DETROIT, Mich. (June 28, 2018) – FLW Tour pro Chad Grigsby of Maple Grove, Minnesota, crossed the stage with a limit of smallmouth bass weighing 25 pounds, 13 ounces – the largest limit ever weighed in his 15-year FLW Tour career – to lead Day One of the FLW Tournament at Lake St. Clair. The Minnesota pro now holds a 1-pound, 13-ounce lead over pro Darrel Robertson of Jay, Oklahoma, who caught five bass weighing 24 pounds even. The four-day event features a field of 180 anglers competing for top awards of up to $125,000 cash in the pro division and up to $25,000 cash in the co-angler division.
“I thought that I could go out and catch 23 pounds today, but you never really know,” said Grigsby, a four-time Forrest Wood Cup qualifier with one previous Tour-level win. “You can’t win the tournament on Day One, but I’m around a bunch of big fish and now I just have to figure out what they want to bite.”
Grigsby was fairly tight-lipped about his pattern, but said that he fished “deep” on a big main-lake area and caught fish on three different baits. He credited a bait change around 10 a.m. as being the key to his 25-pound limit.
“We were catching them, but we made an adjustment when the wind quit blowing around 10 (a.m.) and then we really started catching them,” Grigsby said. “It was a bait that I had never thrown in practice, but everything that I weighed in came on it.
“The area where I’m fishing is a big area, and it’s deep and has a lot of bait where I’m at,” Grigsby continued. “It seems to have all of the right ingredients. Tomorrow the wind is supposed to be blowing a little bit, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to catch them the way that I did today. Fishing changes every day, though, and you have to be able to change with it. I know the area where they’re at and I’m confident that I can catch them again.”
The top 10 pros after day one on Lake St. Clair are:
1st: Chad Grigsby, Maple Grove, Minn., five bass, 25-13
2nd: Darrel Robertson, Jay, Okla., five bass, 24-0
3rd: Ryan Chandler, Hebron, Ind., five bass, 23-10
4th: Scott Dobson, Clarkston, Mich., five bass, 23-7
5th: Dylan Hays, Sheridan, Ark., five bass, 23-6
6th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., five bass, 23-2
7th: Chris Johnston, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, five bass, 23-1
7th: Joey Cifuentes, Clinton, Ark., five bass, 22-11
9th: Justin Atkins, Florence, Ala., five bass, 22-6
10th: Russell Cecil, Willis, Texas, five bass, 22-2
Grigsby’s limit was anchored by a chunky 6-pound, 3-ounce, smallmouth that also earned the day's $500 Simms Big Bass award in the pro division. Overall there were 868 bass weighing 3,033 pounds, 7 ounces caught by 178 pros Thursday – by far the largest single-day catch for the FLW Tour pros in 2018. The catch included 165 five-bass limits.
Mark Myers of Cedar Falls, Iowa, leads the co-angler division with five bass weighing 23 pounds, 9 ounces, followed by Cody Kelley of Portage, Michigan, and Jason Williams of Mason, Michigan, who both weighed five bass totaling 22-3, and are tied for second place.
The top 10 co-anglers after day one on Lake St. Clair are:
1st: Mark Myers, Cedar Falls, Iowa, five bass, 23-9
2nd: Jason Williams, Mason, Mich., five bass, 22-3
2nd: Cody Kelley, Portage, Mich., five bass, 22-3
4th: Chad Smith, Minnetonka, Minn., five bass, 21-6
4th: Jamie Jacobus, Johnstown, Ohio, five bass, 21-2
6th: Kenneth Taylor, Shelby Township, Mich., five bass, 20-9
7th: Mike Emrich, Chatham, Ontario, Canada, five bass, 20-2
8th: Mark Goetsch, Gibralter, Mich., five bass, 19-12
9th: Don Smith, Brodhead, Ky., five bass, 19-10
10th: Craig Kopczyk, Ortonville, Mich., five bass, 19-7
Rob Bakeman of Rochester Hills, Michigan, earned $250 for the Simms Big Bass award in the co-angler division with a 5-pound, 6-ounce smallmouth.
Overall there were 779 bass weighing 2,415 pounds, 7 ounces caught by 174 co-anglers Thursday. The catch included 130 five-bass limits. https://www.bassresource.com