BASS MASTERS CLASSIC: MARTENS BEATS OPPOSITION BUT NOT THEIR HELPING HAND.Byline: Keith Lair Staff Writer Aaron Martens has had enough of fishing guides and crowds. The Castaic resident was optimistic op·ti·mist n. 1. One who usually expects a favorable outcome. 2. A believer in philosophical optimism. op that he would win the Bass Master Classic, the nation's most prestigious and richest bass fishing tournament. But the 29-year-old had to settle for second place at Lay Lake in Birmingham, Ala ALA aminolevulinic acid. Ala alanine. ala (a´lah) pl. a´lae [L.] a winglike process. . on Saturday. And he wasn't pleased about it. ``A guide told me that he had shown (winner) Jay (Yelas) some spots,'' Martens said. I told the guy, 'You cost me the Classic.' I felt good for Jay until I was told that.'' Yelas, from Tyler, Texas Tyler is the county seat of Smith County in East Texas, United States. The city is named for President John Tyler in recognition of his support for Texas's admission to the United States. , won the $203,000 first-place prize by winning wire to wire. He is the third angler angler, common name for a member of the family Ceratiidae, European and American bottom-dwelling predacious fishes. The angler lies on the bottom and lures its prey with a long, wormlike appendage that extends forward and dangles over its mouth. to complete the feat. He caught 14 fish weighing 45 pounds, 13 ounces. Martens, who won $55,000, caught 15 fish weighing 39 pounds, 9 ounces. ``I figured between 36 and 43 pounds would win it,'' Martens said while en route to Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, . ``I had a pretty good feeling that I was going to win. I felt pretty confident.'' But guides have ruined the sport, he claimed. It is illegal to pay a guide to take a Classic angler fishing, he said. ``I used to look up to these anglers and then I see what they are doing,'' he said. ``This sport is about what you can find out, not about getting information to you. When I go out there, I do not ask for any help. ``It happens at every tournament. It's almost established that everyone gets help. And it's always the guy ahead of me. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. why it's like that. It angers me that this actually happens. And it's disappointing.'' Martens was competing in his fourth Classic. His best previous finish was eighth. ``In four days of pre-fishing, I can find solid hidden spots, spots in woods that are hard to find, that no (other competitor) pre-fishes,'' he said of figuring the lake quickly. ``During the tournament, there are three guys sitting on your spot. How do they find those spots? It makes me mad.'' He said he and a few others have complained to tournament officials, but little can be done. Using reaction baits and topwater jigs, Martens essentially battled David Walker David Walker may refer to:
He was fishing an area upriver that was about 200 feet wide. The maximum depth was eight feet. ``That second and final day were pretty hard,'' he said. ``There were about 60 to 100 spectator Spectator, English daily periodical published jointly by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele with occasional contributions from other writers. It succeeded the Tatler, a periodical begun by Steele on Apr. 12, 1709, under the pseudonym Isaac Bickerstaff. boats and I was missing some spots. It was narrow and not a lot of room to work.'' In addition, Yelas, Walker and fourth-place finisher O.T. Fears III of Sallisaw, Okla. were nearby. ``They took half my spots,'' he said of the spectator boats. ``I'd take one side and they would go to the other. But what I was doing was fishing up one side and back down the other. But I couldn't do that. It was really wild. It made fishing really tough for me.'' Martens said he targeted spotted bass The spotted bass (Micropterus punctulatus) is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes. One of the black basses, it is native to the Mississippi River basin and across the Gulf States, from central Texas through the Florida . ``I thought that would be an advantage. I was getting anywhere between 15 and 18 pounds in practice, and they were all spots.'' He told tournament officials on Saturday that staying on the spots bite might have kept him from the title. ``That probably hurt me in the end,'' he said. But even with the problems, Martens said he had an enjoyable tournament. Even when his watch broke. Again. It was reminiscent of when he competed in the Classic at Lake Michigan in Chicago. His watch broke and he was three minutes "Three Minutes" is the 46th episode of Lost. It is the twenty-second episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Stephen Williams, and written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. It first aired on May 17, 2006 on ABC. late, which cost him several pounds per minute. Now, he goes on the water with more than one watch. But on one of the days, his cellular phone went dead and it had one of the clocks. He asked an ESPN ESPN Entertainment and Sports Programming Network cameraman on his boat the time and it was 10 minutes different than his other timepiece. ``It reminded me of Chicago,'' he said, joking. |
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