Hog hunting -- heavy duty flipping

Up until more recently, a topwater frog would be my go-to bait when fishing shallow vegetation like lily pads, coontail, maiden cane, milfoil, duckweed, etc.

While a frog is great for getting a strike from an aggressive bass in shallow water, little did I know I was pulling my frog right over the top of wary and giant bass that just didn't want to come to the surface for a frog.  Perhaps they've seen it before, perhaps they are just in a bad mood.  Who knows.

What I do know is that a few years ago when my fishing buddy Marty Sexton pulled out a 1oz tungsten weight pegged on 65lb braided line with a beaver-style plastic, he started yanking giant fish right out from under where my frog had just been -- over and over.  How could this be?  I had confidence in my frog that if I brought it near a bass it would eat.  I started to question what I thought I knew about fishing shallow weeds and have since learned a lot and refined what rods I keep tied up for attacking the slop.

While I used to keep only 1 flipping stick in the boat, I now keep 5+ rods over 7 feet ready to go: a frog rod, a heavy swim jig rod, a heavy flipping rod, and a horny toad rod.  The rest of my big-rod setups are for swimbaits and fishing deep.

I've since learned quite a bit about heavy flipping through trial and error and time on the water, and through asking my buddy Marty a million questions about the specifics he learned while flipping in Florida and southern states often with various BASS Elite pros and local guides.

Here's a few dandies that have been landed in my boat flipping heavy jigs in thick vegetation

 Ben Feldman with a tank

 Myself with a 5.5lb big bass of the tournament

After a few years of trials and tweaks, this is my favorite heavy flipping rig right now and some notes about why:

Rod
Old-school green Daiwa 7'6" Heavy power moderate action with an extra long rod butt.

I've tested a bunch of different flipping rods and this style flipping rod is by far my favorite for flipping a big jig or tungsten weight from 1/2oz to 1.5oz.  The moderate taper helps absorb the shock of braid.  The slower-action taper also helps me really load the rod and pull very hard while absorbing head shakes.  The longer rod butt increases leverage significantly, allowing me to pull harder than with a shorter rod butt.  To me, these are the most important attributes in a flipping rod.

Line
65lb braid like Power Pro or 60lb Sunline FX2 are lines I like.

Rubber stopper
I don't like the generic yellow/red/black weight stoppers.  My favorite stopper is the little tacky cone-shaped stoppers made by Paycheck Baits.  I have noticed that the cone shape avoids slime and snagging up on limp vegetation.  The standard barrel-shaped stoppers seem just a tad more snaggy and cause more fouled lures.  Barrel-shaped stoppers still perform well in most circumstances.

Hook
I recently switched from an EWG hook to a VMC heavy flipping hook with the molded bait guard on the shank of the hook.  I tie a snell knot to the shank of the hook, being certain to thread the line through the hook-point side of the eyelet.  Do it wrong and the hook leverages away from the fish!  Do it right and when you set the hook your hook point swings up.  The result is an awesome hook-up ratio.

Also, this style hook results in a more-weedless presentation than an EWG hook.  The bait-holding knuckle by the eyelet of an EWG hook can get held up on vegetation while a straight-shank flipping hook makes a perfect wedge shape with the soft plastic causing less snags.

Plastic
I like a beaver style bait and there are a ton of companies making them.  I prefer Netbait's for the slightly thicker midsection vs Reaction Innovations sweet beaver.  I like the Missile Baits D-Bomb too.

Jig alternative
If I use a jig, I prefer Dirty Jigs no-jack.  It's got a nice shape, an awesome hook, and they stand up.  Oldham's are nice too.  I haven't used many others that I like.

Colors
For clear water I really like Okeechobee craw.  It's green pumpkin on one side and sparkle blue on the other side.  Looks like a bluegill!  Straight green pumpkin and spayed grass are my next favorites for clear water.  In dirty or stained water I really like black with blue fleck or black with red fleck because it gives a better silhouette.

Team Tournament Culling Tips

After fishing tournaments for 15 years, I've seen everything when it comes to culling; from throwing all fish in a net in the bottom of the boat to "eyeball" 'em, to high-tech digital scales that store and add up weights for you automatically... until the batteries run out.  Even the smallest culling mistake could cost you hundreds of dollars or more in a tournament.  Speeding up your tournament culling means more fish in the boat (presuming having your line in the water more=more fish).  It also can make for healthier fish at the weigh-in.  Less stress from having to be re-weighed, balance-beamed, etc means healthier and more lively fish to be released later.

