Entry 267-2

Doing It All with Shaw Grigsby

Part 2: So Many New Lures, So Little Time to Fish Them

Question: Shaw, how long have you’ve been a Strike King pro?

Grigsby: I’ve been using Strike King products for most of my life, and this company always has made great spinner baits. In the past, the spinner bait was the only bait I was sure the company made. Strike King and I started collaborating about 6- or 7-years ago. Since I’d been buying their baits for years, it was great to have Strike King as a sponsor.

Question: Why did you and Strike King choose to work together?

Grigsby: We partnered for several reasons. Initially, we set-up the Strike King sponsorship for the TV show. I’d worked with Ray Murski and John Barnes from Strike King for many years. They knew me and my work, and I knew them. We were buddies before we started working together. It was like being adopted into a family you’ve hung out with your entire life.

Question: Shaw, what two or three lures have most helped you make the 2009 Bassmaster Classic?

Grigsby: Boy, that’s a tough question. I’ve fished all the Rage baits, and I’ve had lots of success with the Rage Craw and the Rage Space Monkey, a wonderful pitching/flipping bait. The new 3/4-ounce Red Eye Shad put me in a position to nearly win the Wheeler Lake tournament in Alabama this year. I have access to many of Strike King’s new products as soon as Phil Marks and his design team develop them. In February 2008, following the Bassmaster Classic, I asked Phil to send me some of Strike King’s new products to test and film on my new TV show. When he began telling me about all of Strike King’s new products, I nearly choked.

Most fishing-tackle companies introduce one or two new products each year. This year, Strike King developed so many new products and colors, they blew me away. I caught one-bazillion fish on the new, extremely-versatile Strike King Ocho this year. I caught bass flipping and pitching with and without a lead and by Texas-rigging the Ocho, which is more ways than I ever imagined you could fish a stick bait.

Too, this year, Strike King introduced a new, soft-plastic bait. A fisherman on the boat with me at the Wheeler tournament wrote on his personal blog, “Shaw Grigsby was catching three to four times more bass than any tournament angler fishing around him on Lake Wheeler using the new 3/4-ounce Red Eye Shad.” All Strike King’s new products I used during this year’s Elite Series played a major role in my qualification for the 2009 Bassmaster Classic.

Question: The Strike King pros have a real advantage, since you have lure makers building custom and prototype lures for you to test during the tournament trail, right?

Grigsby: That’s exactly right. Many times the Strike King Pros help design lures. We also test certain lures before they hit the marketplace. You can’t find better lure designers and testers than Kevin VanDam, Denny Brauer, Mark Davis and the other Strike King pros. With guides on the water every day and fishermen at every level of competitive fishing testing lures and developing new lure ideas, Strike King is ahead of the game. The Strike King research-and-development department is big. The consumer knows that when a new Strike King bait arrives at a sporting goods store, it’s caught fish for Strike King Pros for 6 months to 1 year before being launched onto the market.

To learn more about Shaw Grigsby, visit www.one-more-cast.com.

Next: It’s Okay to Be Me

Contents:

• Part 1: Filming and Fishing
• Part 2: So Many New Lures, So Little Time to Fish Them
• Part 3: It’s Okay to Be Me
• Part 4: What’s that Weird-Looking Bait?
• Part 5: Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number