Flip Riggin Right

Over the years, we’ve learned to visualize 
the potential of softbaits still in the bag. An experienced eye and probing finger take in texture, shape, and detail, as well as color. Converting potential to success, however, depends on rigging, the precise method of attaching a weight, hook, and other accessories.

With no presentation is that truer than flippin’, a method that can be the deadliest approach for big bass this month across the Southland. Farther north, anglers must wait their turn, but it’s no less essential from Massachusetts to Washington.

The right rigging for a situation enables an angler to place a lure where it can do the mos

t good, then hook any bass that strikes. You must be versatile and open-minded to get the most from flippin’, though. Some anglers have been put off by the heavy equipment involved in this technique, and admittedly it takes getting used to. But if you want big bass, listen up.

Heavy Flipping

Ever since Dee Thomas of California revealed his long-rod, short-line tactics around 1975, anglers have sought to master flippin’. Its allure lies in efficiency and power. Little time is wasted in casting or winding back a bait through dead water. Watching Tommy Biffle, Terry Scroggins, or other anglers who’ve mastered the technique is a tutorial in tackle and lure control.

A long stiff rod, heavy braided line, and a stout hook make for short battles, even with big bass. “Play with them after you get ‘em in the boat,” they always say.

For these reasons, most avid anglers who fish thick cover for bass use a flippin’ stick. But many continue to miss out on big flippin’ bites. And even the most proficient admit they’re always learning new learning wrinkles.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the California Delta, scene of Thomas’ flippin’ revelations nearly 35 years ago, hosted a tournament in the fall of 2009 that highlighted new rigging wrinkles in flippin’. The Delta offers hundreds of miles of winding channels connecting weedy lakes. Vegetation grows thickly, forming mats on top that appear impenetrable to the untrained eye. There, versatile California pro Charlie Weyer put on a flippin’ clinic to finish second with almost 75 pounds of bass caught over 4 days in the FLW Series event, just 9 ounces behind Rusty Salewske who also employed heavy flippin’ tactics.

From Jigs to Texas Rigs

Heavy jigs have long been used in Texas, from Falcon to Rayburn, to punch through canopies of hydrilla and milfoil that grow to the surface. But stringier weeds and matted algae tend to foul a jig as strands collect between line-tie and weedguard, requiring removal after almost every flip, countering efficiency. Especially since the development of tungsten, flippers have replaced jigs with softbaits rigged with heavy slip sinkers to more cleanly penetrate weed mats.

Sam Aversa of Penetrator Weights was apparently the first to exceed the 1-ounce mark with his weights. But sinker size has escalated as anglers seek to probe ever thicker mats. “Today I sell as many 1¾-ounce tungsten weights as I can inject,” Aversa says This process is technologically advanced, which compounds the high cost of tungsten itself. “Temperature in the furnace is almost 3,700°F,” he notes, “a far cry from molding lead. But the relative size of tungsten, little more than half that of lead, helps the get baits down to bass in thick cover.”

Aversa is an engineer by trade and studied the physics of sinkers while designing the barrel-shape of his Penetrators back in 2000. Prior to that development, he’d made lead weights to an ounce for flippin’ in Florida’s weedy jungles. “Rounded sides of the sinker seek the thinnest part of the mat and punch through,” he says. “We also apply a special slick coating to help the sinker slide through.”

Though not a tournament pro, Aversa is known as one of the ablest flippers around. In 2003, he demonstrated his heavyweight flippin’ approach to Weyer at Florida’s Harris Chain. “He showed me how to read vegetation and use the big weight to get lures into places few anglers can reach,” Weyer adds. “The Cal Delta was a natural for this technique.”

