Entry 210-3

Bass Fishing at Lake Champlain with Shaw Grigsby

Part 3: Day 2 of the Lake Champlain Competition

Question: What flight were you in the second morning of the tournament?

Grigsby: I was in the 4th flight, and I took off about 5:45 or 5:50 in the morning.

Question: Did you go to the first fishing spot where you’d struck out the day before, or did you go to your second site where you’d been successful?

Grigsby: I went to my second spot, because I didn’t have any confidence in my first spot. I went directly to the area where I’d caught the 15 pounds the previous morning. I started fishing and caught a limit quickly. My partner was fishing a frog and caught a bass that would have weighed about 4 pounds. Although I’d caught quite a few bass in practice on a frog, I’d pretty much forgotten about fishing a frog. I was concentrating on the flipping bite. I was catching bass on every cast. The difference in the first and the second day was that I only had a limit of 12 pounds the second day instead of a limit of 15 pounds I’d had on the previous day. The first five bass I caught weighed 8 pounds, and I knew that weight wasn’t enough to keep me in the competition. I knew that, having caught only 12 pounds, I had to catch four big bass and cull some of the fish I had in my live well.

So, I ran to the area where I’d caught a big bass the day before and caught a bass in that spot that weighed about 4 pounds. I was able to cull up to 14 pounds, 3 ounces, but I never got a big bass bite that day. I didn’t lose any or miss any. I just never did get that big bite I needed.

Question: What were you thinking, Shaw?

Grigsby: In a tournament like this, you really have to try and manage your bass. You want to catch enough to make the cut each day, but you don’t want to catch so many that you do well one day and then can’t catch enough to make the cut on the next day. When I pulled into my key area on that second day, I was catching a bass on almost every cast. I didn’t want to sore-lip every bass in that school because I knew I was going to have to come back on the third day and try to catch a limit. Once I’d caught a limit out of that area and culled up to 12 pounds, I knew I needed to back out of that area. I tried to fish down the bank, expand my fishing region and catch one or two really-good bass, but I didn’t get any more big bass. I was able to catch a few small ones that didn’t do me any good, and I never got that big bite. On the second day of the tournament, I dropped from 15th to 26th. 

At the end of the day, the field was cut to 50, and I was in the middle of the pack of the 50-remaining anglers remaining in the tournament. Even that far down in the standings, I was only about 2 pounds out from the top five. The next cut would be to cut the field of 50 down to 12 fishermen, and I really needed at least 2 more pounds to survive the next cut. I knew it was possible, but I also knew I had to catch a good stringer of bass to make it.

Question: The night before the third day of the tournament, what did you think you had to do to make the top 12 and avoid being cut?

Grigsby: I thought I might have to move into the heavy grass. I’d been fishing the scattered grass on the edges of the weeds, and I thought the bass might have been pounded so much that they’d pull back into that thicker grass. I also thought that I might be able to catch a bigger bass in that thicker grass. I decided I might have to fish further out, in front of the grass, in case the bass had pulled out to deeper water. I did try the deeper-water pattern, but all I could catch out there was smaller bass.

Question: How concerned were you going into the third day of the tournament about the 12-cut and getting your fish on that last day?

Grigsby: I wasn’t thinking much about making the 12-cut. My goal was to get as many points as I could and qualify for the Bassmaster Classic. My main focus every year is making it to the Classic. I wanted to catch the biggest stringer of bass that I could catch on the third day of this tournament, and then worry about the fourth day, if I could stay in the competition that long. This was a “go-for-broke” day. I was through trying to manage my fish, because if I didn’t get into that 12-cut day, there would be no point in trying to manage my fish. In a tournament, the most-important thing is to put yourself into position to fish the next day. You have to make sure you make the cuts, because if you don’t, tomorrow doesn’t exist.

Next: The Third Day of the Competition

Contents:

• Part 1: Pre-fishing Lake Champlain
• Part 2: First Run to the Ticonderoga
• Part 3: Day 2 of the Lake Champlain Competition
• Part 4: The Third Day of the Competition
• Part 5: The Last Day