One of the best things I like about fishing is that sometimes it makes you look like an absolute genius.
I was fishing a local tournament the other day and my partner and I were stuck. We had no pattern, a few small keepers and really needed something to happen. We were trying the things that were supposed to work — spinnerbaits around grass, flipping laydowns — and while we had had some success, we just weren’t boating fish on a regular basis.
That’s when I cast back out into the middle of nothing.
It was a cast my partner called a “no-boater” cast — referring to the guy in the back of the boat who has fished all of his available prime water and begins making desperation casts.
Bam.
I pulled in a keeper. Not a lunker by any means, but it measured, none the less.
I tossed my Citruse Bomber 4A in a similar “middle of nothing” place.
Bam.
Another keeper.
My partner and I laughed, relieved to have a couple more fish in the boat. He cast out into the middle of nothing — wanting to capitalize on my “pattern.”
We caught more fish. It seems that the fish in this particular creek had all stuck to the bottom — most of them near some type of cover. I had been slowly dragging that 4A across 4 1/2 to five feet of water and letting it just dig along the bottom. It would wobble along, kicking up a dirt trail and hit everything it came across.
The 4A’s round lip kept it from getting hung up. The lip is designed to be highly deflective and it proved to be so that day. In fact, the bait I was throwing is the first and only 4A I’ve ever thrown. It’s beat up, but it catches fish. It’s the bait I’ll end up going into the water to retrieve someday.
As that 4A dug along the bottom, it would occasionally encounter a stump. I would hit the stump, back off a little and resume reeling. It was near the stumps I would get bit. The pattern was clear — the fish were holding near the stumps in five feet of water. And the Bomber 4A flushed them out.
The next day, my partner and I raced to the creek, 4A’s at the ready. We cranked along the bottom and searched for stumps. Sure enough, we caught fish. We flipped a little bit, but quickly lost interest when we knew what we had to do.
Find five feet of water with stumps. The 4A will do the rest.
* * *
I like flipping.
I like tossing a chunk of plastic into cover and waiting for the resulting “thump” of a fish as the bait sits there.
If you flip, you know there’s not always that “thump.” Sometimes you don’t feel anything. Sometimes it’s just a change in weight on the line. Maybe it feels a little sluggish. Sometimes the lines just ticks or moves slightly. Whatever the method relayed to you, the message is the same — you’ve got a fish messing with your bait.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the most attentive to my line when I’m flipping. There’s just so much to look at out there on the water. I need a fish to let me know he’s got the bait in his mouth.
Well, YUM really helped me out. The new Wooly Bug is a creature bait that not only gets bit, it gets thumped.
Every time I’ve thrown it, fish have hammered it. Not just a good, solid thump, but a thump accompanied by tugging. The kind of bite anybody could detect.
I flipped up into an exposed brushpile in 1 1/2 of water at one of the local lakes and got a “Thump... Thump... Pull” reaction. I set the hook and wrestled out a 20-inch bass.
I mentioned the violent reactions the Wooly Bug has produced for me to a couple of friends. Jimmy, who fishes the Tour, told me he’s had the same results. He said it’s as if the fish are trying to kill the bait when they pick it up. Another fishing friend echoed Jimmy’s thoughts.
I can tell you this — the Wooly Bug is making it easy for me. I can flip and daydream at the same time.
Now if I could just get paid to do that…
See you on the water...