Top 10 Baits from Grand Lake
What works when they’re just starting to move up
The consensus among anglers who contributed to the dock talk at Grand Lake for the Costa FLW Series event was that the bite is just about to fire up. A prolonged cold spell before the tournament delayed the prespawn-to-spawn transition, but a consistent warming trend and just enough sunshine during the event led to enough limits from the upper teens to the 20-pound range to hint at how good fishing will be on Grand in the next couple weeks as things return to normal. The fish want to push up, and the top finishers knew that and stayed on the front end of their transition. The baits they used should produce good results in the region in the days to come, so take a look, then stock up before you hit the water.
Christopher Jones’ winning pattern
1. Topping the field, Christopher Jones caught his fish on a 1/2-ounce chartreuse and white BOOYAH spinnerbait with a No. 5 gold Colorado blade and a 3 1/2-inch YUM Pulse Swimbait trailer. A YUM YUMbrella Flash Mob Jr. with Pulse Swimbaits worked for a few keepers around main-lake riprap.
2. Jeff Sprague claimed second place after fishing a prototype 3/8-ounce 6th Sense Jigsaw with a Gene Larew Hammer Craw trailer. He also used a 6th Sense Crush square-bill crankbait. On the final day, Sprague says the fish moved up, and conditions just felt right for a spinnerbait – chartreuse with double Colorado blades.
3. Third-Place pro Troy O’Rourke committed to cranking with a SPRO Fat Papa 55 in red craw and a Bill Lewis Echo 1.75 in a crawfish pattern.
4. Toby Hartsell, who led the first day and ended up in fourth, caught his fish on a 1/2-ounce Z-Man/Evergreen ChatterBait Jack Hammer with a Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper trailer and a homemade 5/16-ounce jig with a Reaction Innovations Smallie Beaver trailer.
5. Blaine Covington kept it simple. He threw a Lucky Craft SKT Mini MR square-bill crankbait in ghost minnow all week.
6. Sheldon Collings placed sixth after fishing a 1/2-ounce JaKKed Baits SKKaterbait (bladed jig) with a 4-inch Keitech swimbait trailer. He also fished a No. 5 Rapala Shad Rap.
7. Seventh-place pro Kevin Ledoux caught all of his fish on a 1/2-ounce white/chartreuse spinnerbait with double Colorado blades.
8. A 1/2-ounce Bass-X football jig in the Grand Lake special color with a Strike King Rage Craw trailer earned an eighth-place finish for Curt Warren.
9. Finishing ninth, Colby Miller used a 1-ounce chartreuse spinnerbait with double Colorado blades and a 7/16-ounce V&M Pacemaker Skipping Jig with a V&M J-Bug trailer.
10. Jeff Reynolds made the top 10 by fishing a 3/4-ounce black/chartreuse spinnerbait with a Strike King Menace Grub trailer.