Fishing Firsts: Grigsby, Murray Pioneered Hooks, Baits
As much as they’re known for tournament success and catching fish, many of the 80 anglers fishing the MLF Bass Pro Tour should be equally lauded for their innovation: several of them have been highly successful at developing new ideas and trends along the way.
Shaw Grigsby and the Wide Gap Hook
Florida pro Shaw Grigsby can claim many firsts when it comes to his tournament fishing career, including being the first angler ever to claim a $100,000 top prize at a tournament. This occurred at the 1984 Redman All-American on the Kissimmee Chain, which served as the springboard start of Grigsby’s storied career.
But Grigsby has also been heavily involved in the development of products for his sponsors over the years.
One such product is the Eagle Claw HP hook that Grigsby helped to develop in the late 1980s. Grigsby worked with Tommy Clark, who had the original concept to produce a hook that both secured soft plastics better while also generating better hookups.
“It is called HP for ‘high-percentage,’ and we were initially using it for tube baits, but it works for all soft plastics,” shared Grigsby, who recounted the early days of hand-making the wire keeper and his wife Polly finishing the product by stapling together the packaging.
Grigsby stated that the hook was a huge success that, in his opinion, changed how hooks are perceived.
“After we released this hook, manufacturers started to change the bend of hooks and to develop new ways to keep baits secure,” Grigsby observed. “This was the start of the wide gap and extra-wide gap hooks that we all use today.”
Shaw’s Eagle Claw HP hook is still available to this day, and an updated version has been released. The Lazer TroKar Tournament Tube Hook features the same deep-belly design, along with a modern molded bait keeper.
John Murray and the $25 Popper
John Murray is widely known as the most dominant angler in West Coast history. He’s won fully-rigged bass boats on virtually every western fishery from New Mexico to Washington, and his total number of boats sits at an astounding 31. He’s also been an innovator when it comes to fishing techniques and lures.
Included in that was his help in bringing the first regularly available $25 lure to the American market in 1990. That’s still a large sum in today’s world, but it equates to nearly $50 after calculating for inflation.
Murray worked with Japanese professional angler Norio Tanabe to import the lures, and along with his business partner at Lobina Lures, they brought this high-dollar hard bait to the mainstream.
“There were some hand-carved crankbaits and things like that that were fetching higher prices, but (the Lobina baits) were available in many tackle shops,” Murray said. “They were the first baits that I remember being put in a glass case display case with the reels, just because they were so expensive.”
The lure that garnered that price tag is one that still has a loyal following today, the Lobina Lures Rico topwater popper, humorously named after the popular 1990 song “Rico Suave.” A later walking bait was aptly named the Suave.
But what made this lure so pricey? Murray said it came down to several design and manufacturing practices that nobody else was doing at the time.
“First, we added the best hooks you could find instead of the 10-cent specials that most hard baits were coming rigged with. The feathered trailers were hand-tied, and each lure was hand-painted in Japan,” he recalled. “They also have a nice spitting sound instead of just popping. Before that, guys were shaving down Pop-R’s to get this sound; the Rico was ready right out of the package.”
Murray’s help with the Lobina Lures Rico paved the way for higher-priced lure brands like Lucky Craft and Megabass and helped to whet our appetite for ultra-premium fishing lures.