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Scott Martin Wins FLW Tour on Lake Cumberland
FLW Communications
Sunday at 10:54 PM
Florida pro wins his 7th FLW Tour title on unfamiliar waters of Cumberland chasing a familiar winning fish.
Pro Scott Martin of Clewiston, Florida, brought a five-bass limit to the scale Sunday weighing 13 pounds , 12 ounces, to win the FLW Tour at Lake Cumberland presented by T-H Marine. Martin’s four-day total of 20 bass weighing 60 pounds, 1 ounce, gave him a 1-pound, 11-ounce edge over second-place pro Barry Wilson of Birmingham, Alabama, and earned him $125,400 in the internationally-televised tournament that featured 164 of the world’s best bass anglers. With his victory, Martin also became the first angler in FLW history to win eight Tour-level events.
“It feels great to win another tournament – it’s awesome,” said Martin, the 2015 FLW Angler of the Year and 2011 Forrest Wood Cup Champion. “I always try to go out there and be as good as I can be. I’m very blessed.”
Martin’s primary areas this week were on the lower end of the lake, near the dam. He said he preferred locations that had a good population of spotted, smallmouth and largemouth bass, and that he ran to new water each day of the tournament.
“My fish had to be in a creek. Not a main pocket off of the river, but a creek with small arms,” said Martin. “The creeks I liked had lots of little arms. At the intersections there were points, then a straight stretch that led back to pockets with bushes. The largemouth used the bushes in the back of the drain, while the spotted bass keyed in on the bushes along the stretches. The smallmouth liked the secondary points with rock and bushes near the intersection openings.”
Martin caught fish early on in the week with an M-Pack Lures Flippin’ Jig, but did the bulk of his damage with a translucent-shad-colored jerkbait. On the final day of competition, Martin rotated in a Bomber Lures Long A wake bait, which turned out to be a crucial adjustment.
“I caught two that I weighed in today on the wake bait,” said Martin. “It just felt right to throw it. Today the water temperature was rising a little bit, I saw some baitfish activity and it was dead-slick calm. Those are the best conditions to use it in.”
Martin wound up bringing two spotted, two largemouth and a smallmouth bass to the weigh-in stage Sunday. He said his win was secured by a largemouth that weighed nearly 3 pounds that he caught on his final cast of the day.
The top 10 pros finished the event on Lake Cumberland:
1st: Scott Martin, Clewiston, Fla., 20 bass, 60-1, $125,000
2nd: Barry Wilson, Birmingham, Ala., 20 bass, 58-6, $30,000
3rd: Terry Bolton, Paducah, Ky., 20 bass, 57-5, $25,000
4th: Matt Reed, Madisonville, Texas, 20 bass, 55-15, $20,000
5th: Scott Canterbury, Springville, Ala., 20 bass, 55-7, $19,000
6th: Chris McCall, Palmer, Texas, 20 bass, 53-10, $18,000
7th: Cody Meyer, Auburn, Calif., 20 bass, 53-8, $17,000
8th: Casey Scanlon, Lenexa, Kan., 19 bass, 51-11, $16,500
9th: Clark Wendlandt, Leander, Texas, 15 bass, 50-0, $15,000
10th: Anthony Gagliardi, Prosperity, S.C., 19 bass, 48-14, $14,000
For a full list of results visit FLWFishing.com.
Overall there were 43 bass weighing 98 pounds, 5 ounces, caught by nine pros Sunday. The catch included seven five-bass limits.
Jeff Clark of Fort Smith, Arkansas, won the Co-angler Division and $20,100 Friday with a two-day total of eight bass weighing 20 pounds, 1 ounce, followed by Frank Divis Sr. of Farmington, Arkansas, who finished in second place with six bass weighing 19 pounds, 8 ounces, worth $7,550.
