BENTON, Ky. (July 30, 2007) - When Scott Martin of Clewiston, Fla., caught an 8-pound, 12-ounce bass on Lake Travis in Austin, Texas, at the first stop of the 2007 Wal-Mart FLW Tour, he knew he had a shot at winning the tournament's Big Bass Award of $1,000 in addition to winning the day's big bass award of $750. Little did he know, however, that the heavy-weight fish would ultimately rank as the biggest bass caught on the FLW Tour in 2007. As such, the bass earned Martin an extra $5,000 as the Big Bass of the year.
"I didn't think that my 8-pound, 12-ounce bass would win the Big Bass Award, but I knew that if I was going to catch a big bass it would be on Lake Travis," Martin said. "The funny thing is that I looked at this ledge during practice but never fished it until day two of the tournament, and that's when I caught the big bass."
Martin said he caught the Lake Travis beauty on a 7-foot Kistler rod spooled with 12-pound-test Berkley Vanish Fluorocarbon. He was working a 3/4-ounce All-Terrain Tackle Jim Moynagh jig in 25 to 30 feet of water near a steep ledge.
"I didn't realize how big it was until I reeled it closer to the boat," Martin said. "At first, I thought it was a 5-pound bass, and when I finally pulled it in, I knew it had to be at least 8-pounds."
Rounding out the top five contenders for the award were co-angler Clint Bridges of Round Rock, Texas, with a 7-pound, 11-ounce Lake Travis bass; co-angler Chad Hicks of Rockville, Va., who also caught a 7-pound, 11-ounce bass on Lake Travis; Chris Baumgardner of Gastonia, N.C., who caught a 7-pound, 6-ounce bass on the Potomac River; and pro Shinichi Fukae of Mineola, Texas, who caught a 7-pound, 3-ounce bass on the Potomac.
Snickers awards $750 ($1,000 at opens) to the pro and $375 ($500 at opens) to the co-angler who catches the heaviest bass on each of the first two days of competition in Wal-Mart FLW Tour regular-season events. Snickers awards an additional $1,000 to the pro or co-angler who catches the heaviest overall bass during the first two days of competition, and at the end of the season, Snickers awards another $5,000 to the pro or co-angler who caught the heaviest bass of the year.