Keri May, co-owner of BassResource.com, spent a day on the water with Shaw Grigsby posing questions that members from our forums submitted for Shaw to answer. Here is part 5 of a nine-part series where Shaw answers every single one of them! In this episode, Shaw shares his best moment on the water and his funniest moment off the water!
Keri: There are three parts to this question. What was your best moment on the water? Or if you have a few, could you go ahead and do share?
Shaw Grigsby: I have a lot. Probably one of them was, there have been so many, to break it down is hard, but probably the one I remember just happened a couple of years ago, and I was at Toho-Kissimmee chain and the first day of the tournament. I had a PAA event down there. I caught three little fish, and I'm struggling, three little 1-pounders, and I'm struggling, and I get hung up with throwing like a Rage Craw and a tungsten weight. I get hung up on a line that I didn't see. It's a braided line, like a shiner fisherman or something that cut his line, and I said my 20-pound mono is not going to beat 65-pound braided line, and I'm going to lose a $5 weight, and I didn't want to lose an expensive Tungsten weight.
I'm pretty cheap, so I dialed the trolling motor up fast and went up to get my weight off, and when I did that, I went over this little hole in the grass, and there was a big fish sitting down there. I looked at it and saw it move off and said, " Okay, it's about a 7-pounder. I said I could use that, and that was good. She hung long enough for me to think I might be able to catch that; it wasn't like she just blistered off the bed. So I wheeled around, got my bait off, re-tied, came back, set up, put the Power Pole down and my partner sitting in the boat said what are you doing? I said well, I'm fixing to catch a 7-pounder. He said great; he wanted to watch.
I throw it out there, and like my second cast, the first, I get bit, but he blows it out, the second cast, he bites it, pulls down, and I set the hook, and it's just a 3-1/2 pounder. I said well, that's the male, and it's a good one, and I needed him because that made four. I pitched back out there again, and I got hung. I pull, and I pull, and I'm going to break it off. Now I know she's there, and she's either going to run away, or she'll bite. It's going to be one of the two. So I pull hard enough, and it breaks free from the grass. I get it in, and I re-tie it. So cast number four, I get it in there, and I'm working it nice and slow.
So cast one, got a bite, missed it, cast two, I caught the male, cast three I got hung, cast four, I get in there, and something pops it, and I said, oh good, and she didn't hold onto it and blew it out, and so I set the hook on nothing, and I'm like this is cool. She's still there, she's aggressive, and I'm going to catch this 7-pounder. I pitch back in there again, and this time, she pulls it down, just tightens up, just feel a little tick, and then just tightens it up and goes. So I set the hook, and when I set the hook, it's pretty clear water in Toho, and this mouth opens up as she's coming up to jump, and a 7-pounder mouth is like that big.
Keri: Oh yeah.
Shaw: Just bigger than a softball, a little bigger than a softball. This mouth opened up, and you could have put a basketball in it. I said, " Oh my gosh, it's a giant, it's a giant!" And I just freaked. My partner looks at, and I got it on 20-pound mono, and I'm like, you are stupid. If I had any idea how big it was, I have thrown 65-pound braid. So anyway, she buries me in the grass, wraps me up, and pops free. I get her up close to the boat, I keep fighting her and holding her up, and she's digging around. We were able to use nets in the PAA event, so I got a hold of the net.
I borrowed one from Terry Segraves, and so I had a net in the boat. I grab it, get down there, and I'm holding the rod, holding the rod, and she's huge, and I keep trying to net her, and she won't go in the net. She fits all the way across the net, you can't get her in, and she falls out of the net, goes back in, dives down, and wraps me up again. And now I said what type of professional are you? Here he is, letting it wrap up again next to the boat after all the stress of the other ones. I'm like, this is terrible. I'm going to lose a giant.
Well, I get her back up again, and this time I've got this net that's not big enough. I get her up to the net again, and this time as she slides, just as she gets her head over the net, she's trying to dig back down, so I basically just dumped slack, and she swam in the bottom of the net, and I dropped my rod and reel and landed this thing. It turned out to be the biggest bass of my lifetime, 13.6.
Keri: Oh, man.
Shaw: So it was a really good fish. One of my most memorable moments was catching the biggest bass of my life in a tournament.
Keri: In a tournament, you bet. That's exciting, though.
Shaw: Every tournament win I've had, you can remember like I won one at Lake Seminole. I was fishing a bedding fish, and I knew I was winning it and getting close, and I knew what I needed to make sure I won it, and I'm fishing one. There's one on a bed that's probably 11 or 12 pounds, and another one that's 6 or 7 pounds, and the 11 or 12 wouldn't even consider it. I mean, she was a giant, but she wouldn't consider it. She was fresh coming in and wouldn't even look at baits. I kept moving back to her, and then I'd move up to 6 or 7 anyway.
I'm looking at my watch, and I've got like 5 minutes of fishing time left. She finally bites, I stick her, drag her up to the boat, throw her in the boat, and when I throw her in the boat, I looked, and I've got like a minute to go, and I've got to bounce out of this thing. I threw rods, tackle, threw everything in, and you knew you won. When it hit the boat's deck, and you got it in the boat, you're like, if I can make it in on time, I've won this tournament, $100,000. You remember every one of those moments. I've got 8 BASS wins. Every one of them, I have a special fish to remember and keep as a lifetime memento of a cool deal.
Keri: That's really cool. So what's your funniest moment on the water?
Shaw: On the water. I've got a pretty funny one at a sports show.
Keri: That'll work.
Shaw: Working the sports show, you're working booths and doing this and that, and anyway, I'm racing to the restroom and getting ready to come back out and do some seminars, so I took a pee, and as I come out of the bathroom a guy is standing there. You round the corner, and you make eye contact, and he's looking at you, and you're like, okay, he wants to say something, but I just kind of look away because I was just trying to get on back and get ready for the seminar and the place is packed.
This was in Timonium, Maryland, so it's like there were thousands, shoulder-to-shoulder, walking the deal. I keep walking like this, and suddenly, the guy is right here, and he was like, are you, Shaw Grigsby? And I went, yeah, and he said, "Oh my God, I was taking a piss next to Shaw Grigsby!!" I'm like, oh no; I'm crying. He was yelling it to this crowd with thousands of people, and everybody was cracking up; I took a piss next to Shaw Grigsby, and I'm like, okay, there were go, the highlight of his life. I've got a few of those that are just crazy.
Keri: That's terrific.
Shaw: How embarrassing is that? Anything else you want to tell me about?
