Slow and Steady: Keys to Winning Harris Chain Challenge Cup

Tournament bass fishing is all about patterns and if one pattern can be seen across the top six Championship qualifiers for the Jack Link's Major League Fishing 2016 Shell Rotella Challenge Cup, it’s that being methodical matters in Florida.

The finalists who will spend Championship Day on Lake Griffin in the Harris Chain include Shaw Grigsby, Bobby Lane, Gary Klein, Mark Davis, Mark Rose and Edwin Evers.

For the most part, this group of anglers who survived two other rounds of competition on Harris and Eustis to get to the Championship round are pickers and pokers – slow methodical fishermen, known for their ability to grind the most out of an area rather than running, gunning or junk-fishing their way across the lake at high speeds.

“I know people might say that Bobby and I made it because we are Floridians,” Grigsby said. “But if you look at the other finalists, you’ll see there are no fast fishermen here. You’ve got Gary and Mark (Davis); those guys are some of the best at really picking stuff apart; leaving no stone unturned and really getting the most from an area. Florida fishing kind of favors that style of angler.

“If Bobby and I have an advantage from fishing in Florida it’s if we get a bite doing something, we know how to go find more of it,” Grigsby pointed out.

Bobby Lane summed up the "Florida advantage" as having a certain inherent feel for what Florida-strain bass want out of a lure.

“Shaw and I probably know when to work lures just little bit slower, pause our retrieve just a little longer or the critical difference between a ¼-ounce weight versus a 3/8-ounce in terms of slowing a rate of fall,” Lane said. “All those little things could add up to an extra bite or two per period. In general, it does not hurt to slow down in Florida.”

Read the rest of “Slow and Steady: Keys to Winning Harris Chain Challenge Cup” at MajorLeagueFishing.com.