Heavy tungsten was one breakthrough and so called “punch skirts” have added another dimension to this presentation. Californian Bub Tosh of Paycheck Baits devised his Punch Skirt late in 2009 to add the flaring action that’s made jigs such a great option for big bass. “I wanted a hand-tied skirt that would flare like natural rubber when the bait hits bottom or is pulled over the top of the canopy,” he says. “The set-up that worked best was a hard round bead with the skirt tied around it. The big tungsten weight smashes into the bead and creates a clicking sound as the skirt pulsates.” Watch the action in a tank or swimming pool to get the full effect.

In his second-place finish on the Delta, Weyer made his own punch skirt from a jig skirt. “Remove the rubber ring from a skirt and tie 3 overhand knots with 65-pound braid, flipping the skirt over each time,” he instructs. “Slip the line through then tighten the skirt.” Gambler also has a new KO Skirt, designed with input from Chris Lane, a pro formerly living in Florida (since relocated to Guntersville, Alabama) and punchin’ master. Just a week or two after the Cal Delta tournament, Lane won a Stren Series event on his new home lake with a heavyweight flippin’ rig, including KO Skirts.

Can a skirt make much difference? “At the Delta, I‘d missed and lost bass on a plain Sweet Beaver on Day-2,” Weyer reported. “After comparing notes with a buddy, I added a punch skirt for Day-3 and put 22½ pounds in the boat by 9 a.m.”

In his victory at Guntersville, Lane matched the KO Skirt with Gambler’s Ugly Otter to crack big bags (20-8 and 24-15) on the first two days. A cold front on Day-3 turned the bass tentative, however. He switched to a compact B.B. Cricket and skipped the skirt to eke out the victory.

Rods and Reels: “Punchin’ mats” is no-nonsense, extra-heavy power fishing, so many experts leave standard 7½-foot flippin’ sticks at home. Weyer uses a 7-foot 10-inch Powell Rod model 7105. “It can handle those weights without tiring you out,” he notes, “but it’s not super stiff. It’s rated medium-heavy and has a softer tip to give the bait to the bass, so fish hold on until you can set.”

Texan Tim Reneau goes with the 7½-foot PT05-76 from Power Tackle. “You can heft a 10-pounder onto the deck,” he claims. Aversa uses a custom-made Revolution Rod that measures 7 foot 11 inches. “A well-balanced rod helps you swing a big sinker like a pendulum,” he says. “With practice, so you can be fast and accurate, and also save wear and tear on your elbow and arm.

“The key is to be in control of rod and line at all times. That’s what allows you to place the lure where you want it and know what’s going on down there.” In their Elite Tech Series, Fenwick, renowned for making the first flippin’ sticks, has added a 7-foot 11-inch Flippin’ Stik, rated for 3/8- to 1½-ounce and G. Loomis added a GLX model of the same length, rated fast action and for weights to 1¼ ounce.

Reels serve but to store line in flippin’, though one must adjust the length of line with changing depth and cover. Most anglers lock the drag and even the biggest bass are hoisted aboard or wrestled the to the top of the mat and lipped. Some favor powerful reels with low gear ratios, others faster models to quickly take up slack. Either style can work, once you build it into your flippin’ system.

Some veteran flippers like Florida pro Terry Scroggins favor a left-handed reel though he’s right-handed. “Bass typically hit as soon as the lure breaks through the mat,” he says. “Don’t be caught switching hands or you’ll miss a lot of fish.”

Line: Line selection is easy most of the time; choose among top-end braids testing 65- or 80-pound test. Favored brands include Spiderwire Ultracast and Code Red Braid, Stren Sonic Braid, Power Pro, Bass Pro Shops Magibraid, and Sufix Performance Fuse. In particularly clear water, heavy fluorocarbon at times gets the nod if bass are picky. Andre Moore, president of Reaction Innovations and creator of the Sweet Beaver, inks the last few rod lengths of his braid with a black permanent marker. “Black seems to blend better with the shadows below thick weed mats,” he says. “Braids lose color with use and at times that whitish appearance puts bass off.”

