GROVE, Okla. – The Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Southwestern Division event on Grand Lake worked out almost exactly like it is supposed to. Jigs and spinnerbaits put a ton of fish in the boat for the pros, and most anglers focused on prespawn and staging bass, with a few spawning fish entering the conversation.
Here’s a look at the Grand Lake standards that were most successful.
1. Nothing fancy for Martin
Earning the win, TJ Martin really dominated the event, getting out to a lead on Day 1, and never letting anyone else in the picture.
His most productive bait was a spinnerbait, a 3/4-ounce white War Eagle Spinnerbait with double willow blades (gold kicker and silver main) with a 3.8-inch Keitech Swing Impact Fat as a trailer. He also caught fish on a Gene Larew Biffle Bug (green pumpkin) on a 7/16-ounce Gene Larew Biffle Hardhead and a 5/16-ounce Jewel Finesse Jig with a Zoom UltraVibe Speed Craw (green pumpkin).
2. Jones finishes runner-up with a mix
Chris Jones is no stranger to success on Grand Lake, and this week, the veteran Oklahoma pro put all his skills to use. Cranking, throwing a spinnerbait and bed fishing produced all his fish.
His crankbait of choice was a Bomber Next Gen Deep Flat A, in muddy craw and mad craw, which he used mostly to catch keepers. His biggest fish came sight-fishing, and he used a white YUM Hammer Craw and a YUM Finesse Worm to trigger them. For his spinnerbait, he rolled with two different BOOYAH Covert models – both 1/2 ounce, one with a red kicker and one without. He used matching YUM Covert Trailers on both. For his spinnerbaits, he used a 6-foot, 10-inch, heavy Falcon Cara “Head Turner” and a 6-11, heavy “Eye Crosser” for his Hammer Craw. He used Sixgill reels and 20-pound Vicious Pro Elite fluorocarbon.
A big part of Jones’ success was getting on the leading edge of a bed fishing bite, which is how he caught most of his big fish. According to him, in the muddy water, plenty of fish were spawning, but the mid-lake fish only started to spawn right near the start of the event.
“They were really full-blown spawn in the muddy water, which is why you couldn’t catch them very good on a spinnerbait,” he said. “I didn’t see a bed until Tuesday afternoon at 4 o’clock. There was just a little bit of window, where the water was clear enough. Down about 2 miles, the water was clear, but it was 3 degrees colder.”
3. Lipless and a jig produce for Graeber
Fishing mid-lake, Steve Graeber did his damage with a jig and a lipless.
His best bait was a Strike King Bitsy Flip, in both 1/4 and 3/8, matched with a green pumpkin 3-inch Berkley PowerBait Chigger Craw. He also used a Strike King Red Eye Shad in red.
“I was targeting rip rap and steep banks toward the tail end of coves, and more shallow, tapering rocky, secondary points,” Graeber said. “If I wasn’t getting them on the jig, I was using a lipless. It was the first time I’d been on Grand Lake, it was all new to me.”
4. Spinnerbait-only approach works for Ross
Cody Ross improved his weights every day and eased up to fourth place by Day 3. To do it, the Texas pro relied entirely on a spinnerbait.
“I told my co-(angler) one of the days, I was like, ‘Man, I know I need to put it down and do something else,’” he said. “And then like five minutes later I caught a 3-pounder.”
Fishing docks some, but mostly rock, Ross used a 3/4-ounce Strike King Bottom Dweller, with one of the blades swapped out to a much larger willow. He trailered it with a Strike King Blade Minnow and 20-pound fluoro, and a Lew’s Speed Spool RX paired with a 7-3, medium heavy Lew’s Custom Lite jig rod was just what the doctor ordered.
5. Copeland sticks with a crankbait
To knock out a top five, Rodney Copeland didn’t need anything fancy, just a couple of red crankbaits and some banks with steep rock.
His best bait was a Bomber Next Gen Deep Flat A, in muddy craw and mad craw, which he alternated between. Notably, he tweaked some of his baits by adding a little lead wire to the front hook.
