If you've seen Roland Martin on his TV show, you know that he has enough energy to power a small city. Can you imagine a guy like that fishing slowly?
Believe it or not, Martin has an incredible amount of patience. This is a guy who once (at least) made 30 casts with a buzzbait over a piece of submerged cover just to tee off the bass he "knew" was there enough to get it to strike (it did).
And this season at the Lake Toho BASSMASTER, one of the hardest tournaments of the year, he watched much of the competition buzz around him like bees while he slowly worked a Carolina rig. "I found a some schools of fish around the mid- part of the lake and anchored," Martin said at the time. "I threw a Carolina rig with 4-inch (Yamamato) Senkos. I'd drag them really slowly and stop the bait for 30 or 40 seconds."
Not moving much was the key to his pattern. "All the other fishermen were zooming around, working their worms fast and catching a lot of little fish," he said. "I caught big bass by anchoring, slowing down and stopping the bait. That's what did it for me."
No doubt many other examples exist in Martin's storied tournament career. Recently we asked him for a few tips on slowing down, which as BassFans know is one of the hardest things to do in bass fishing.
Listen to the Bass
"Presentation is an element of your pattern," he said. "If the success of a pattern dictates a slower and slower presentation, that's what you do.
"At Toho I made a cast and was changing my line so I laid the first rod down. I had to change a Carolina rig. You know how long it takes to tie all that. By the time I picked up the other rod, there was a fish on -- after a couple of minutes. The fish dictated what do.
"I hate to be that slow about it, but it worked so I reacted accordingly," Martin said. "I would rather go fast -- I don't like to slow down. But if I'm locked into a good school of fish, I don't mind slowing down."
Do What It Takes
"If you know you're anchored on a good school, you can slow down with the best of them," Martin said. "But you really have to have a good spot and confidence. The fact that you fished all day for hours without a strike and all of a sudden found some fish and caught a couple -- that should dictate anything.
"You have to figure out how to catch them. It might be a super-slow retrieve or it might be something else. You just have to do what it takes."
One of Martin's favorite "fish it slow" lures is the Yamamoto Senko.
