Martin never added the crown jewel of bass fishing.
Scott, who recently qualified to fish the Elites in 2021, wants to win a Classic for the family. See Bryan Brasher’s unfinished business.
“I’m goal driven,” Scott Martin said. “That’s the only reason I’m doing what I’m doing. My goal is to win a Classic while he’s still around. I don’t say that lightly. I understand winning the Classic is one of the hardest things on the planet to do. I very well may never come close, but I have that as a goal.”
It’s certainly not a pipe dream. Scott Martin, 45, comes to B.A.S.S. with a stellar FLW resume, totaling more than $2.9 million in earnings and winning an AOY title. In 182 events, he had 42 top-10 finishes and won eight times, including the 2011 Forrest Wood Cup. That crowning moment remains Scott’s greatest in fishing as his father was a surprise attendee and stood among the cheering crowd, simply holding his arm out, thumb up. It’s a scene the Martins would love to repeat.
Scott Martin is realistic about the odds of winning a Classic, but it’s something he’ll fish his heart out trying to do. Roland Martin, who gave the family a scare but recovered from COVID-19 recently, turned 80 in March.
“Time is not on my side as far as trying to pull off my ultimate goal, so I’ve got to move quickly,” Scott Martin said. “I’m not, ‘In the next 10 years I want to win a Classic.’ I want to do some of this pretty fast. I don’t say this lightly, and I don’t want people to think I’m overconfident or cocky about it. It’s going to be ridiculously hard, but those are my goals.”
Simply qualifying for the Elites through the 2020 Basspro.com Bassmaster Opens proved difficult enough. There were 12 spots up for grabs, four for the overall Opens point standings and four each in the Eastern and Central divisions. Among the early leaders, Scott Martin slipped before coming through on his final day of competition.
“I didn’t get a hall pass through the year,” he said. “I couldn’t catch a bass, go order a pizza and I’m in. It boiled down to the last day.”
Qualifying looked like a slam dunk after fifth-place finishes in the first two Eastern Opens, but a 52nd on Cherokee Lake left him needing a last-second score on Lay Lake, the final event. After Day 1, he stood 72nd in the 163-man field and fell two points out of the cut to make the Elites. Scott Martin admitted it was a pressure cooker, and having the early check-in on Day 2 added to it.
“I prayed about it a bunch, just to leave it on the table, not get stressed out,” he said. “It was fun, I caught about 40 bass, everything from fishing shallow to deep, running instincts. It was an awesome last day of the Opens for me, even though I didn’t catch a big bag. It was just making those adjustments on the water throughout the day, crunch-time catches. It was fun.”
His 11-pound, 4-ounce bag lifted him 25 places to finish 46th in the event, pushing him to fifth in the Eastern Open point standings, but with double qualifiers he was second in the division to receive an Elite invitation. It left Scott Martin saying that 2020 might have been the most competitive season in Opens history.
“It’s a tough deal to pull that off when you have that many anglers,” he said. “You can’t have one bad tournament or you’re out. All the guys fighting for the Elite spots are fishing their guts out. On top of that, the 30 or 40 locals trying to win have the same passion. There’s more people fishing with a purpose in the Opens than maybe in an everyday Elite.”
Back home in Clewiston, Fla., the 45-year-old was relaxing a bit after the long season, but he still rattled off a lengthy to-do list, which includes pumping out videos for his half a million plus YouTube subscribers. He was just digging into the Elite packet he received.
“It was the official, ‘Hey, you’re in.’ I’m super excited about that,” he said. “It was a pretty hard-fought battle this year, with lots of ups and downs, a lot of lost sleep, but we were able to squeak it out. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, for sure.”
Assessing the 2021 Elite schedule, Scott Martin said all of venues and dates set up well. He’s super excited for two specific events and has a pair that concern him. He’s looking forward to the familiar waters of Pickwick Lake in June then a July event on Lake Champlain, where he’s won three times, but he’s never been the Sabine River and has limited experience on the St. Lawrence River.
“Sabine, I’m a little concerned on how to finagle your way into winning that,” he said. “There’s lot of variables. It’s going to go down to picking the right dead-end canal. It’s not a pattern. It’s a location. I’ve got to get lucky and land on the right spot. The St. Lawrence, it’s huge. I’ll have to do a lot of research on it to make the right decision. You can really end up in left field quickly on a big fishery like that.”
Scott Martin also said he needs to get better at practice. He said he’s found himself eliminating more water than figuring where to fish, and he’d like to streamline that process in the two-and-a-half days scouting for each tournament.
“I envy those guys who by 9 a.m. are dialed in, know where they’re at and what they’re doing. I’m not that guy,” he said. “I won’t figure most of those things out until the end of day two, start to sniff ‘em out. I need to change that a little bit. I want to make some better decisions day one of practice.”
It’s getting harder to find a place or technique to yourself, he said, what with the group of talented and versatile anglers scouring every possibility. The 2021 Elite field is at 100 pros, and he’s said he’s ready for the “exciting new journey,” where making the Classic is first and foremost.
“My goals are real simple: I want to make the Classic, and I would really, really want to win one tournament, or have a chance to win one tournament,” he said. “I’ve been very blessed in my stint on the FLW Tour with victories. I just want to have myself in position in one or a few to have a shot at winning. And I’m going to fish my heart out to get to the Classic.”
Along with two decades of FLW success and more than a decade hosting The Scott Martin Challenge on television, his name is among the most well-known in the fishing world, and he said he’s stoked about last month’s announcement that Bassmaster LIVE will air on FOX Sports networks.
“I looked at the media kit and the numbers on LIVE, and I’m excited about being a part of those,” he said. “I can’t wait to get out there and really tout that with my current sponsors, and hopefully I lift up the B.A.S.S. brand across the board with all my partners.”
Besides more people fishing because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Scott Martin sees another factor that will raise all boats moving forward. He said the college and high school bass fishing programs that began a decade ago are beginning to bear fruit.
“Every year, we graduate thousands of kids who were on fishing teams across the country, and those young men and women are getting jobs — they’re running the marketing budgets at the Coca-Colas, the Chevrolets. The discussion is, ‘I was on a bass fishing team.’ That’s good stuff. They’re elevating the sport and giving us good credibility as a great thing to be involved in. I think our sport has big potential.”
Scott Martin comes to the Elites with potential, and he’d certainly love to realize it by having the family name etched on a Classic trophy.