"When I started practice I thought that most of the fish would probably be in 20-30 feet of water. After two days of fishing deep with no success I decided on the last day of practice to fish shallower. Shallow fishing is my strong suit, and I figured I should try it," said Stone. Marty ended up catching fish in 3-10 feet of water on a Chartreuse Shad colored Lucky Craft Flat CB MR. Most of the fish Stone found were on main lake rocky banks and points. "The key was to find a spot where the rock changed a little, and really concentrate on these changes," Stone said. The changes Stone mentions were where pea-gravel met chunk rock, or where chunk rock met solid rock ledges.

With heavy rains already moving in during the day one weigh in, Stone consulted with tournament roommate Gerald Swindle about what he should do for the next day. " With the heavy rains Gerald knew that the water in the lake would come up and he told me to go look for areas where the runoff draining into the lake was clear, and to concentrate on these," said Stone of Swindles help.

Focusing on the runoff drains on day two of the tournament helped Marty catch ten more fish, but only one was a keeper. Stone caught all his fish on day two by pitching a jig into the current on the drains and pitching to any piece of cover within 100 yards of the current. Stones one fished weighed 1-15, and put him in a respectable 52nd place overall. "I do wish I had finished higher, but I am happy to be where I am since I didn't even know if I could catch a keeper here on Smith Lake," said Stone of his finish.

Going into the Citgo Bass Master Tour Event at Lake Guntersville, Alabama, Marty Stone new that it could be a tough tournament. With water temperatures in the mid 40's and rain, snow and wind in the forecast, conditions were likely to change each day. "This is one of the best lakes in the country, but the weather conditions were miserable," said Stone.

During the three-day practice period Stone concentrated on fishing the grass flats in one to four feet of water. Marty fished these areas with a Lucky Craft LVR D-7 in Mad Craw and a LVR D-10 in Chrome Blue.

Both baits were fished with a slow to medium retrieve on braided line. "The LVR had to tick the tops of the grass. If it got hung up in the grass, the braided line allowed me to just rip it out," said Stone. "I was only getting 4-6 bites a day in practice. The bites I got, though, were all good fish, weighing two to five pounds each," Stone said. "I never ran into a group of fish. It was just one bite here and one bite there. I knew that I was going to have my work cut out for me in the tournament."

Day one of the tournament brought with it colder air temperatures and a light dusting of snow. Marty got seven bites but only two fish really got the bait. "I had five fish today hit the bait so hard that they would knock about three feet of slack into my line. I just couldn't catch back up to them to get a good hook-set. It was very frustrating," said Stone of day one. Marty's two fish on day one weighed in at eight pounds even. Stone finished the day in 111th place, behind leader Kevin Van Dam who had five fish for 26-03. "I really feel like I stayed in one spot too long today, I thought with the colder weather I should fish my key area slower. I should have moved around more," Marty said of day one.

The second day of the tournament Marty did move around more. "I knew that this (Guntersville) is one of the best lakes in the country for both size and numbers of fish. I was a little mad at the lake for not producing like it should. I just went out on day two and fished like I did in practice," said Stone. With six minutes left in the day and a five-minute run back to weigh in, Marty got his fifth fish. "I had about enough time to put that fish in the live well and crank up the big motor to go. When I checked in, I had only made it by 30 seconds," said Stone of his last minute "Hail Mary" fish.

Stone's day two catch weighed in at 14-01. This gave him a two-day total of 22-01 and put him in 77th place for the tournament behind day two's leader Mike Iaconelli who had a total weight of 48-09.

"I really learned a lot more about the LVR's this week, I don't fish a lot of lipless crankbaits. It was really good to fish nothing but LVR's for five days straight. You really get a feel for how the bait works and what it can do. I plan to use it more in the future," said Stone. "I feel good about how I performed this week. I tried as hard as I could. There were not as many fish caught this week as I expected, but some of the guys managed to find some concentrations of big fish. Considering what I had found in practice, which wasn't much, I feel that I really salvaged a decent finish here, and I am ready to move on to Table Rock in Missouri."