Hooks: While wide-gap, offset-shank hooks hold baits neatly, straight-shank models excel in thick cover. “That direct pull drives the point straight up and into a bass’ jaw,” notes veteran pro and flipping expert Gary Klein, who favors Gamakatsu’s Superline Flipping Hook, with a long

shank, needle point, and pair of barbs to secure baits.

Since Reaction Innovations released their BMF Hook, shorter shanked but of extra-heavy wire and with a massive gap, many anglers have turned to it in the thickest cover. Weyer matched a 4/0 BMF with a Sweet Beaver. “Eyes on those hooks are completely closed, unlike some brands,” he notes. “If there’s a slight opening, braided line slides into the space where sharp edges cut it with remarkable ease.” To complement his Punch Skirt, Tosh offers special hooks made by Gamakatsu Japan that have fully closed eyes, along with heat-shrink Barbs to hold softbaits on the hook.

Last summer, Lazer TroKar Hooks emerged, featuring a 3-sided point that’s sharpened with a new, patented Surgically Sharpened Technology. This series includes the TK130, a wide-gap flippin’ hook available in 4/0, 5/0, and 6/0.  You’ll find no gap here, either. To hold softbaits, a TroKar Barb with a plastic barb on each side is affixed to the shank below the eye. We filmed a TV show last summer with them—genuinely deadly.

The Knot: One critical key that’s often overlooked is the knot. The fact that a snelled hook performs better than one tied with a Palomar or other knot has been kept under wraps by professional anglers for years. I talked Alabama pro Kyle Mabrey into showing me this trick during a PRADCO editorial trip in 2006.

With line coiled around the hook’s throat  in a snell, a softbait turns upward to a nearly horizontal position when it’s snapped or drawn up against an object, such as the bottom of a weed mat. This posture emulates a crawfish crawling along the bottom side a grass mat, more realistic than the vertical position of a bait on a hook tied with a standard knot.

“In Florida’s thick matted grass, the snell makes a huge difference,” says Aversa. “In addition to improved lure action, hookups are better. A snelled straight-shank hook turns into the fish on the hook-set, so you don’t miss many. Also, that big weight smashes against a standard knot quickly damaging it. With a snell, the line is protected from the sinker, since it passes through the eye.”

On the Delta, Weyer often ties a double Palomar knot with four wraps around the eye. “That knot works fine around pennywort, elodea, and hyacinths that constitute thick cover in many spots,” he says. “But in Florida, where you find gnarly mixes of alligator weed, Kissimmee grass, and algae, I snell my hooks.”

To Peg or Not to Peg: Anglers, even top pros, tend to fall into either the pegging camp or the free-fall camp. When a weight’s pegged in place with a Tru-Tungsten Smart Peg, Top Brass Peg-It, or old-fashioned toothpick, the lure, weight, and skirt remain a package. Pegging is virtually mandatory in the thickest mats. Unpegged, a heavy weight may bust through, but leave the lure and hook on top of the grass.

Unpegged, however, a softbait falls at a far slower rate once the sinker breaks through and falls to the bottom. At times, this slow fall triggers more bites than a lure rocketing down through cover. Aversa emphasizes the need for versatility in one’s approach. “Don’t go out with a mindset on how you want to rig,” he says, “unless you know exactly where you want to fish and the precise cover conditions there.

“At times, a fast fall draws strikes best. This can even occur when

the water’s cold. Other times, the slow drift of an unpegged lure works much better. I often have one rod with a pegged weight and another riding free, and match my approach to the type of vegetation as well as depth.” Also, many areas that grow thick mats are mucky from years of dead vegetation falling to the bottom. A heavy sinker actually sinks out of sight in the ooze, even pulling a lure down with it. There you have to fish unpegged or else leave space between sinker and lure.

Mat Strategies

Flippin’s also a tried and true method for probing brush, made famous by Denny Brauer and Tommy Biffle in particular. Mat punchin’ is a variation used almost exclusively in thick vegetation or rafts of flotsam. Vegetation characteristics vary among regions, and rigging particulars as well.

