Kyle Grover Wins FLW Wester Series Clear Lake
Kyle Grover's mind wasn't centered on fishing during the week leading up to the Clear Lake Western FLW Series. He'd spent the weekend before in Mountain Home, Ark., attending the funeral of his grandmother, Kathy Storie, who along with her husband John were among the co-founders of the Champion Boats brand. "I flew all morning on Sunday and then drove all afternoon and evening to get there," said Grover, who along with father Rick operates the massive Southern California boat dealership/tackle shop Anglers Marine. "I was thinking about my grandma the whole time when I was driving and a lot of the time when I was on the water."
The split focus certainly didn't hinder his performance on the famed NorCal hawg factory. After a mediocre opening day (16-13), he caught sacks weighing 23-14 and 26-02 for a 66-13 total that outdistanced runner-up Gary Collins by nearly nine pounds. The victory was easily the most significant of his career and netted him a prize package in excess of $80,000. He doesn't plan to use his winnings to bankroll a jump to the sport's next level anytime soon. "Maybe down the line, but I like having a family and working," he said. "I love my job - it pays my mortgage - and I love fishing out here in the West. I'd love to do it at some point, but right now I'm pretty happy." Following are some of the details of his Clear Lake program.
Dad Provided a Clue:
Grover experimented with several patterns and didn't encounter great success during his first day and a half of practice. It rained hard on the final pre-fish day and he met up with his father, also a competitor in the field, in a covered marina to re-tie baits and whatnot. Rick Grover mentioned to his son that he'd visited Henderson Point, one of the lake's best-known "community holes," and had caught eight fish in a half-hour, including a 4-pounder that jumped off.
When Kyle arrived at the point, he recalled a trip to the lake 6 or 7 years prior to deliver a boat that a customer had purchased. The customer was friends with longtime Clear Lake ace Sieg Taylor, and Taylor accompanied them for a quick excursion on the water to make sure everything on the boat was in order before Grover headed back to SoCal. "We went over to Henderson and (Taylor) showed me one little rock pinnacle that comes out a little farther than everything else, and that stuck in my mind," Grover said. He said, 'the next time you fish here, this is the spot.' "It's a place where they crush them in the fall on Huddlestons and 10XDs. I drove over the tip of itand marked a waypoint, and then on my first cast with a jig I caught a 3 1/2-pounder. It was the only cast I made in the whole area in practice and right after that I went in for the day."
Unrealized Potential:
Henderson Point drew a good-sized crowd on the opening morning of competition and Grover pulled out to flip some tules after catching a couple of keepers off the rock pinnacle. He returned at noon and added a pair of 3-pounders before departing again for a slough he wanted to try, but found inundated with boats. Having a late check-in time, he made one more visit to Henderson and boated a 3-pounder and a 4 to get him past the 16-pound mark. "That was kind of the turning point for me," he said. "Up until then I didn't fully realize that place's potential."
He had an early boat number for day 2 and caught a 7-pounder on his initial cast to the rocks. "Between me and my co-angler, we caught about 75 fish on the second day - we just absolutely throttled them. We'd catch four or five 2 1/2-pounders, and then one that was 3 or 4. I caught one that was close to 6 at about noon and I knew I'd made the cut, so I stopped fishing." The final day was more of the same - his first throw with the jig produced a 6-pounder with his dad watching from 20 yards away. He nailed a near-4-pounder on his following cast, then lost a bite on his third heave and the action petered out.
His big bites came from the rock pinnacle, but he knew that about 100 yards away there was a huge congregation of smaller fish. He cranked his way to it with a Norman DD22 and added a 3-pounder, a 3 3/4 and a 4. He had more than 20 pounds in the first 20 minutes of the day. Returning to the rocks and picking up the jig again, he caught a 6 3/4 and two more 4s. All of his weigh-in fish - far more weight than he needed to secure the victory - were in the box by 9:30. "A lot of guys fish there, but most of them pull up and fish a little section and then leave," he said. "And a lot of guys fish a big jig and they fish it fast. I was using a little 3/8-ounce jig with a 3-inch Chigger Craw. "Danny Sansom, the customer who bought the boat years ago, is a live-crawdad fisherman and those guys always said the big bass like the small crawdads - it might be something to do with not having to battle the big pinchers. They like the small green ones with the tiny pinchers, and having that setup made me fish really slow because it's so light."
Winning Gear:
Jig gear: 7'1" medium-heavy G. Loomis GLX 854 rod, Daiwa Tatula CT casting reel (7.1:1 ratio), 16-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, 3/8-ounce Phenix football-head jig (brown with a few strands of green-pumpkin in the skirt), 3" Berkley PowerBait Chigger Craw (green-pumpkin).
Cranking gear: 7'11" Powell Endurance Series heavy cranking rod, old-school Shimano Chronarch Super Free casting reel (5.3:1 ratio), Berkley Trilene Big Game monofilament line, Norman DD22 (chili bowl).
FLW Tour Western Series Clear Lake Winning Pattern BassFan 5/21/19 (John Johnson)
