Entry 210-4

Bass Fishing at Lake Champlain with Shaw Grigsby

Part 4: The Third Day of the Competition

Question: What did you do the morning of the third day of competition?

Grigsby: I ran straight to the spot that had consistently produced for me, and I started the day there. I pulled-up on the place, and as soon as I got lined-up to fish, I started whacking the bass. Every cast, I was catching a fish. And, these bass were a good size - 2- to 2-1/2-pounds each.  Some were 1- to 1-3/4-pounds. Therefore my first five bass weighed a total of 10 to 11 pounds - not a bad start for a day of fishing. I kept catching bass and culling, and before I knew it, I’d caught 16 pounds for a five-fish limit without actually pressuring the spot. I still felt like a good number of fish were left there. I thought to myself, “Wow. You’ve had a pretty-good start, Mr. Grigsby. You have 16 pounds in your box and plenty of daylight left to fish.”

I knew I had another big patch of thick grass I hadn’t even touched yet. I thought I could fish a Strike King frog there and possibly catch a nice kicker fish. I went to that spot, picked up my Strike King frog and, in a very-short time, caught a 4 to 5 pounder. Then, I caught a 3 pounder and a couple of 2 pounders as well as a few more cull fish. I caught two bass on the Strike King frog that day that rode with me to the weigh-in.

Question: Were you starting to wonder if you should have fished a frog during the entire tournament?

Grigsby: I was beginning to wonder if I shouldn’t have been fishing in the thick grass earlier in the tournament. Don’t get me wrong. Sixteen pounds is a great stringer on this lake and then being able to cull nearly 19 pounds for the day’s final weigh-in is an excellent day of fishing. I was feeling good knowing I had a bag of fish that should weigh-in at well over 18 pounds. When I weighed, in I was in eighth place; securing a spot among the 12 who would fish on the final day of the tournament.

Question: What did you think you’d need to do on the last day to win the tournament?

Grigsby: This was one of those rare tournaments when winning was out of the question. Tim Horton, from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, had basically lapped the field. What made this so unbelievable was that this was a northern tournament, and in most tournaments held in the North, the top 12 places usually only will be separated by ounces. But after two days of competition, Horton had a 10-pound lead over the rest of the field.

Question: What was Horton doing that everyone else wasn’t doing?

Grigsby:  He’d found a few key spots offshore that were holding some big bass. He caught about 21 pounds on the first day, about 24 pounds the second day, and 19 to 20 pounds on the third day.  Horton was so far ahead of the rest of the field that we all knew that, unless Tim just totally crashed and burned, the best the rest of us could hope for was second place. Second through 12th places only were a few pounds or ounces apart. My focus going into the last day was to catch as many bass and the biggest bass as I could and move as high into the standings as I could.

Next: The Last Day

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