Aaron Martens isn’t over his calf muscle injury, but he’s able to stand all day in a boat. Kneeling to land a fish is still a challenge.
“I can’t bend my right leg to squat down at all,” he said. “If I twist, it’s excruciating. I have to sort of flop down on my butt and lean over. It’s hard to get down low.”
Martens, a native Californian who now lives in Leeds, Ala., was a favorite to win going into last week’s Bassmaster Elite Series season opener on the California Delta. He said the initial injury happened during the Feb. 19-21 Bassmaster Classic on Lay Lake in Alabama, when snow fell and cold gripped the area.
“I was straining the leg too long in the cold, and I tore a muscle close to where it attaches to the bone, behind the knee,” he said. “Luckily, I didn’t completely tear it or I’d have to consider surgery.”
He competed in California, but the injury held him back. The second day of the Delta tournament, he was hobbling and had trouble standing on a boat deck. He finished in 54th place.
“It’s going to take a total of five to six months to get back to normal,” he said. “I have to be very careful; I’ve already reinjured it three or four times since I first injured it.”
In Alabama, he had a sports medicine doctor check him out. He got a sports massage on the leg, and he is taking an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory.
“I’ll have to take care of it for months and let it heal, but at least now I’m walking and standing OK,” he said.
He’s ready for this week’s Golden State Shootout on Clear Lake out of Lakeport, Calif.
“It’s one of the best,” he said of the fishery. “It’s going to be good fishing this week. There’s going to be a lot of big fish caught.”
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