Featured Tip

Lighten Up When You Flip

Any type of flipping is fun, whether it be laydowns, brush or boat docks. It’s all a thrill. But sometimes you can get better results from putting down your flipping stick and picking up your spinning outfit. Spinning rods are something that most anglers don’t like to use. The lighter line and rod scares them. Don’t be afraid of that. Spinning tackle accounts for more fish on the professional bass tour than one would think. B.A.S.S. pro Mark Menendez told me he attributes at least 30 percent of his catches on the tour to spinning gear.

On a trip to the Ohio River with him, I got a lesson in light-tackle flipping. We were targeting largemouths on isolated cover where there was a current break. This is a natural place where bass can get out of the current and ambush prey. Naturally, I grabbed my flipping stick spooled with 20-pound Silver Thread and started fishing. He looked at me funny and said, "Are you ready to get schooled?"

He reached into his rod box and pulled out a Pflueger spinning outfit rigged with a 1/8-ounce Excalibur tungsten Tg3 weight and a 4-inch YUM Rib Worm. I figured I wanted to go for bigger fish, so my bait of choice was a Junebug YUM Wooly Hawgtail. Six Menendez fish later, I decided to change. Bigger baits do catch bigger fish sometimes. Not that day.

I grabbed one of his spinning rods and was able to hold my own the rest of the trip. Finesse flipping can be used all over the country if the angler is willing to give it a try. The key is not to horse the fish out. It does require a little more skill, but it can be done.

Bass find this technique irresistible because a slow falling, thin-profile bait sometimes is just more appealing than a bigger, bulkier bait. This kind of fishing requires 8- to 10-pound Silver Thread line.

Most fishermen think spinning tackle is for crappie and bluegill. But open your mind to this technique, and you’ll catch fish on light tackle where others have failed.

Luke Estel is an Illinois member of the YUM Pro Staff.