This was truly a hard "Day On The Water" to write up. I'm not saying the others were not, just this one was a little tougher. It wasn't tough do to Jeremy Grandstaff not catching fish (which he did in a BIG WAY), or even the Wind and Cold Weather. It was tough for the one fact, I had to really sit down and think through how to paint a picture and describe in words for all of you TFF'ers what I was really blessed to see and partake in this past weekend.
Most people see Jeremy Grandstaff as a Angler, heck that's the only place you really see his name most of the time. At the top of Leader Boards.
Jeremy not only is a angler, but a BIG Family man. He will be the first to tell you his (Mom,Debbie)(Dad,Aubrey)(Sister,Crystal) and 3 Nephews(Kyler,Brennan,Aiden)and (Brother-In Law,Jerry) are first and foremost in his life. You could tell that this weekend and see why, when they ALL showed up at Lake Conroe to show Support for there Son/Brother/Uncle/Brother-In-Law. They were there at every weigh-in he was at and both little one's where with him every step through the weigh-in line right up till he went on stage, and they were the first to greet him when he stepped off. Mom-Dad-and Sister sat back, showing support every way they could, from Crystal waiting in the parking lot on Day One with a weigh-in bag and a smile to Mom and Dad giving words of wisdom and encouragement for upcoming fishing.
Jeremy pulled up to my house Friday afternoon about 1PM, he was wearing a Dress Shirt, Pants the works. At first look I'm thinking what the heck, and I'm going to have to ride with him for for hours today. We spent the next few minutes loading up my tackle into my truck so we could head over to pick up his New ZX225 2009 Skeeter from Fun N Sun.
We get to his mom and dads hooked up the boat and headed out on a 4 hour trip to a Lake he has never fished or even seen. The next 4 hours flew by, from the minute the trip started I will admit I was in Shock and AWWW. This guy really knows his stuff and I learned more in that 4 hour period than I could have thought.
We arrive at Pappas On The Lake and get signed in, get our free rods and hats ( which is still in your boat Jeremy) and make our way to meet some other anglers. A few minutes later we see a couple of other TFF'ers Dax Davis and Oscar, Oscar, man I can't think of Oscar's last name I think it was Garcia or Garza.
We get checked in the Hotel and started getting Tackle ready, Jeremy starts doing map Study of the lake and picks out a few coves he want's to start at. We go to sleep and the Temp is 81 NO WIND........
.......As we make our way to the boat the next morning it's 53 degrees and WINDY. Jeremy suggest we trailer up far north and launch there. After a fast stop at a gas station we head to the ramp.
It's now a little after 7 and we launch, the place is packed and finding a spot was nearly impossible.
We launch and Jeremy start toward Peach Creek.
We arrive at the cove that had more stumps and stick ups than any place I have ever fished. This place was loaded with it and very tough to get into. My self and many other anglers would have passed it up and not even attempted to make my way into that mess. Not Jeremy, he took the 15 minutes each time to idle the 100 yards to fish where he thought the fish should be in there spawning stage.
The water temp was a little over 61 degrees and He tells me " I'm Going to Whack them in here" He starts off with a Green Pumpkin Super Hog rigged with a 3/8 Black Weight and 3/0 hook. He attacks a secondary point flipping to tree in 4-5 feet of water, the wind is pretty strong already( around 15-20 MPH) I ask if that's why he used the heavy weight, but he says he always does, fish in shallow water don't care about weight size he tells me.
After a missed strike he picks up a white frog and runs it around lay downs and stick up to no luck. Although he did get hung up in a Nice Tree Once.
He flips to a tree and WHACK sets the hook hard into a bass, he quickly pulls it to the boat and in a instant the fish's comes uncorked. "What in the heck just happened there", he states. He would miss one more fish before landing his first fish. At that point losing fish the way he did, would have messed up alot od anglers.
He starts trolling to a lay down and tells me there will be one under that.
His first fish of the day a (4.80 lb) bass on the Super Hog. Right where he should have been he laughs. Man that will get you warmed up he say's after taking off his jacket. Glad I got the first one out of the way. Oh yeah whats the record for "day On the Water" he ask. I tell Him Heavy Stringer is (15.01 lbs ) by Brady Winans and Big Bass is (5.14 lbs ) by T-Ross.
This is where it start getting crazy and Jeremy goes on a RAMPAGE.
He moves up a ditch he has found, now when I say ditch I used to think it needed to be a big difference in depth, well Jeremy proved other wise. He found a ditch that was 2.5 on the side and 3 to 3.5 in the middle, all the same loaded with timber. He focused on the lay downs on the outer edges and started going to work. He stuck fish #2 a (2.14 lb ) chunk followed up about 5 minutes later with #3 a (5.33 lb) chunk. A Limit he tells me...well a Limit in the Big Bass Tournament I tell him you need 2 more for your "Day On the Water" weight. In the Big Bass Tournament you were allowed to have 3 in the live well at a time.
Fish #3
So what does he do? moves over to the bank which was 62.5 degrees and spots a bed and makes a cast to it, He goes on point and sets the hook into a #4 a (2.13 lb)
bass and has to throw it back since it will not upgrade him. Jeremy moves up and down the bank spotting beds, but there were no fish on them. He still makes long cast to beds he can see hoping there's one on one of them. It's about 9:30 am and he now has moved back to where he caught the first three fish. He moves to a lay down and sticks a PIG..well that's what he thought.
It was a (3.13 lb ) Bass. that had him wrapped around tree's.
