Aaron Martens is the second fisherman to take top honors three times at the WON Bass U.S. Open on Nevada’s Lake Mead. Martens brought 10-51lbs to the scale the last day, winning with a 3 day total of 33-11lbs to claim the $100,000 first place prize.
Martens notched U.S. Open back to back wins in 2004, 2005, and shares the three win honor with Mike Folkstead.
David Pelltie came in second place with 31-26lbs. One of the factors that Martens contributes to his Open win is the Sunline line choice that he was using.
Martens points out that in the extreme heat and dry conditions that the fishermen are faced with fishing in at the Open only a few lines choices are not impacted by the conditions. He said most lines become very coily, difficult to use and manage under these conditions. He said “Sunline Sniper remains constant with the same principles in all conditions and it is the only line he likes to use for this event”.
To catch the majority of his fish during the three days of competition Aaron used two main techniques.
For his drop shot setup he fished with a 10ft to 12ft leader material of 6lb test Sunline FC Sniper Fluorocarbon as the key setup to trigger bites. To fill out the rest of his rig he used a 3/8oz tungsten drop shot weight and a Gamakatsu split shot hook and fished 4 1/4” Roboworm. On day three Aaron downsized his line on his dropshot rig to 5lb test to get more bites.
For his spinnerbait rod he used 12lb to 14lb Sunline Shooter and fished this on a 7'2" rod teamed with a 7:1 reel. The key to getting bites on his spinnerbait was making a long cast. The Shooter line allowed him to get the extra distance needed to do that.
