Chris Johnston 6th, Cory Johnston 29th,
Gustafson 63rd & Richardson 142th
by Sean Ostruszka
FLW PRESS RELEASE
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| 32 limits over 20lbs but Grigsby's the heaviest! (Photo: FLW) |
Catching 20 pounds in a
tournament is a great day for most any lake in the country. Lake St. Clair,
however, is showing it’s not like most any other lake.
While pros knew St. Clair was
going to put out some big limits of smallmouth bass at FLW Tour stop No. 7,
which is presented by Mercury, few predicted that the pro field would catch 32
limits of more than 20 pounds on day one. Plus, co-anglers added seven more
20-pound-plus bags. Heck, Larry Nixon – the winner the last time the Tour
stopped here – caught 18 pounds and sits in 79th.
While seemingly everyone caught
plenty of big bronzebacks, no one did it better on day one than Chad Grigsby.
The Maple Grove, Minn., pro’s 25-pound, 13-ounce bag was anchored by a 6-3
kicker, giving him a 1-13 lead over second-place pro Darrel Robertson.
Yet, as great as his day ended
up, it certainly didn’t start that way.
“I really didn’t catch them well
until 10 a.m.,” Grigsby says. “That’s when the clouds left and the lake slicked
off. I made a little adjustment to a different bait. I hadn’t thrown it at all,
even in practice, but almost immediately we started catching them.”
TOP 10 BELOW
Even then, the bites were
sporadic; every 20 to 30 minutes, according to Grigsby, as most of the fish are
just “rogues” roaming through his area on the Canadian side of St. Clair. Every
so often, he or his co-angler, Jason Williams (second place, 22-3), would hook
one and see a few more following it, allowing the other angler to pitch out and
hook into a double.
As for the bait and the area,
Grigsby is understandably tight-lipped about both, simply saying he’s got his
area to himself for the most part and that “it has all the right ingredients.”
Of course, he would know those
ingredients. While he currently chases smallmouths back home in Minnesota,
Grigsby actually grew up in Michigan and spent the first 25-plus years of his
life fishing St. Clair.
“I haven’t been on this lake in
eight or 10 years, but I know the lake well,” Grigsby says. “It’s fishing
better now than it ever did all those years when I lived in the state.”
Grigsby hopes his special lure
continues producing tomorrow, but if the wind picks up as it’s supposed to he
says he’ll just have to adapt.
“I know the area where the right
fish are,” Grigsby says. “That’s the key, because if the conditions or the fish
change, I can just change with them.”
TOP 10 PROS
1. Chad Grigsby – Maple Grove,
Minn. – 25-13
(5)
2. Darrel Robertson – Jay, Okla.
– 24-0
(5)
3. Ryan Chandler – Hebron, Ind. –
23-10
(5)
4. Scott Dobson – Clarkston,
Mich. – 23-7
(5)
5. Dylan Hays – Sheridan, Ark. –
23-6
(5)
6. Bryan Thrift – Shelby, N.C. – 23-2
(5)
7. Chris Johnston – Peterborough,
Ontario – 23-1
(5)
8. Joey Cifuentes – Clinton, Ark.
– 22-11
(5)
9. Justin Atkins – Florence, Ala.
– 22-6
(5)
10. Russell Cecil – Willis, Texas
– 22-2
(5)
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