Entry 302-2
Shaw Grigsby on the Newest Strike King Lures and How He Fishes Them
Editor’s Note: Shaw Grigsby of Gainesville, Florida, is one of the most-consistent performers at the Bassmaster Classic and on the Elite Circuit each year. Grigsby grew-up tournament fishing and has helped to develop many of Strike King’s lures by field testing them and offering design suggestions. This week we asked him to tell us about the lures he’s using and why.
Part 2: Lessons Learned from the Bassmaster Classic
Question: What lessons did you learn from the 2009 Bassmaster Classic, and how has what you’ve learned changed your fishing?
Grigsby: I started fishing Strike King’s 4S crankbait on the Red River at the 2009 Bassmaster Classic, and I liked the wide-wobbling type of retrieve I got with the 4S. In the early spring, it’s a great bait to use because it’s got that wide, slow wobble that really triggers strikes. I also learned at the Classic that the 4S is a fairly-weedless crankbait. Most people would say, “Wait a minute, Shaw. You’ve lost your mind. When you’re fishing a crankbait with treble hooks, how can that crankbait be weedless?” But, if you reel the 4S really slowly, and the bill of the bait hits a log or a stick, the lure kicks up and pushes those treble hooks away from the structure.
Therefore, you can work it through heavy cover and fish this crankbait in places where you normally have to fish soft plastics, spinner baits or other more-weedless lures. I’ve learned that the 4S coming through that thick cover triggers numbers of bass strikes that I don’t get with a lure designed to go through thick cover. 
Because of the 4S crankbait, I had a good finish at the 2009 Classic and at Arkansas’ Lake Dardanelle. I also caught a lot of bass on it on Wheeler Lake in Alabama in the spring.
Question: Shaw, what is your favorite color in the 4S crankbait from Strike King?
Grigsby: I really like the Sexy Shad color, because it’s one of the most-natural colors that I can find for a crankbait. That grayish-blue back with a yellow stripe looks very much like shad and even blueback herring in the water. I have found that the Sexy Shad color gets me more bites from more bass when I need a shad-colored crankbait than any other shad color that I fish.
Another reason that I like the Sexy Shad is because last year I fished the Sexy Shad color on the 3/4-ounce Red Eye Shad, and the bass really seemed to like that color better than any other color I fished. 
That gave me a lot of confidence in the Sexy Shad color when I first started fishing it on the Red Eye Shad before that lure even came to the market. Therefore, I have a lot of confidence in this color pattern regardless of the bait I’m fishing it with.
I also like the chartreuse-colored Sexy Shad. Anytime bass are milling around in shallow water, like just before the spawn or just after the spawn, this is one of my favorite lures to use. I can cast it down the bank, make multiple casts to bank targets, crank it through cover and keep on going. I believe that the 4S in the Sexy Shad color is one of the best springtime and early-summer crankbaits that I can fish.
Contents:
- Part 1: Football Season Is Now
- Part 2: Lessons Learned from the Bassmaster Classic
- Part 3: I'll Take the Red Eye Shad Anytime I Can Get it
- Part 4: The Water's Up, Burn 'Em
- Part 5: Give the Bass a Cup of Coffee
