Westernbass Magazine - FREE Bass Fishing Tips And Techniques - Fall 2015, Page 77

Westernbass Magazine - FREE Bass Fishing Tips And Techniques - Fall 2015, Page 77

in the water and emulates the forage that the bass are up shallow feeding on.

Woods favors flipping to the thickest part of the cover with as light of a weight as possible. Using lighter weights for sinkers keeps a bait in the strike zone for a longer period of time.

All of the anglers prefer to add a punch skirt between the weight and the hook. A punch skirt has the advantage of a jig, but allows anglers to place a soft plastic lure, such as a D-Bomb or Beaver, in places where a jig may hang up in the cover.

A Texas-rigged soft plastic is less likely to get hung up because the hook is pointed into the bait which allows for a lower profile when going through grass or other shoreline vegetation.

“I like to spool my Daiwa Steez Flipping Stick paired with a Daiwa Zillion 9:1 reel with 70 pound Samurai braided line and go to work,” said Lain. “I typically use either a Missile Baits D-Bomb or a Reaction Innovation Beaver in some type of crawdad color such as reds, blacks and blues.”

Huckaby likes a smaller profile bait such as a Missile Baits D-Bomb rigged Texas-style with a light 3/16 or ¼ oz River2Sea Trash Bomb tungsten weight. He believes that the lighter weight can be the ticket to putting a limit of bass in the boat quickly flipping.

Woods likes use a 5 in Yamomoto Senko in color 301 tied on a Daiwa Tatula flipping stick with a high speed Daiwa Tatula 7:1 gear ratio reel. Using a high speed reel is necessary to flip a bait in one smooth,

FALL 2015

quick motion, by swinging the rod tip forward toward a target.

Woods uses a high speed Daiwa reel to pick up slack line as bass usually eats his Senko on the fall and heads toward deeper water. It is very important to let a bait fall vertically uninhibited by tight line so that a bass’ lateral line does not pick up an angler’s presence.

Flipping requires a very light setting on the spool tension control. so that a lure enters the water with very little resistance or noise. “Most bites occur immediately when a bait nears a target,” says Lain. “I like to lower my rod tip as the bait falls on slack line.” All of the anglers agree that getting bites flipping requires letting a bait fall on slack line and watching for light strikes or for a bass to swim off with a bait.

Flipping in the fall is very relevant. Anglers should target bass using small profile baits with lighter weights to elicit strikes from feeding bass. As the bait falls methodically through the water column, the action initially draws the attention of a feeding bass, and when presented the right way, a hungry bass will move in for the kill.

There is no question that flipping for fall bass works. As the weather starts to cool down, bass move into the shallows and become more active feeders. Flipping in the fall can lead to some amazing catches. Tight lines!

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