Three FLW rookies emerge at Champlain

Newby, Auten and Grigsby displayed mettle on Lake Champlain

Bass-fishing fans following the recent Forrest Wood Open on Lake Champlain might have been surprised by the headlines during the event. Chad Grigsby, Todd Auten and Sam Newby – all FLW Tour rookies – took turns in the event’s driver’s seat until the last day, when Newby took home the title.

With a top-20 roster that included names like Rick Clunn, Jay Yelas, Alton Jones and Tommy Biffle, who are Chad Grigsby, Todd Auten and Sam Newby? Here is a look at the three FLW Tour rookies.

Chad Grigsby

“The first thing I want to clear up is that Shaw Grigsby (well-known Florida bass pro) is not my dad,” exclaims Chad Grigsby, who might have missed his calling as a stand-up comic.

“But considering my awesome fishing skills, I am sure we are related somehow,” says Grigsby without cracking a smile.

And just when you think the 29-year-old might be serious about his claim, he cracks up, “I am kidding, of course.”

Grigsby is quick with the bass-fishing jokes.

“But I do live about 30 minutes from Kevin VanDam.” says the Colon, Mich., native. “I mean, come on, that alone says something about my fishing talent, doesn’t it?”

“The first vehicle I bought was a bass boat,” he continues. “I saved my money like crazy, and when I turned 15, I bought one. I got home, and I was like, `Wow, my own bass boat. Now, if I just had a way to get it to the lake.'”

In all seriousness, Grigsby is trying to start a professional angling career, and his keen sense of humor keeps him from getting too wrapped up in himself.

“I came out here to do what I love to do and have fun doing it,” he says.

Before rods and reels came calling, Grigsby was a car salesman for a Chevrolet dealership.

“I tried to work and fish, but I got fired for fishing too much,” he admits. “Oh well, fishing is a lot more fun.”

Grigsby had an agonizing wait on the FLW Tour waiting list for each event this year. Aside from Okeechobee, he traveled to all of the events and practiced with mere hopes of getting in. His first break came at Beaver Lake where he finished 24th.

He got in the Old Hickory tournament and found himself in third place after the second day. He finished in 19th place after a disappointing third day.

Grigsby was also a victim of what he calls the “third-day jinx” at Champlain. He led the tournament after two days but fell to 20th on day three.

“I am still learning how to adapt to changing conditions,” says Grigsby. “Big weather changes at Old Hickory and Champlain killed me on the third day.”

At Champlain Grigsby committed to largemouth by flipping a blue Hawg Hauler jig on fry pods in 4 to 5 feet of water. He brought in successive limits of 19 pounds, 14 ounces and 15 pounds, 6 ounces.

On day three, horrendous winds blew onto his primary bank, muddying the water. But Grigsby stayed committed to his largemouth while others made the cut with Champlain’s prolific smallmouth. He ended with one largemouth weighing 4 pounds, 4 ounces.

When asked about the level of discipline it took to keep fishing for largemouth when 12 1/2 pounds of smallmouth would have put him in the top 10, he replies, “Discipline is too sophisticated of a word; I think stupidity would be more fitting.”

Todd Auten

South Carolina bass pro Todd Auten made his FLW debut at Champlain; he led the event after the third day. Though Champlain was his first FLW event, Auten is no stranger to the stringent competition on the professional level. He has competed on the B.A.S.S. Tour for three years.

Unlike Grigsby, the 36-year-old Auten has managed to keep his day job throughout his fishing exploits. Auten is a mechanic for a Chevrolet dealership in South Carolina.

“If I had won Champlain, I might have thrown in the towel at work,” says the modest pro, who ended up fifth. “I have been considering fishing full time, and winning Champlain would have made that possible.”

Auten fished his first bass tournament when he was 15.

“I had to get my parents to sign the entry because I was too young,” he adds.

Since then, Auten has fished his way up through the bass club ranks in the B.A.S.S. Federation. Auten’s friend and neighbor, FLW Tour pro Chris Baumgardner, inspired Auten to give the pro ranks a try. He fished the Bass Invitationals in 1999 and made the BassMaster Classic.

“Even though I had made the Classic, I still did not feel I was at the level I needed to be to compete on the pro tour,” Auten says. “But the Classic was my ticket into the B.A.S.S. Top 150 Tour; it was one of those now-or-never deals.”

At Lake Champlain Auten relied on a Zoom Fluke for a majority of his fishing. He was targeting bays and pockets with a particular mixture of sand and rock. Auten says he was throwing the Fluke out into the middle of the bays in 5 to 6 feet of water.

“A lot of guys were running the banks looking for sight-fish,” says Auten. “I would put my boat in the same places, but instead of targeting the shoreline, I would throw out the other side of the boat into open water.”

Auten says he was not sight-fishing in terms of catching visible fish, he was sight-fishing in a sense that he was throwing to color changes and irregularities in the bottom.

“I would throw to dark spots or light spots, but I was not targeting specific fish that I could see.”

His fished the Fluke on a spinning rod with 10-pound test line. The Fluke colors were white under cloudy skies and watermelon under clear skies.

Sam Newby

Sam Newby turned full-time professional angler after winning an EverStart on Fort Gibson in 2000. He qualified for the FLW Tour that year but did not have the money to fish the entire tour, so he passed up the opportunity.

In 2001 Newby finished seventh in the EverStart points and decided he “was not getting any younger.” With that in mind, the 39-year-old angler put up the deposits for the entire 2002 season, with no guarantee of from where his entry balances were going to come.

Newby started the season with a bang at Okeechobee finishing ninth. The finish provided him the money and confidence to continue competing throughout the season. Newby threatened the FLW Angler-of-the-Year title all season. After Beaver Lake he was leading the AOY race.

A disastrous finish at Old Hickory demolished Newby’s AOY hopes. When the AOY race ended at Champlain, he finished fifth and was the leading money-winner on the FLW Tour this season with $234,750.

Newby hails from Oklahoma, and, like his fellow Okies Tommy Biffle and Jim Carnell, he likes to flip and pitch around willow trees.

“We all come from an area where bass live around willows most of the year,” says Newby. “The Arkansas River, Eufaula, Grand Lake, Ft. Gibson – all of those places are great willow-flipping lakes.”

In fact, flipping willows was a primary part of Newby’s largemouth game plan at Champlain. Since Champlain was unusually high, the water had flooded stands of willows along the lake.

“I was fishing Champlain just like I fish Lake Eufaula back home in Oklahoma – pitching a jig on willow bushes. And when the sun would come out, it would position the fish in those bushes even better.”

Newby pitched an Ozark Mountains Fishing Lures jig (1/2-ounce, black-blue) teamed with a Gene Larew salt craw on 25-pound test.

“I practiced for nine days and concentrated mostly on largemouth,” he says. “As the water came up, the fish moved from the pencil reeds into the cattails and then from the cattails into the bushes.”

All three of these FLW rookie anglers are already licking their proverbial chops in anticipation of the 2003 FLW Tour. The three anglers say they plan to fish the entire circuit next season.