By David Xiong
When Scott Martin found out that BASS was bringing an Opens event back to Lake Okeechobee and would be launching out of the famous marina owned by his family, Scott Martin knew that it was an event he could not pass up.
Though there have been recent BASS events on Okeechobee, it has been quite some time since a national BASS event was launched out of Roland Martin Marina in Clewiston. "Dad won a BASS event here back in 1991, that was a big turning point for me to start focusing on being a professional angler." Said Scott.
Going into the event, Scott believed that it would take weights in the 70-pound range to compete for the win. With 72 pounds taking the win at a Toyota Series event the previous week, Martin believed that he needed 20-25 pounds a day to be able to take the victory. His primary plan was to fish a spot that he has caught good fish out of in the past, hoping that it would produce again.
“I’ve fished this area several times but I thought there might be 40 or 50 boats (there) but it ended up being 87 boats the first day.”
Scott figured that he had to narrow it down to the spot within the spot, fishing the highest percentage area within that zone. Fortunately, the two times during practice that he went to that specific area on this stretch, he found fish which he marked with waypoints. "I was honestly surprised that I was able to get to these areas being boat 165 on Day 1, these spots were on the main lake and not the in the swamp areas of the lake and those spots within the spots had been untouched." Said Scott.
On the boat ride to his first spot, Scott reminisced about all of the special places and memories that he’s had on Okeechobee, including the one watching his dad win 33 years earlier. Not letting the pressure of others catching fish get to him, Scott put his head down and went to work, slowly and methodically working his area catching fish in all phases of the spawn.
“I just fished ultra slow, ultra patient. It was a blessing that I was able to do that because it’s easy to get anxious or spun out or thinking about other things. I just had a peace come over me and kept fishing.”
This approach helped him keep his weights up on a more difficult Day 2 and the more important Day 3.
The other part of Scott’s approach was finding lures and techniques to get the bigger fish to bite a little sooner. This worked out in his favor as he caught multiple big fish throughout the event, including a 9-12 that anchored his Opens record-setting weight of 33-2 on Day 1.
“I went with bigger baits. Bigger creature baits, bigger worms.”
Being able to carry enough of these bigger baits and soft plastics was one of the reasons why Scott chose to run a Skeeter FXR21. The rough water ride quality, an important feature for later on in the Elite Series season for offshore fishing was another reason for the bigger boat. Scott also complimented the FXR21/Yamaha package, saying it’s a marriage made in heaven. “The boat looks amazing and gives you that extra confidence with the durability and dependability of that engine.”
While waiting in line to be weighed on Day 3, Scott knew that the odds were in his favor with a 31 pound bag but that there was still some possibility that he didn’t have it sealed. It wasn’t until Tucker Smith’s bag of 17-9 hit the scale that Scott was able to get a sigh of relief, thus achieving a home win in front of a crowd of family and friends, in front of his family’s marina.
“I had the chance to hold that trophy over my head in the same parking lot (as my Dad did prior), looking out into the crowd, looking at my mom standing beside my dad on stage was pretty special. It was a dream come true and a full circle moment.”
Along with the trophy, Scott was the first to secure a spot in the 2025 Bassmaster Classic as well as set the BASS Open 3-day weight catch record.
“I take a lot of pride in Lake Okeechobee. I love that lake. I think it’s special that I was able to set a record in bass fishing that might not ever be broken and it will have the words Lake Okeechobee beside it."
