By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

A competitive career that spans more than three decades is bound to include some major letdowns. For Shaw Grigsby, the events that transpired during the second half of the 2015 Bassmaster Elite Series season – and particularly in the derby at the Chesapeake Bay – rank among the all-time downers.

The Florida veteran had a strong first half of the campaign, sitting at No. 6 in the Angler of the Year (AOY) race at the midpoint. The summer months were a different story altogether, though, as he failed to finish higher than 68th in any of the final four tournaments and ended up 54th in the points.

Missing the Angler of the Year Championship event (only the Top 50 at the end of the regular season qualified) ensured that he'd sit out the Bassmaster Classic for the third consecutive year.

"I had a good year going and I just couldn't follow through on it," he said. "That was probably the most disappointing (stretch) I've ever had.

"I made a lot of decisions that obviously weren't the right ones."

Chesapeake Spelled Doom

Grigsby, who'll turn 60 in May, began the season with a 7th-place showing at the always-tough Sabine River and added Top-25s at lakes Guntersville and Havasu to put himself among the AOY leaders with half of the schedule in the books. After that, there was a break of nearly a month leading into BASSFest at Kentucky Lake and he seemingly lost all of his momentum during the time off.

He followed up a 68th at BASSFest with a 76th at the St. Lawrence River – an event that he led after day 1. Those finishes combined to drop him to 23rd in the points, but he was still in good shape to make the AOY Championship with two regular-season tournaments remaining.

Then came a disastrous showing at the Chesapeake Bay, where he finished at the very bottom of the field (107th) for what he believes was the first time in his long tenure as a pro. That cost him another 22 places in the standings, and a 78th in the finale at Lake St. Clair pushed him out of the Top 50.

He knows where he went wrong at the Chesapeake – he tried to make a grass pattern work on the Susquehana Flats when he had a better option up the Susquehana River.

"I got it in my mind that I was going to tell the fish what to do, and that's always a bad thing," he said. "I kept telling myself that I had to stay in those grass beds and I just couldn't get anything going. That cost me huge – it was really the end of my season right there."

He zeroed on day 1, managing only a couple of non-keepers from the same grass bed that gave up a 12-pound stringer to Britt Myers and a couple of quality bites to Micah Frazier. On day 2, he weighed two fish that barely exceeded the keeper threshold to finish with a dismal 1-13 haul for the event.

"I'd spent a little time up the river (during practice) and caught a bunch of fish in skinny water just sight-fishing and skipping, but I didn't get on that in time. The point is there's things I'd liked to have done, but I just continued to stay out in the grass and struggle."

Always a Fresh Start

Grigsby said his poor finish to 2015 won't play on his psyche when the 2016 season gets under way at the St. Johns River in his home state in mid-March. He doesn't buy into the idea that an angler's results in one event – good or bad – have a big impact on subsequent tournaments.

"I just have to go out and do the best I can in every tournament and try not to have an epic fail like I did in Maryland," he said. "Sometimes you can sit back and you'll know where you made your mistake, and in that case it was me being hard-headed. You've got to let the fish tell you what they want and then go with that."

At this advanced juncture in his career, he said he does little thinking about the upcoming year's schedule during the off-season.

"In the old days I'd look at the schedule and say I liked this tournament or didn't like that one, but now I look at every lake as okay. I know I have the ability to catch fish at all of them – some I might miss the deal and be way off, and some I'll be on it and catch them, but I don't think about it.

"What it comes down to every year is I love competing on the Elite Series. It's just a lot of fun and I love every minute of it. When the (2016 season starts), I'll be excited for the new challenge."

Notable

> Grigsby has no regrets about his decision-making at the St. Lawrence, even though he weighed just two fish for 3-13 on day 2 after catching nearly 23 pounds the previous day. "I caught that giant stringer on six or seven casts, and then I left," he said. "When I came back the next day, I just couldn't catch any. I got enough bites to keep me in the area, but I lost them. It was one of those really difficult days, but in retrospect I would've done the same thing."