Marty Stone had never seen Table Rock Lake until the Citgo Bass Master Tour Event that was held there in late February. "I new it was a deep clear mountain lake like Beaver Lake in Arkansas. I didn't really know what to expect. I thought it would probably be a jerkbait tournament, even with the water being down. I went into this tournament with a fresh mind, no preconceived ideas, which I feel was good," said Stone

"During practice I knew that I couldn't cover the whole lake. I tried to narrow it down by concentrating on the Kings creek, and White River arms of the lake. From that point I just tried to find stuff that I felt comfortable fishing," Stone said. Marty fished a Lucky Craft CB-200 crankbait through most of practice. "I found several areas where I felt confident I could catch fish in the tournament." The day before the tournament was to start the Table Rock area received five-six inches of rain overnight. The changing weather conditions meant that a lot of Marty's areas wouldn't be as good, and he would have to keep looking for more during the tournament. "At least I had a starting spot. I had some areas that I had some confidence in, and that I could expand on."

"About eleven AM on day one of the tournament I managed to find some more fish. I caught two fish on a CB-200 and one flipping a lay down tree and thought that maybe I had figured something out again." Marty's day one catch weighed almost twelve pounds, and put him in the middle of the pack in the standings.

"On day two everything was different again. I had to fish all new water again. I managed to get four more keepers that weighed about seven pounds. I caught all my fish on day two by flipping. The water got real muddy and they just wouldn't bite the crankbait anymore." Stone's day two weight gave him a total weight of 18-07 and put him in 24th place behind winner Mark Davis.

"I felt that I had really started to learn the lake. It's hard coming to a lake this big and fish a tournament here when you have never fished it before. I feel good about how things went and I'm very happy with my finish. I just wish I'd had a little more time to practice. Maybe I would have done even better."

"Going into the Citgo Bass Masters Event at Lake Eufaula I was fired up," said Marty Stone. "It was the first real spring tournament of the year. All the tournaments before Eufaula were winter tournaments if you look at the conditions. I was looking forward to not having to wear ten layers of cloths when I was out on the lake."

Practice was a little slow for Stone who doesn't like to sight fish. "I tried to find fish that I could fish for in practice. By that I mean I really didn't want to have to sight fish. I fished hard in practice but didn't feel that I had found something that I could rely on. On the last day of practice, I hardly picked up a fishing rod. I just put the trolling motor on high and went looking for fish on beds. I found quite a few fish that were spawning and decided that I would sight fish on day one of the tournament," said Stone.

"I had a good day on day one, I caught most of my fish sight fishing, and that is unusual for me. I've worked hard for the last two years to become a better sight fisherman, and it paid off for me on day one." Marty's five fish limit on day one weighed 15-05, good enough for 36th place.

"I found an area where the fish were staging for the spawn during the afternoon of day one where I thought I could catch the fish without sight fishing. By mid-morning on day two I had only caught one fish using the pattern that had worked in the afternoon of day one, so I decided that I needed to go back to sight fishing. I moved back to my sight fishing area and found some. With two hours left in the tournament I had four fish. I left the area where I was sight fishing and went back to my back-up pattern. Looking back on it, I should have kept searching for fish on beds instead of trying to make my back-up plan work. I made a couple of bad decisions here, hopefully it won't keep me out of the Classic." Marty's day two weight for four fish was 7-12 and left him in 60th place.

"I was expecting a full blown toten contest coming in here, and that's just what happened. Unfortunately, I wasn't doing much of the toten. I'm looking forward to going to Santee Cooper. I have two days to lick my wounds, get mad, and go out there and fish hard again. I'm frustrated with Eufaula. I can come up with a lot of bad excuses, but that's all they are, bad excuses. Eufaula is a good lake. I simply haven't figured it out yet. I haven't figured out its subtleties, and that's what is really starting to bother me about Eufaula. I've been known to catch them one day and then not catch them the next day. At Santee at least I have been known to catch them two days in a row. I'm going to go work hard. I'm going to put in the effort. If I don't catch fish there it won't be for lack of trying."

