On April, 5 2025, professional angler Scott Martin voluntarily withdrew himself from the 2025 Bassmaster Elite Series. B.A.S.S. Officials confirm that Martin withdrew from competing in the rest of the 2025 season due to a formal protest that was submitted alleging he violated the tour’s No Information rule. Martin posted a video on Facebook on April 5 explaining his decision and what led up to it in some detail, also revealing he and his family had already decided it would be the veteran pro angler’s last season on the Elite tour.
This protest is in regards to the Pasquotank River/Albemarle Sound Elite Series tournament to be held on April 10-13 in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Martin decided to step away from the Elite Series before B.A.S.S. was able to complete the investigation process.
The following statement was posted on bassmaster.com late on April 5:
“B.A.S.S. officials confirm that Elite Series angler Scott Martin has voluntarily withdrawn from B.A.S.S. competition for the remainder of 2025. A formal protest was submitted on March 28 concerning Martin; however, he chose to step away from the Elite Series before the B.A.S.S. investigation process concluded and prior to the administration of an official truth verification exam.”
Soon before, Martin posted the Facebook vid in which he talking about how hard the past weeks have been on him.
“The last 30 days have been extremely tough on me, and the last seven days have been excruciating, trying to defend my reputation, the anxiety of the whole matter, everything swirling around my head, it’s been awful,” Martin said in the video. “So here’s the deal. I’ve been officially protested from the Albemarle Sound event that’s coming up this next week. Let me explain. I had a conversation with a gentleman seven months ago, and in that conversation, it started off with a message saying, ‘Hey, give me a call, but I can’t talk about Albemarle Sound, but I have a question.’
“When he reached out to me, I simply said, ‘I can’t talk about Albemarle Sound on the tournament waters. But I have a question.’ And the question was, ‘What areas around there, outside of the tournament waters are most similar?’
“We talked about the Chickahominy, the Potomac, Winya Bay, and we identified a couple places far away from the turn of waters. I asked some general questions in regards to that type of fishing. I asked him about the tides and just some general overall information, nothing specific, and again, nothing in tournament waters. I repeated myself to him several times that we can’t talk about tournament waters. I made myself extremely clear.
“At the end of that conversation, which was very short, he asked me, ‘Hey, do you know anything about the Ouachita River,’ which I don’t. I said, ‘I’ll make a few phone calls to see if I can help you out.’ We never talked one more time about that.
“He reached out to me later on to tell me that the tournament, his tournament, had been moved in Kentucky Lake. I said, ironically, I’m going there in a few days to do a sufficient show and do a little fishing. So, after my fishing, I actually gave him some waypoints. Gave him some screenshots of some places to fish which was all legal, told him, good luck. Don’t even know how he did the tournament. And we never communicated one more time about that or anything on the eastern fishery. That was the end of the conversation. And also, let me point out this, this is a guy that I don’t know at all. Never met him before in my life. He’s not friends of a friend or anything, so there’s no connection with me and this gentleman.”
Fast forward to this past week, where Martin stated he started hearing rumors from friends that he was disqualified from the upcoming event. Marin says he began getting messages from people saying he might be disqualified from the upcoming tournament event because he got information “from some local guy.”
“My heart sank. Not cool,” Martin said. “My anxiety level went through the roof. I’m thinking, this is not good. I’ll talk to that angler later on the day and ask what the heck is this even about? I told you I couldn’t get information about that. Why would anybody think that? And we had a conversation in regards to that. I’m not sure where the confusion let in or what’s going through his mind on this, but it is what it is, and it’s not fair.”
“Bassmaster called me shortly after that, asked me a few questions, sent me the protest, and let me explain the protest to you guys. The protest is simple. It’s stating that I made an agreement with this angler to barter information for getting information at Albemarle Sound and trade for information in Kentucky Lake, which, by the way, weren’t even on the schedule yet,” Martin continued.
“This is a guy that I don’t even know. So he’s going to give me the juice at Albemarle Sound, if I give him the juice for his upcoming tournament. The second statement in the protest is that he mentioned the names of two rivers for me to check, not that I asked that he mentioned the name of two rivers for me to check. He also stated that he mentioned lures for me to use in those rivers. And the last thing that he said is that he told me specific places to fish based on the wind,” Martin said. “These are not true. I’m not sure where the confusion came in, but this did not happen.”
Martin went on to say that he feels he is being specifically targeted with these allegations and went on to explain how and why he ultimately refused to take a polygraph test.
“I’m not sure who’s targeting me, but I’ve got a decent idea what’s going on here,” he said. “BASS then said I would need to take a polygraph to clear my name. And I said, No problem. So for the last week, I’ve sat around nervous, confused, a million things going through my mind, waiting on this guy to show up to give me a polygraph test, to ask me whatever random question he wants to ask me about some vague comment and some vague protest, not good.
A polygraph was opportunely scheduled for Martin to take on Saturday, April 5, but he ultimately didn’t participate because of doubts about the tester, who he does not identify. He goes on to say he did take an independent polygraph test.
“As far as the polygraph test the Bassmaster wants me to take on Saturday, after a few days of thinking about it, worrying about it, thinking that my entire life is in hands of some polygraph guy that shows up that has some questionable things already about him. There’s a lot going on in the polygraph world right now. I keep hearing of all these things I had, my family, my friends and even other anglers reach out to me and say, Dude, I don’t know if I would take that test. I don’t know who to trust. I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s good,” Martin said.
“There was an independent polygraph set up for me on April 3 — 25 year veteran in the state of Florida law enforcement, very credible, credited test — and guys, I passed,” Martin said. “And just to let you know, this gentleman formulated the questions based on the exact polygraph that BASS provided, I knew I would pass. But I’m going to be honest with you guys, that was the most stressful thing that I’ve ever been through, that my entire reputation is on the line to defend on silly accusations.
“We’re going to be sharing these results with BASS and they’re probably not going to accept it, obviously, and I don’t care if they do, but they’re vetted, they’re certified, everything’s good, and we’re going to move on,” he added.
Martin added that around the time of the Bassmaster Classic last month, he and his family made a big decision.
“Just a few weeks ago, my family and I all sat down and decided this would be my last year on the Bassmaster Elite tour,” Martin said in the video. “I’d finish up the season and back away from the Elites. I would still continue to do tournaments, still continue to do team tournaments, fun stuff, and most of all, get back to enjoying filming and doing stuff that I want to do.
“The drama, everything going on around these tournaments have not been enjoyable, not like how it used to be, and not something I really want to be a part of. And with these recent attacks — and again, I kind of have an idea who they’re coming from, as do you guys — and I don’t want to be part of it, so I’ve decided to move on. I’ve decided to withdraw from the 2025 late season, and get my life back and go back to enjoying fishing like I should now.”