He has his limit for "Day On The Water" and with the winds now about 32 steady with 40-45 gust it's pretty tough to fish. Multiple times he was almost blown in and had to strap his rods down since there were starting to get lift to the edge of the boat.
He fishes till 12:15 and tells me we should get near weigh -in so he can start weighing in his three fish, after trying to run the lake he decides it safer the trailer back. We get to the ramp and there are 5 other boats trying to load up. I get in the truck back down and have to watch Jeremy, from the warm truck, get HAMMERED by waves rolling over the boat. It look nasty from the toasty dry truck. He finally had to get on the front of the boat strap it down and hand on. Yeah he got soaked, but I stayed dry...LOL
It;s now 12:25 and we have about a 25 minute drive to weigh in. Jeremy has three fish and there is the rest of the 12 O'Clock hour and the last two hours left for him.
We make it to Pappas and his Sister is on the parking lot with a bag, the whole way there we are watching out phones for updtaes and talking game plans. Does he weigh the big one and take the chance or the smaller one ( 4 pounder ) and got for the next hour.
He grabs the 4 pounder and gets to the scales with 2 minutes to spare in the 12-1 hour.
Well he's in line and with all the weights updates, he knows that 4 pounder will not get him money in the hour, he ask's if he has to weigh it in and the director says no if you didn't check it in. Jeremy decides to keep the 4 and release the 3.13 into the water. Oh well that's the risk you take.
He weigh's in the (5.33) in the 1-2 Hour
The (4.80) in the 2-3 hour.
None of which were enough to get a check. It took almost a 6 pound average to get a hourly check on Conroe.
It was still fun Beating Dax and Oscar...This is one of the funniest Videos EVER.
Jeremy's "Day On the Water" results Bass..........Weight #1............(4.80 lbs)*BBT Weight #2............(2.14 lbs) #3............(5.33 lbs)*BBT Weight #4............(2.13 lbs) #5............(3.13 lbs)
[color:#FF0000]After converting the weights.........(19.63 lbs) A NEW "DAY ON THE WATER" record.[/color] Fast run down of after Day One and Day Two. After the final weigh-in we go back to the hotel and get cleaned up to go eat dinner. We spend the next 2 hours talking about tackle and tricks on rigging some stuff. Jeremy shows me why I broke off two fish on "BPS XPS Floro" which I would not have been using is I would have had my LFT line with me.
He showed me how to test the line strength, and you would be shocked how well that test works. I can say I didn't break off any on Sunday.
We go eat that night with his entire family and have a great time, they are really down to earth and a very close family. Brennan and Klyer really love the uncle and want to be around him all the time, that doesn't bother Jeremy though.
Day 2 was very tough, water temp dropped 5-7 degrees over the evening and night weather dropped from 53 degrees Saturday Morning to 29 Degrees Sunday Morning. Fishing got tough as the number of fish caught went way down for everyone, but the lake was still kicking out BIG FISH. we ventured in to another spot of the lake that had thick stick ups and i stuck a nice fish. Jeremy spent most of the Day on Sunday trying to hunt for Big Fish, not really number. He thought he had on when a GIANT GRINNEL loaded up his rod in about 4 feet of water on Sunday.
What did I learn the past weekend.
1. Anglers put to much thought in to bait color. Jeremy sticks with one color pretty much and has had much success on it.
2. Angler over think there Tackle. Hooks, weight, Ect.
3. Proper Hook Set Tech.
4. How to test line strength.......Here's what you do. (1)Cut about a 3 foot piece off your reel of spool (2) Tie a over hand knot in the line, pull it tight (3) Wrap the line around your hands and or fingers, something that won't get you hurt so make a few wraps. (4) With a fast jerk, pull your hands apart and put fast pressure on the Line.
If it holds them the line and knot are very strong. He took my line I had used Saturday and snapped it 5 times in a row, I did it and snapped it 3 time in a row. I tried Jeremy's Line and nothing......well I got a cut on my pinkie but the line held true.
All of Jeremy's fish came on a Green Pumpkin Super Hog rigged with the 3/8 weight 3/0 hook. He doesn't dip the tail, or spray sents. He just fishes.
He did use a Spinner Bait, Beaver,Frog,Finness Worm. Jeremy, is was truly a great pleasure to get to learn from a Great Angler this weekend. You really supported your sponsors well, from taking the time in the parking lot talking about your boat and Fun-n-Sun with a spectator to talking fishing with a Jr Angler about what you where doing to catch fish. You have the uncanny ability to know and be very confident in your fishing abilities, but in NO WAY show off and or make it seem to others your Cocky or Big Headed. Thanks for taking the time to go fish the event and do this for the TFF'ers and "Day On the Water". Thanks for all the fishing lessons you help me with this weekend, and I know a few of those tips are going to really help me out and I will pass them along to everyone as well.
I want to thank Casey for giving me this opportunity. It was a great experience and a great venue with the BBT. Casey really does work hard at this and spent hours working on the videos and commentary. I truly enjoyed it. If you have not fished a BBT yet I recommend giving it a shot at the Slot Lake Shootout later this month.
I really look forward to reading a day on the water writeups, pics, videos. This is a cool thing you are doing, Casey. I have never met Jeremy but seems to be a very standup gentleman, and most importantly, a great family man. That is what it's all about! And a great stick doesn't hurt matters either.
Hopefully we'll see you guys at the BBT slot lake shootout on RR. Thanks for sharing.
This is a great write up Casey. I wish I could have made it down. Im glad someone unseated that Winans guy... Congrats to Jeremy on a good time on the first day. Unfortunate you did not get a check, but Im sure you had a good day in the boat with Casey. I always do!
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