Entry 310-2

Shaw Grigsby – Raging for Summertime Bass on the Mississippi River

Part 2: Flipping Skinny Water

Question: What did you learn in practice, Shaw?

Grigsby: I learned that the bass were holding in super-shallow water. The water on the river was way down. When I would go into some of the pockets I had spotted from the air, the bottom of my boat would drag, and I’d be pitching my Rage Craw into 6 inches of water. But the bass were eating the bait up. I was amazed at how shallow the water was where the bass were holding.

In the first hour of the first day, I caught and released a limit of keeper bass. And then I went into various places where I got a lot of keeper-bass bites. I was really excited about the tournament and that I could catch the bass flipping, because I really like to flip.

Question: Shaw, what pattern did you decide to use?

Grigsby: I was primarily flipping wood, isolated cover and trees and stumps. I also learned that I needed to fish the cover slowly and pick it apart. I found this one little chute that I went in and out of and only fished about 200 yards of bank. I saw other competitors in there fishing the entire bank. They probably fished a mile of bank, while I was fishing only those 200 yards. I picked-apart every piece of cover that I could flip to, sometimes making 20 casts to one tree top and never having my lure land in the same spot twice on or around that tree top.

The water was so muddy where I was fishing that the bass didn’t want to move or chase the bait. So I learned that to catch these fish, I had to flip that Strike King Rage Craw right in front of their faces. If a bass was holding beside a limb, and I flipped the Rage Craw 6-inches away from it, the fish wouldn’t strike. But if I dropped the Rage Craw right in front of a bass, it would eat it. I realized I needed to cover every inch of each piece of cover that I fished. I could get the bass to bite easily, if I pitched to the correct spot to allow my lure to fall right in front of the fish’s face.

Question: Shaw, what did you think your chances for winning or doing well in this tournament were, at the end of practice?

Grigsby: I didn’t really think I had a chance to win, but I thought I had a really-good opportunity to make a check and improve my chances to get into the Bassmaster Classic.

Next: The First Day of Competition

Contents:

• Part 1: Why I Used Aerial Reconnaissance before the Tournament
• Part 2: Flipping Skinny Water
• Part 3: The First Day of Competition
• Part 4: The Second and Third Days of Competition
• Part 5: If I Could've Made One More Cast