Entry 310-4

Shaw Grigsby – Raging for Summertime Bass on the Mississippi River

Part 4: The Second and Third Days of Competition

Question: What was your strategy on the second day of the tournament?

Grigsby: I decided to run my route the opposite way of how I’d run it on the first day. Instead of going to my big-fish spot first, I went to my numbers-spot first. And by 9:45 am on the second day of the tournament, I had a limit of keeper bass. Then I started culling, but I was only culling ounces. In the afternoon, I made a run to my big-fish spot, but and I didn’t catch any bass there. So on the second day, I only weighed-in a small limit of five fish that weighed 10 pounds.

Question: Why were there so-many bass in your numbers spot?

Grigsby: I really don’t know. I think there was a little bit of spawning activity still going on, and I just think there were numbers of bass living in this one little area. A lot of male fish were protecting the fry, and the fish were just really active. I was catching about 20 fish per day, and even on a bad day, I’d catch 17-18 bass. I’d also get an awful lot of bites that I didn’t land. The bite was really strange. Sometimes the bass would just bite off a claw from the Rage Craw, and then on the very-next bite, a bass would swallow the Rage Craw deep in its mouth.

Question: On the third day of competition, what did you do Shaw?

Grigsby: I decided to run my route the way I had fished on the first day. I’d go to my big-fish spot first, and then I’d go to my numbers spot. When I reached my big-fish spot, the very-first bass I caught weighed 3 pounds. Now, a 3-pound bass on Lake Guntersville in Alabama wouldn’t even be a keeper. But a 3-pounder on the Mississippi River near Moline, Illinois, is a really-big fish. Although I kept working my big-fish spot for a while, I didn’t catch any more bass there.

I went to my numbers spot and caught little bass, little bass, little bass and then a keeper. I’d catch little one, little one, little one, little one, keeper. Next I’d catch a large numbers of short fish again, and then catch another keeper. Then I had four keepers in the boat. I had one keeper bass that really messed with my mind. This bass took my bait three-different times. I could watch the Rage Craw pincers paddling the water, and I could see the bass eat the bait. I was lifting the bait out of the water, just as the bass struck, so I dropped the bait, the bass took the bait, I tried to set the hook, and I missed it.

I flipped the Rage Craw back into the bush and started lifting the bait up through the bush, and the bass attacked again. So, I set the hook, and this time, when I got the bait back the hook had a scale on it. I said to myself, “Well, Shaw, that’s the last time that bass is going to take the bait.” But I still went ahead and made about six or eight pitches to that same spot, and sure enough, the bass took that bait again. This time I said, “Okay, big boy, I’ve got you this time.” And I spun the fish around, but I didn’t hook it. That was the last time I got that bass to bite, so I didn’t get my limit.

However, on the third day, fishing was tough for everybody. Even with only four fish weighing a total of more than 10 pounds, I moved up to fourth place going into the final day. I thought, “I could potentially catch a limit that would weigh 13 or 14 pounds and win this tournament.” I felt my best plan of attack was to go to my big-fish area first and then go to my numbers spot after I caught a big fish.

Next: If I Could’ve Made One More Cast

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