From Texas to Florida, thick hydrilla often stymies anglers. It keeps

growing after it reaches the surface, creating mats that support sizeable waterfowl. But below, cavernous chambers exist, with plenty of room for bass to roam and feed. In clear waters like Lake Seminole on the Georgia-Florida border, mats occur over 15 to 18 feet of water. Once the sinker and lure fall through, free-spool the reel to get to the bottom where bass sometimes hold.

At other times, though, fish hold higher in the water column, sometimes close under the mat, or they may suspend between surface and bottom. When they hold below the mat, pull the bait back up and tweak it along the underside to draw strikes. For suspended fish, a free-fall is essential, even though it means temporarily losing touch with the lure. Know how long it should take to reach bottom. If the line’s still slack after that, set the hook!

Mats in Florida lakes are often shallow but extremely thick as vines mix with algae. At times, you must launch the big weight into the air to help it bust through. In a February tournament on Lake Seminole, Gary Klein found bass beneath mats of dead water hyacinth that had wind-rowed onto shallow

flats. The dead plants had turned black, but the dark pigment apparently absorbed the late-winter sunlight, creating a warm den for early prespawn bass.

Charlie Weyer

In Minnesota, I’ve rarely had to exceed 3/4-ounce to get a lure through weed clumps and 1/2-ounce is usually plenty. But even when they’re not needed, heavier sinkers sometimes get more bites when punched through heavy coontail or lily pad fields plugged with filamentous algae. The fast fall must be the trigger, along with an enticing crawbait.

At times, though, lighter sinkers perform better. As Aversa says, be versatile and ready to adapt. Note, too, that everywhere heavy flippin’ works best, bass tend to stack up. You may fish 100 yards of good-looking cover without a touch, but then get 3 or 4 bites back to back. For this reason, it’s critical to get another lure into the weed clump or mat as quickly as possible. Once a bass in thick cover bites, it seems to encourage feeding by others. And once the flurry stops, it’s hard to restart.

A Bit About Baits

While nearly any sizeable softbait can be flipped, crawbaits are the consensus choice for heavy flippin’. In Florida’s dense mats, anglers match a compact craw, such as Gambler’s B.B. Cricket, Mann’s HardNose Flippin’ Craw, or Zoom’s Ultravibe Speed Craw, with a giant sinker. They easily drop through a small hole in a mat and tempt even giant Florida fish. YUM’s new Big Show Craw, designed by Terry “Big Show” Scroggins fits this category as well.

Texas pro Kelly Jordan has won over half a million dollars flipping Lake Fork Tackle’s Craw Tube, a tubular, 4-inch craw infused with garlic. “It works anytime bass are shallow in thick cover,” he notes. Indeed, he’s used it to win top-level events as diverse as Okeechobee in January and the Potomac River in August. “I always have one tied on my flippin’ stick,” he concludes.

Berkley’s Chigger Craw is another popular option, as its wide claws flutter on the fall, in the style of the Paca Craw from Netbait and YUM’s Craw Papi. Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver has been a top choice from coast to coast, and the lure used on the Cal Delta to take first and second places last fall. “It’s slim enough but the ribbed body and flaps create vibration under water,” Aversa notes. In a fine twist of fate, Kim Bain-Moore, now married to Beaver inventor Andre, used that bait to qualify as the first woman to fish the Bassmaster Classic. Her flippin’mentor? None other than Dee Thomas.

Be versatile in bait selection, too. Punchin’ finesse worms sometimes proves best in tough conditions. And big 10-inch worms can turn the trick on outsize bass as well.

Charlie Weyer’s comments after the Cal Delta tournament set the stage for heavy flippin’ this season. “This was the most exciting time of my tournament career. Punching mats is the biggest adrenaline rush there is. It’s all right in your face. You set the hook on one fish and it comes flying out of the water. The next time you set, you can’t move the rod. I’m addicted to it.”