Entry 200-5
What Makes Him Good – Shaw Grigsby
Part 5: How to Make Bass Bite When They Don’t Want To
Editor’s Note: Fifty-one year old Shaw Grigsby, a longtime member of the Strike King team, has won over $2 million in tournament bass fishing. He’s fished professionally since 1984 and he has traveled with and fished against the Strike King pros his entire professional career. He’s also the host of the “One More Cast” TV show on the Versus Channel. If you interview, as I have, a large number of tournament fishermen and ask them, “What makes Shaw Grigsby so good?” they’ll say that Grigsby is one of the best sight fishermen in the nation. Grigsby does have the eye of an eagle. He can spot bass from long distances, swoop in close and deliver the lure that puts the fish in his boat. Grigsby also sees and understands what makes other fishermen great and has learned from them.
Question: Shaw, what do you do when a bass will come up and look at the bait, but won’t bite it?
Grigsby: If you shake the bait and the bass won’t eat it, if you hop the bait and the bass still won’t eat it, if you do everything you know to do to make that bass look as though its alive, and the bass still turns it down, the best thing to do is leave that bass alone and go find another bass. This is one thing you really need to know and understand: you will find some bass that you just can’t make bite. When you realize you’ve got a bass that’s not going to bite after you’ve tried your best tactics, the best thing to do is leave that bass alone and go find another fish to try and catch.
Question: Can you come back to that bass later and possibly get her to bite?
Grigsby: Sometimes you can, and sometimes you can’t. What’s important to remember is the first bait you cast to a sight-fishing bass probably will be the bait he’s most likely to hit. The second bait you cast will more than likely not be nearly as effective. I’ll be really surprised if the fish takes the third bait you cast to him.
However, I’m not talking about a fish that’s sitting on the bed. Many times when you’re fishing for a bass that’s on the bed, you can continue to change lures until you finally put a lure close to that bass that she wants to eat. I’m talking about bass that are cruising along the shoreline. 
This is the reason the first cast you make to a sight-fishing bass that’s not on the nest is critical to your success. That first cast has got to be your best cast. That’s the reason if I throw a tube bait, which is my No. 1 sight-fishing bait, to a bass and can’t make her bite it, I may leave that bass alone for an hour or two.
Then I’ll come back and try finding that bass again. I’ll throw to that fish with a Z Too, just like I’ll cast if it’s the first time I’ve seen that bass. I never try and cast a bait back to a bass that she’s already refused but instead cast a lure it hasn’t seen previously. I won’t go back to a bass with a jig if I’ve already presented a tube bait to him. However, I will always go back to him with a Z Too, because it’s a totally-different bait. If the first cast I make to that bass is with a Z Too, I’ll go back to her with a jig, like the Bitsy jig, because this is a different lure with a different look than that fish has already refused. Or I may use a Zero to back up the Z Too. Again, it’s a different-looking bait with a different type of presentation than the Z Too by itself. You can back up a tube with a Zero, or you can back up a Z Too with a Zero. Another thing I do when a fish refuses the first bait I cast to it is I always change the color of the lure when I present the second bait.
Question: Most people assume that when you say sight fishing, you’re talking about catching bass on the bed, but that’s not true is it?
Grigsby: No. Bed fishing is entirely different. I use different lures when I’m bed-fishing than when I’m sight-fishing. I’ll use a plastic lizard, like Strike King’s Iguana. I’ll use tube baits, and I’ll use plastic craws, jigs and worms. My No.1 bait when I’m bed-fishing is either the Strike King Lizard or the super lizard called the Iguana. 
I’ll fish the plastic lizard 60% of the time, and the tube jig about 20 or 30 % of the time. The crawfish and the jig are my last-ditch tactics.
The real secret to bed fishing is to cast past the bass and then drag the lizard or the tube back close to the bed. When you drag that lure up to the bed, if the bass stays on the bed you’ll probably catch her because most of the time, when the bait gets close to the bed, the bass will eat it. If she swims off the bed when she sees the lure, your chances of catching her decrease dramatically. Usually you don’t have to give the lure any action. If a bedding bass is going to eat your lizard, it will generally take it as soon as it gets close to the bed. You may have to shake it a little and move it slightly to get the bass to react to it. If that female bass thinks that lizard is going to get in her bed and eat her eggs, she’s going to eat that lizard. The real secret here when you’re bed fishing is don’t fish fast, don’t give the bait a lot of action, and be patient.