"I had a good practice. I didn't get a lot of bites, but the bites I got were Santee-Cooper quality, and I thought I had figured something out. Looking back on it I did figure out an area or two, and I was pleased that I didn't have any other boats in those areas with me. The weather was what really threw me for a loop. I think what happened here was the first day the front hit, I went up to my area and it was on fire. These were spawning fish and I didn't realize that.

I thought that they were pre-spawn. My fishing kept getting tougher after that day and I kept blaming the front, but I now think that those fish just moved from spawning to post spawn areas," Stone said of practice.

On day one Marty's area produced four keepers that weighed 9-11 and put him in 70th place. "My area was a lot tougher on day one. I also lost two big fish that would have helped my weigh a lot. It defiantly fished slower than it did in practice. I think that some of the fish I found in practice had moved."

On day two Marty's area got even tougher, but the fish were larger. "I only managed to land three keepers on day two. I also lost another big fish. The fish I caught were defiantly of higher quality though. Even as tough as my area got I still had the chances at having a better tournament," said Stone. Marty's three fish weighed 12-10 and was enough to move him up to 51st place.

"Over all I'm pleased, I made a check and I got enough points to qualify for the Classic so life is good. Qualifying for the Classic is always my main goal for the season. I'm a little frustrated with my year overall. I had a chance to have a better year than I did. It just shows that I have a lot more work to do, and I'm dedicated to getting it right. I plan on spending the off-season working on my weaknesses and hopefully come back even stronger next year," said Stone.

When asked to comment on teammate Gerald Swindle winning Angler of the Year, Stone said, "I'm not surprised. Gerald is the greatest fisherman I have ever been around. He has instincts that can't be taught or learned. The only thing that surprises me is that it took this long."

Team Lucky Craft Member; Marty Stone won the 2004 Citgo Bass Master Top 150 Tour event this past weekend on the Harris Chain of Lakes in Leesburg, Florida. This is the second year in a row that a Team Lucky Craft member has won this event. Lucky Craft Pro Team Member, Skeet Reese won this same tournament in 2003 using a Mad Craw colored Flat CB MR.

Stone won the tournament by paying attention to what the fish were doing and constantly adjusting to what the fish wanted. The first two days of the tournament he flipped and pitched a worm into the pockets on the outside edge of the Kissimmee Grass. The worm was rigged with a 1/4 oz. tungsten worm weight, and fished on 12-pound line. "On the third day of the tournament I was struggling and just had a small limit. But since it had gotten cloudy I thought this might have pulled the bigger fish up off the bottom and with 30 minutes left I picked up a spinnerbait and caught a fish that weighed 4.6 lbs. This is the fish that got me into the final day." He was able to hold on during the fourth and final day to win the tournament.

Marty credits the Lucky Craft Flat CB MR for helping him find his winning fish. "During the first two days of practice I fished the Mad Craw colored Flat CB MR on the outside edge of the Kissimmee Grass, and that bait showed me the quality of the fish that were in the areas that I was fishing." On the last day of practice with the weather still warming, Marty thought that the fish he had found on the outside edges would probably start to move up into the grass and hug the bottom in preparation of spawning. This is what made him change to the flipping and spinnerbaiting techniques that eventually helped him win the tournament.

"I really did not feel like I was on all that much in practice, I thought that I had found enough fish that I could weigh in a limit each day but that was all" Stone said of his practice period.

After the first day of the tournament, Marty was in 7th Place with 19-09. Alton Jones was leading with 27-00. On day two, Marty brought another limit that weighed 14-00, for a total of 33-09. This left him in 9th overall behind new leader, Jason Quinn who had 39-15. Day three saw Stone move up to 5th in the overall standings after boating another limit that weighing in at 12-06 to give him a total of 45-15. Day three also saw defending Bass Masters Classic champ Mike Iaconelli in the lead with 49-13. Day 4, however, belonged to Stone who brought in the biggest limit of the day at 15-13, which moved him into the top spot.
"I just made the right decisions at the right times," Stone said of his win. Stone also now leads the Citgo Bass Master Angler of the Year Race, going into the season's second tournament on Smith Lake in Alabama.