MY WORST DAY OF BASS FISHING
Learn More about Pros' Worst Days of Bass Fishing
 Editor's
Note: You're suppose to have fun when you fish for bass.
When you go bass fishing, you don't expect to find yourself
chained to a wall in a medieval dungeon to learn how
much torture you can endure. However, many anglers earn
their living professionally fishing for bass. Their
vocations and jobs mean they have to go to work when
they don't want to, fish in bad, nasty weather and endure
sickness, disaster and disappointment as parts of their
jobs, although most of us think of bass fishing as recreation.
You may think that you've had a bad day of fishing before
or fished in a really-bad bass tournament. But once
you read the experiences of some of America's best bass
fishermen and learn what's happened to them on their
worst days of fishing or during the worst tournaments
they've ever fished, your bad day of bass fishing may
not seem so bad.
Shaw Grigsby: Forty-seven-year-old Shaw Grigsby, Jr.,
of Gainesville,  Florida,
has earned over $1,250,000 on the BASS circuit. A 21-year
veteran of the tournament trails, Grigsby has proved
with his participation in 10 Bassmaster Classics that
he can produce bass year after year. "I was fishing
at Kentucky Lake, and I had a really good lead to win
the Angler-of-the-Year title on the BASS circuit,"
Grigsby says. "The first day of the tournament,
I didn't catch one fish. The second day of the tournament,
I caught one or two keepers, and the third day, I didn't
weigh in one fish. I fished too fast because I got behind
and tried to play catch-up. However, there was a great
bite going on, and plenty of anglers caught numbers
of bass by fishing slow with a suspending jerkbait.
That tournament was so heartbreaking because you only
have a couple of chances in your whole professional-fishing
career to win Angler of the Year, one of the most-prestigious,
career-building accomplishments that any angler can
achieve, and I totally blew it. Back then, 300 people
competed in each tournament to try to win Angler of
the Year, and I had my chance and blew it because I
fished  too
fast and was too slow to pick up on the pattern that
was producing the bass. I can't remember a day that
was as bad as any one of those three days, and I can't
remember a tournament that I performed in as poorly
as I did that one. Those three days and that tournament
were the most-miserable days of bass fishing I ever
had."
Davy Hite: The 1999 Bassmaster Classic winner Davy
Hite, of Prosperity, South Carolina, has earned close
to $925,000 on the BASS tournament circuit. The 39-year
old also has earned the Angler-of-the-Year title in
1997 and 2002. "Last year I was fishing in BASS's
first Elite 50 Tournament on Lake Dardanelle in Arkansas,"
Hite mentions. "Throughout my professional career,
I've never been more than one minute late to a weigh-in.
But at this tournament, I was fishing in a backwater
area where the water was really skinny. I got into the
region without any trouble, and I caught some good bass.
I'd allowed myself extra time to get back to the weigh-in,
just in case I had any trouble getting out of this place.
But on the way out, I ran aground. I got out of the
boat and walked circles around the boat to try to find
deeper water. I finally found deeper water, but it was
100-yards away. To get the boat out, my partner and
I would go to the back of the boat, lift it up and push
it.  When
we would push, the boat would only move about 6 inches.
Then we'd go to the front of the boat and rock the boat
back and forth to make a little hole under the boat
where water could get between the hull and the mud.
Next we'd move to the back of the boat again and push
the boat another 6 inches. We spent two hours picking
the boat up and pushing it to get it off the mud. By
the time we arrived at the weigh-in, we were two hours
late, and I was totally exhausted. I was so sore the
next morning that I could hardly fish, but we didn't
have a choice. If we hadn't pushed the boat out of the
mud, we would have had to spend the night in the boat
because we were so far away from the weigh-in that no
one would have known where to look for us. I can't remember
ever being more tired, more sore, more aggravated and
more upset during a day of fishing."
NEXT WEEK: THE WORST DAYS OF BASS FISHING OF OTHER
TOP PRO ANGLERS
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