Entry 174-4
Shaw Grigsby at Table Rock
Day 4: Did I Win or Lose?
Editor’s Note: When fishing gets tough, the tough get fishing. They don’t panic, and they don’t get in a frenzy. They know the techniques that should catch bass, and they also realize that you can have a perfect day of fishing and strike out. Shaw Grigsby of Gainesville, Florida, just completed the B.A.S.S. Legends Tournament in August 2006 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Out of a field of 50 of the best bass fishermen in the nation, he came in fourth and won $23,000. But the story of what he did, and why he did it has lessons to teach us all. And this week, we’ll let Grigsby explain what to do when fishing gets tough.
I’d fished as hard as I could. I knew that flipping the Wild Thang Jr. and the Baby Beav were the right baits. I knew that the way I was fishing was the way to win that tournament. The only thing that could’ve made a difference would’ve been if I could’ve gotten some keeper bass bites, but I didn’t. I knew if I could get the Baby Beav and the Wild Thang Jr. around a keeper bass, that bass would bite those lures. But apparently, I never put the lure where those measuring fish were.
Once you’re in the lead in a tournament, and you lose that lead and lose that tournament, you can be pretty devastated. And it’s really important to go back and analyze what you’ve done, what you could have done, and what you should have done during that last day to win. 
But I never had a thought about changing lures, tactics or the places I was fishing. I just couldn’t find a bank that was holding those two or three keeper fish that I needed to catch. I did catch bass in every hole I fished, but the bass just weren’t keeper size. So as I began to analyze the tournament and think about what I could’ve done or should’ve done, I decided if I could got back and fish that last day of the tournament over again, I wouldn’t have changed anything. I’d fish it the same way that I had fished it because I did everything I knew to do that was right to win. The bass just didn’t show up.
I compared my fishing to Little Tiger’s, the name we’ve given Kevin VanDam on the pro circuit. Kevin is such an awesome angler, he’s so competitive, and he’s won so much that many of us view him in the same regard that pro golfers view Tiger Woods. But the first day of the tournament when there were only 12 of us fishing, Kevin zeroed. It didn’t make me feel any better when I zeroed to know that Kevin zeroed on the first day, but what I did take from that experience was that this fishery was really that tough if both Kevin and I zeroed one of the two days we fished.
Another factor is that Brian Snow led the tournament on one day with 15 pounds and on the second day, he didn’t bring a fish to the scales. And he didn’t make the final six.
Normally when I’m not catching bass with the technique and lures I’m using, I know I’m doing something wrong, and I’ll scramble and switch techniques and lures. For instance, the water dropped about a foot on the last day of the tournament, so normally I would’ve pulled out of the water I was fishing and moved out to the deep drop-offs and ledges and start fishing a Strike King crankbait. But in this situation, the fishing was so tough that I felt it was more important that I stay with the pattern that was producing bass.
Another factor was the grass that I was fishing was matted, and it was hanging over deeper water. So I actually thought I would to get more bites because the bass would move away from the bank and out to the edges of that deep grass. Generally, if you’re not catching bass, you need to be doing something different. 
But in this tournament at Little Rock, I was pretty confident I was fishing the best tactic and lures that I could fish at that tournament.
Greg Hackney caught four bass on that last day flipping. So I knew I was doing the right thing by flipping, and I knew I was using the right baits. Although I was catching little bass, apparently I just wasn’t in the right place at the right time to catch the big bass. Many times you can do everything right and give yourself the best chance to win and the bass you need to catch just don’t show up. That’s just tournament fishing. When you lose, it’s not always your fault. The bass plays at least 50 percent of a role in whether you win or lose. And when the bass doesn’t come to play, regardless of how good you’re fishing, you won’t win. So I felt good about this tournament. I felt that I’d fished to the best of my abilities and had performed the best I could. In my mind’s eye, I’d competed the best I knew how to compete, even though I didn’t win.
Contents:
- Part 1: The Tournament Begins
- Part 2: The Next Days of the Tournament
- Part 3: The Last Day of the Tournament
- Part 4: Did I Win or Lose?
- Part 5: Mentally Preparing for the Next Tournament