“A good friend of mine has been pretty successful with that Flat A, and I was in the boat with him one day and noticed that he had that lead wire on the front hook,” Copeland said. “He’s pretty good with the Flat A, so I said, ‘I need to try that.’ So, that’s something I do, not on all of them, but when I need the bait to go a little bite deeper. And, when you kill that bait, the float rate is a little bit slower. It probably stays in the strike zone a little bit longer.”
6. Rickman rallies on Day 3
The tallest angler in the Top 10 by a wide margin, Andrew Rickman moved up from 20th with the second-biggest bag of Day 3.
For Rickman, his key baits the first two days were a Zoom UltraVibe Speed Craw on a 1/2-ounce wobble head and a Rapala DT6. On the final day, he mixed in a 2.5-inch Rapala CrushCity Mooch Minnow on a 1/8-ounce head.
“Day 1, I was fishing shallower coves where I believe fish were going into coves to spawn – I was targeting rock between docks,” he said. “I ran that all of Day 1 and Day 2, I just fished around and never turned on my LiveScope either day.”
Things changed on the final day, however.
“I went back to my same areas, and there was zero fish, zero bait, so I left and started fishing all new water,” he said. “I finally found a cove with some baitfish, and I decided to turn on my LiveScope. I caught a couple on a crankbait, and when I saw a 5-pounder blow up on the shad, I knew I needed to figure out how to catch them on LiveScope. I caught a couple of schoolers on LiveScope, and after my three hours ended, I side-scanned coves until I found the right amount bait, and I caught two more. I was really happy about it, the fact that I figured them out on what I thought was the toughest day was really satisfying.”
7. Crankbait carries Cooper
Denton Cooper tallied up 20 pounds on Day 1, and followed it up with bags in the teens to hang in the Top 10 for the entire event.
His best bait was a Berkley Frittside 5, but by the end of Day 3, he’d broken the lips off his entire collection. He also used a Strike King 1.5, a 1/2-ounce shaky head with a black Zoom Trick Worm, and a 7/16-ounce finesse jig with a Zoom Super Chunk Jr. for a trailer.
“I stayed in Wolf Creek the first day,” Cooper said. “The next day, the wind blew right into it, so I had to scramble around a little bit. I was targeting 45-degree banks with timber and rock on it.”
8. Blade goes the distance for Apperson
One of two pros to weigh fish exclusively on a spinnerbait, Charlie Apperson joined Ross in the prestigious club.
His bait of choice was a homemade 1/2-ounce model, trailered with a 3.3-inch Keitech Swing Impact Fat.
“All 15 fish came off it – really, just slow rolling it around docks – behind them, beside them and the front of them,” Apperson said. “I fished from about Sailboat Bridge to Horse Creek, in the mid-lake in dirtier water. I couldn’t get bit in the cleaner water.”
9. Puckett makes it happen on shallow rock
Throwing a trio of time-tested baits, most of which you can’t buy, Larry Puckett got it done shallow all week.
His primary bait was a Strike King Diamond Shad, and he backed it up with an original Wiggle Wart in firetiger. He also used a 3/8-ounce Jewell Finesse Jig trailered with a Zoom UltraVibe Speed Craw.
“I was just fishing the flatter banks, with deeper water close by,” Puckett said. “I was just mixing those three baits up. If they were up against the rocks, the best bait I had was the Diamond Shad. I was fishing that Diamond Shad the way a lot of guys would throw a spinnerbait.”
10. Overton makes a key change on Day 3
Dust’n Overton could have let his tournament slip away on Day 3, when his spinnerbait bite died off entirely. But, he adapted and still made the Top 10.
“The first two days I was getting back behind the docks with the spinnerbait,” he said. “Day 3 at 11:45, I didn’t have any fish, I had to pivot, and I fished rocky points. Every fish I weighed on Days 1 and 2 was on the spinnerbait; on Day 3, every fish was on the RkCrawler. It was a hell of a pivot.”
His spinnerbait of choice was the classic BOOYAH Covert, in a 1/2-ounce, double Colorado model, that he trailered with a 3.8-inch Keitech Swing Impact Fat. When he cranked, he used a SPRO RkCrawler MD 55. He used Falcon rods across the board, and 16-pound Sunline Shooter for both techniques.