By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor


Micah Frazier acquitted himself quite well in his debut on the Bassmaster Elite Series. He not only showed that he can compete on the circuit by notching a 12th-place finish at a brutally tough venue, but his conduct on the water also drew high praise from one of the most well-known veterans in the game.

"He was just awesome, man," Shaw Grigsby said of the 26-year-old Frazier, with whom he shared a small backwater cut for all 4 days of the recent event at the Sabine River. "He displayed the same type of attitude that was very prevalent back in the old days of Guido (Hibdon), Larry Nixon, Tommy Martin and those kind of guys. The best way I can describe it is he was really classy."

Grigsby had never met the 26-year-old Frazier, who moved over to the Elite Series this year after 4 seasons on the FLW Tour, prior to day 1 at the Sabine. In fact, he'd never even heard of him.

"You can tell the kid has a lot of class and had a really good upbringing," said Grigsby, who launched his pro career several years prior to Frazier's birth. "He just showed that the whole way through and you couldn't ask for a better guy. Looking ahead a few years, I think he's destined for good stuff and you're not going to be hearing bad things about him or anything like that. He's going to be a real credit to the sport."

Wouldn't Encroach

Grigsby, who finished 7th at the event, and Frazier were the first competitors to arrive at the cut on day 1. There were numerous other channels in the system that looked quite similar, but for reasons not fully explainable, none held the same quantity of keeper-length fish.

Winner Chris Lane spent significant time there, as did 3rd-place finisher Aaron Martens and 9th-place finisher Todd Faircloth.

Grigsby was already there when Frazier arrived on opening day, so the younger angler just took the opposite side of the channel and went to work. There was never a single encroachment issue.

"There were times when we were close enough to pitch into each other's boat," Grigsby said. "Sometimes he was ahead of me and sometimes he was behind. When he saw (a fish) swirl in front of me he didn't make a move, and when I saw one swirl behind him, I wasn't going to cast there."

By day 4, Grigsby had seen enough of Frazier's act that he could predict how the newcomer would handle a situation that obscured their respective boundaries.



B.A.S.S./Seigo Saito
Photo: B.A.S.S./Seigo Saito

Veteran Shaw Grigsby had high praise for Frazier's on-the-water conduct at the Sabine.

"There was a big mat of hyacinth that had drifted out over the ditch, and I even told my cameraman to watch what he does," Grigsby said. "He has to come toward my side to get around it, and when he gets to the point he's at my best spot on the whole deal, and I'm still back a hundred yards.

"He went three-quarters of the way out on the mat, and then he quit casting. He went around the point and then back down his side of the bank and never once made a cast on my side – he quit with a quarter of the mat still to go. It was just awesome."

More to Come?

Frazier's finish at the Sabine was his third-best in 26 tour-level events – he was 6th at Beaver Lake last year and was the runner-up at Lake Hartwell in 2012 on the FLW side. He's not going to put too much stock in one tournament, but he hopes to join the ever-growing list of former FLW competitors who've excelled on the Elite Series.

"A start like that definitely helps, but it's still way to early to bank on anything," he said. "If I have a bad tournament at the next one, the tables could turn in a hurry. I want to make the Angler of the Year Championship and the Classic and win the Rookie of the Year, but it's just way too soon to start thinking about any of that.

"There's a lot of unknowns when you switch to another trail, but I've seen the guys I'd fished against go out and do decent or even really good. I've fished a lot of tournaments and I wasn't really worried about the fishing part. I don't think it's too much different, to be honest."

Next up is Guntersville – a lake on which he has little experience even though it's only a few hours' drive from his home in Newnan, Ga.

"It's just far enough away that you really need to take a couple days to go over there, and I do so much traveling that when I'm home I just want to be home. I wish I'd gone there more often now.

"This is probably the best time of year for a guy like me to go, though, because you can catch them doing whatever you want right now. Even though I don't know that much about it, I'm really looking forward to it."

Notable

> Frazier made a quick scouting trip to the West Coast last fall to visit the two venues that follow Guntersville, spending 2 days at Lake Havasu and one long day at the California Delta. "I didn't fish at all, I just rode around," he said. "I just went to see them because those are the two where I'm going to have to just survive. I'm not saying I can't figure them out like anybody else, but right now I don't know how I'm going to catch them there."