Entry 210-5

Bass Fishing at Lake Champlain with Shaw Grigsby

Part 5: The Last Day

Question: Beginning the competition on the last day, since the frog had paid off for you, did you plan to spend more time with the frog and less time flipping?

Grigsby: I was using the Strike King white frog, and I knew the bass would eat it. I’d planned to go to my honey hole first and try to catch a limit like I had the days before and then go frog fishing, hoping to catch my kicker bass on the frog. I figured if I had to mix it up I’d fish a frog, flip and do what I had to do to catch a big string.

Question:  How did your day go?

Grigsby: At the take-off, I ran to my honey hole. The weather was cloudy and windy, but when I arrived at my spot, a heavy amount of grass was present there. When I pulled-up to the spot, I didn’t even pick up my flipping rod. Instead, I picked up the rod with the frog tied on it. After four casts, I caught a 3-1/2-pound bass on the frog. I knew that I had a fish that I wasn’t going to cull. After having that much success on the frog, I decided to stick with it and try to catch a really-big string. 

Another key to this tournament is that, on the final day, competitors don’t fish in their own boats, but rather in boats provided by B.A.S.S. The B.A.S.S. boats don’t include Power Poles that I always use to pole myself around quietly in shallow-water conditions. I’d stick that pole in the bottom of the lake and hold my boat up against it to make a more-accurate cast and catch the bass one cast after another. Without the Power Pole I had on my personal boat to hold the B.A.S.S. boat steady, it was getting blown all over the grass. I’d get one cast into my sweet spot, and the boat would get blown over the top of the grass. Then I’d have to use my GPS to get lined-up again on the grass and make another cast. Though frustrated, I was able to catch a limit on my Strike King Brush Beast, and I was able to cull a few fish.

I finally thought to myself, “It’s raining, and there are some heavy mats of grass on the inside of this grass line.” I decided to grab my frog and see if I could play with those heavy mats of grass with the frog to catch a few good bass. I was flipping my Brush Beast as I moved into those heavy mats. I made one cast with the frog, moved it about three times and bam! I caught a bass. I kept fishing the frog and caught quite a few fish, before starting to cull. About that time, my digital scale started to malfunction; probably because of all the moisture and the rain. I didn’t know how much weight I had, but when I fiddled with the scale and got it to work a little, one of my fish weighed 4 pounds. I decided I had a good string. Although the bass were biting, I decided to leave that spot and run to the mats I’d fished earlier. I caught two good-sized bass on the frog.

 This proved to be a mistake, because when I returned to the place I’d fished the day before, the bass weren’t biting.  The bass would hit at the frog, bump it and nudge it, but they wouldn’t eat it. I finally caught one fish and that allowed me to cull one of the fish I had in my live well. However, that one fish didn’t make much difference. The spot that had been so good to me every day of the tournament was responsible for about 16 pounds of bass on the last day.

The other mistake I made was staying with that spot all day instead of going back to my honey hole and trying to improve my limit. I decided to leave my area about 2-hours early to give myself plenty of time to get back to the weigh-in site before check-in time. I returned in time to fish for smallmouth. I fished the jerkbait and caught a smallmouth that allowed me to cull the smallest fish in my limit.

At the final tally for the tournament, the Brush Beast caught about 90% of my catch, and the frog that I fished on a Dean Rojas Signature Series Quantum Rod produced about 10% of the fish I kept. With that rod and the frog, I’d hook a 3-pound bass and drag in about 10 pounds of grass with it to the boat on 65-pound-test braided Suffix line. With my scale not working, when I went to the scales, I didn’t really know how I would place. I felt that if I had 14 or 15 pounds for the final day, I probably would remain in about 12th place. If I had 16 pounds or more, I should move up in the standings, and if I had 17 or 18 pounds, I’d move up a few more steps. If I caught less than 14 pounds, I figured I’d be in the bottom.

I felt I had a nice stringer, but I didn’t know how much the bass would weigh. When I weighed-in, I had about 16-pounds, 11-ounces, and I moved up from eighth to seventh place and had another few points toward qualifying for the Bassmaster Classic. I didn’t know until later that I’d won $15,000. As soon as I came ashore, I packed-up and left for the next tournament 7-1/2-hours away in just south of Buffalo, New York. I knew I had to hustle and get out of there, or I’d be driving until 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. Daylight arrives at about 4:50 a.m. in New York State, so we’d all been getting up at 3:25 a.m. fishing all day until the sun set after 9:00 p.m. We’d been running this schedule for seven days, and at the end of this tournament, I was pretty-well wiped out physically and mentally. I usually can make 5 hours after a tournament without much problem. But driving 7 hours after you’ve fished a major tournament is a real grind.

So I took off driving and I still didn’t get to my motel until midnight. I think the only reason I was able to make it all the way to the motel was because Gary Klein, my roommate at the motel, kept calling me to check on me, and my wife, Polly, called and helped to keep me awake. Too, several other people called to check on me to make sure I was staying awake. I slept late the next morning and didn’t get up until 9:30 a.m. I was pleased with my performance.

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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