GROVE, Okla. – Day 1 of the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Southwestern Division event on Grand Lake is off and rolling, with typically dramatic Oklahoma weather. The high today is near 90, with gusts up to 30 mph. Then, for Day 2, the high is in the 60s, and Friday night will see a low in the 30s – easy, stable weather for the anglers to play with. Luckily, this spring the bass seem to be hungry on Grand, and practice reports are positive.
Prespawn showdown underway
Per River Lee, who won last year’s Southwestern Division event on Lake Eufaula, it’s a good time to be casting for bass on Grand Lake.
“It’s no problem getting bites, it’s just trying to find those bigger than average bites,” said the Texas pro. “It seems like it’s fishing well, especially looking at recent tournament weights. The fish are moving a lot right now, because of all the warm weather we’ve had, and then this cold front. It’s going to be an interesting week.”
Lee is seeing water temperatures in the 50s, and expects angler effort to be focused on prespawn fish.
“If we didn’t have these cold snaps, you’d have a lot of people catching bed fish,” he said. “I’ve actually seen some this week, but they’re very spooky, I don’t think it’s going to be the deal. For somebody like Todd Castledine, maybe; he may be getting old, but he can still see good, but not me. It’s going to be a true prespawn event, spinnerbait, crankbait, your typical Grand Lake stuff.”
The winner on Grand in April of ’24, Cole Breeden is thinking along the same lines. Close, but not quite spawning.
“They’re a lot further along than they usually are, I think it’s going to fish more like an April tournament than a March tournament,” he said. “They’re going to be up pretty shallow and ready to spawn, it’s going to be close.”
Multiple strategies in play
For his part, Lee expects a strong event just power fishing with moving baits, and the windy weather on tap should help him in that effort.
“This is a lake you could win it just fishing, I’m sure ‘Scope is going to factor like it always is; somebody may win using their three hours every day,” he said. “But, I wouldn’t be shocked if someone wins without even turning it on. You can definitely get by without it.”
On the other hand, Breeden thinks that precise approaches to staging fish could be a real key.
“I think the ‘Scope period is going to be very important,” said the Missouri angler. “I would think that pieces of cover or brush that they’re staging on will be a big deal.”
When Breeden won in ’24, he and many others in the field fished slowly with bottom baits, tempting fish that were almost on bed. He expects that approach to be key again.
“We’re going to have a lot of wind, so that should make a crankbait or spinnerbait bite good as well,” Breeden said. “But, guys in the Top 10 are going to catch them on a jig or a worm probably. A moving bait is going to play, but it’s setting up like they’d eat bottom baits more than moving baits. There will be guys with big bags on a spinnerbait and a crankbait, but I don’t think that will happen three days in a row.”
Follow along
Takeoff and weigh-in are free and open to the public daily at Wolf Creek Park at 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. CT. This event is hosted by the City of Grove and the Grove Convention and Tourism Bureau. You can follow along with all the coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.