DOTL: Chris Groh
Date: March 12, 2019
Venue: Lake G, a small flatland reservoir
Water: 52 degrees, stained
Weather: Party cloudy, high of 60 degrees
Pro: Chris Groh, 41, Spring Grove, Ill. A veteran tournament angler, Groh is fishing his second season (2019) on the Bassmaster Elite Series circuit after qualifying through the Bassmaster Northern Opens
Boat: Phoenix 20 PHX with a 250-horsepower Mercury outboard, Minn Kota trolling motor, Lowrance electronics and twin Power-Pole shallow-water anchors
hair, clipped Yankee accent and brusque manner, Chris Groh isn’t your typical “bubba” bass pro. “I’m the quintessential blue-collar Chain Rat,” he explains, referring to his membership in the fraternity of hardcore homeboys who fish the Fox Chain of Lakes on the Illinois/Wisconsin border. “That’s where I grew up and learned to fish. Pike, perch, walleye — I didn’t care; if it bit and pulled, I was happy.” But it was the chain’s hard-fighting smallmouth bass that impacted young Groh the hardest. Harboring a fantasy of one day winning the Bassmaster Classic, he wangled an after-school job at a local tackle shop and began fishing weekend and Wednesday night tournaments as a nonboater. By the time he could afford a rig of his own, Groh had become skilled enough at catching the chain’s hard-pressured
