Entry 349-1

Bouncing Back with Strike King’s Shaw Grigsby While Bass Fishing in California

In his own words...

Shaw Grigsby talks about fishing the Strike King Pro Model jig on Clear Lake in California during the recent Elite Series tournament where he finished in 5th place.

Part 1: The California Delta – Fishing on the Other Side of the World

Question: Shaw, you’re from central Florida, and a large number of our readers are from the East. So, is fishing the California Delta like fishing on the other side of the world?

Grigsby: Absolutely. When you drive out to California, you know you’re on the other side of the world, but the fishing is worth the trip. You can catch the bass of a lifetime in California. On the first day of practice in early March of 2010, Guy Eaker of Cherryville, North Carolina, caught a bass that weighed over 14 pounds. So, you’re fishing there for monster-sized bass, but you’re also fishing under tidal-water conditions. The water in the Delta goes out into the San Francisco Bay, and you’re fishing in the Sacramento River. Even though the area looks somewhat like Florida, the fishing is very different. There are a lot of reeds, grass and everything from milfoil to algae, tules and hydrilla in this region.

This region is one of the most-beautiful places in the world to fish. We see a lot of submerged trees, emerging grass, riprap banks, sea walls and docks. But the major factor that you have to deal with here is the tide. You can be fishing the best stretch of bank in the entire California Delta and not get a bite, and then 30-minutes later when the tide comes in, the bass will go on a feeding spree, and you’ll catch a limit of big ones. Finding the places to fish and catch bass is fairly important, but knowing at what time and what tidal conditions turn-on the bass bite are even more important information to your bass-fishing success in the Delta. Trying to deal with the tidal influence makes the California Delta a difficult place for a bass angler to figure-out how to get a bass bite.

Question: How did you figure-out enough about the bass to finish in fifth place?

Grigsby: I don’t know if I ever did figure-out the bass. On the first day, when the tide was high, I really did well and caught a number of bass. Every place I went we had high tide. But each day, after that first day, the high tide would be 1-hour later than it had been the day before. For instance, if high tide was at 12:00 pm one day, then the next day you’d have a good incoming tide until 12:00 pm, a high tide at 12:00 pm and a falling tide that was still pretty high until it was time to make a run back to the weigh-in site.

Although we experienced good tides during practice, once the event started, we had terrible tides. We’d have a low tide at about 1:00 pm or 2:00 pm, so we never got to fish the incoming and/or the high tide. We’d get the very last of the outgoing tide and the beginning of the incoming tide for a day of fishing. So, I never felt we had a good incoming tide to fish during the competition. Because I found the bass on the first day of practice, I at least knew the places where the bigger bass were holding.

Question: What bait did you use to catch your bass?

Grigsby: I used a 1/4-and a 3/8-ounce Strike King Premier Pro-Model Jig in the 46 green pumpkin color with a Rage Craw trailer. I felt I’d catch bigger bass on the Strike King Premier Pro-Model Jig than any other bait I could fish. I used the 1/4-ounce jig when we had a lot of grass, and the water was down somewhat on the outgoing tide. If the water was up with an incoming tide, or if I didn’t have a lot of grass in the area I was fishing, I’d use the 3/8-ounce jig. I’d swim the jig, flip it, pitch it, drag it, hop it, shake it and use the jig in any way I could.

Next: The Pure Poison and a Jig Equals Big Bass with Shaw Grigsby

Contents:

• Part 1: The California Delta - Fishing on the Other Side of the World
• Part 2: The Pure Poison and a Jig Equals Big Bass with Shaw Grigsby
• Part 3: The Versatility of the Strike King Pro Model Jig with Shaw Grigsby
• Part 4: Get the Bite First - Worry About the Bass Later
• Part 5: I Trust My Strike King Teammates