Pro angler Jason Christie lives about 45 minutes from Grand Lake in Oklahoma, site of the FLW Tour Major June 6-9. and he has had excellent success on the lake in the past. Most recently Christie finished 7^th in the 2013 Bassmaster Classic Feb. 22-24, weighing in 43.4 pounds to win $21,500.

But his history on the lake goes back a long way.

“I’ve spent a lot of time on the lake,” he said, “although I’ve not spent a lot of time recently on the lake other than the Classic earlier this year, and that was the last time I was on Grand Lake.”

That, he said, was the most time he had spent on Grand Lake in the last four or five years due to the constraints on his time, fishing both the FLW Tour Majors and the Bassmaster Elite Series. Over the years, however, he has fished a lot of tournaments on the lake.

“Back when I was fishing team tournaments Grand Lake had the most money to offer, so the was where I spent most of my time fishing.”

And, when he began fishing nationally organized tournament series, he forged a solid reputation on the lake, capturing 14 top 10s in BFL competition, including five first place finishes between 1999 and 2010.

In six years of fishing B.A.S.S. tournaments Christie has one win in Elite Series competition and two B.A.S.S. Open wins. In six years of fishing FLW competition, he has 10 top 10s in FLW Tour Majors, including two first place finishes, and one win in the Central EverStart Division.

“The only thing I have never done on Grand Lake this time of year, however, is fish a multi-day event. I’ve fished a lot of one-day events and done good, but never fished a 4-day event where you have to manage fish,” he said.

The FLW Tour Major next week should be a lot of fun to fish, he said, because the fish are in various stages.

“It sounds crazy, but there are some fish spawning. There will still be some fish out deep and there are going to be a lot of fish up shallow, so that’s going to open it up to where you can do whatever you want to do.”

Christie said he will use his three practice days next week basically fine-tuning his shallow water strategy and then looking for some deep fish.

“I’ll probably spend the first three-four or five hours each day trying to figure out how to catch them shallow and then later in the day try to find some places where the fish might be out deep,” he said. “I’m primarily a shallow-water fisherman, flipping and stuff like that, but I feel I am also pretty versatile. I’ve won tournaments the last three or four years doing just about everything,” he said.

“The lake is full of fish, one of the best in the country so it will be fun. Even though it is a big lake, it’s a deep lake so it’s going to fish small. You will see a lot of people fishing, but the good thing about it is there will still be a lot of fish.”

FLW Tour Major

Jun 6-9, 2013

Grand Lake

Wolf Creek Park

www.flwoutdoors.com