Here's a few things I am doing this year to help speed up culling, improve the health of my fish, and spend more time with my line (and my partner's line) in the water:


1)  Weigh and tag all fish under 3lbs as they come in the boat.  Do not wait for a limit.
2)  Use the two sides of the livewell to categorize the fish:
        a. Passenger-side livewell for fish you want to cull.
        b. Driver-side livewell for lunkers.
3)  Log fish weights by number or color for quick reference.  Options:
        a.  Digital scale can store weights (don't even think about using this option if you can't keep extra AA batteries in the boat!)
        b. Write the weights down with a grease pencil or on a pad of paper that you can keep out of the elements.
        c.  Ardent cull tags are OK, but you have review ALL of them at once to make sure you have the smallest fish to cull.  There’s more room for error using this method and I don’t like it…
4)  Don’t weigh or tag fish that look to be over ~4lbs.  Get the fish in the livewell as soon as possible!  Cull out the smallest fish after the upgrade fish is safe in the livewell.
5)  If 2 fish are within an ounce of each other or otherwise pretty close, use a balance beam to ensure you are throwing back the smallest fish without a doubt.

To me, its way faster to find the "red" tagged fish than to hunt around the livewell for "tag #2".  Again the Ardent cull tags require that you first check each one in the livewell before culling, all while hoping none have been bumped and changed lbs/oz.  It opens up a level of error I am uncomfortable with.

I am convinced that the best solution is to tag fish by color and to keep a little plastic chart with a grease pen in the boat to record weights.  Recording the weights by color allows you to instantly know which fish to throw back before even opening the livewell, significantly speeding up the process.

Have any other tips or advice?  Post below!

Rockin' Bass

A 21" 5.01lb bass off a deep rock pile in the Twin Cities metro area

Summer is here!  That means the deep bass are getting fired up right now.

There's nothing better than bombing a cast as far as you can up over a rocky hump and getting bit near the end of your cast.  Your rod loads up often from getting snagged in the rocky bottom.  Its often easy to mistake a bite for being snagged on the bottom, so you have to really focus on movements in the line and rodtip, keeping a sensitive feel for the 'bite'.  As I always say, hooksets are free, so even if I'm not 100% sure that the negative feedback in my rod is a rock or fish, I'll often give it a hookset for good measure.   Half the time its a rock.  The other half the time you think its a rock, but then the rock starts to move... and off in the distance you see a giant bass come to the surface to do backflip, only to head back to the depths to try and get away.  Fish on!!

Its a sight you have to see.  Or even better yet, experience for yourself.

Here's what I look for when targeting the monsters of the deep:

Rocks.

Yup, that's about it.  Find rocks on points, humps, saddles, weed edges, or even in the middle of nowhere.  To do this you need a good map and a good depth finder.  A GPS is a great tool to have as well.

Idle your boat over these spots slowly while watching your graph.  If rocks are there it's usually quite obvious.  The bottom of the lake will appear different than over a sandy or muddy area.  The bottom should appear jagged, with thick solid readings on the display and almost no weeds in sight.  If you have a GPS mark it!  If no GPS toss a marker bouee out over where you think the rocks are.  A good way to practice reading rocks on your depth finder is to go over an area you know for sure has rocks, and examine closely.

The best way to confirm what's down there quickly is a heavy football head jig or a heavy carolina rig (aka C-Rig).  I like to cast a 3/4oz weight on 12lb test fluorocarbon line and a 7'6" rod with good flex to work the bottom quickly and effectively.  Cast beyond where you think the rocks are and scoot your jig/rig across the bottom until you run into rocks or gravel.  Make sure you don't lose contact with the bottom!  The deeper it is the slower you have to go.  Once you feel the rocks or gravel slow down and work it very slowly.  Inch it along.  You can feel where the rocks are and the size of the rocks by noting the distance your rodtip travels between the start of the hesitation to the stop of the hesitation.  Gravel will feel much much different than 2' boulders (visualize your jig being dragged over these two objects).  Sand or mud will feel like dead, smooth weight.  As I'm sure most of us already know, weeds will feel mushy and become exponentially 'heavier'.

So give it a go next time you are out bass fishing!  Since these spots can be very small relative to the rest of the lake, always be courteous of others out on the water.  You don't want to be right on top of someone else.  Being at least about 1x casting distance away is the norm on most lakes (some lakes/rivers have a different norm).

Also keep in mind, not all spots that have rocks will be good.  In lakes with a bunch of rocky areas you may wind up checking all of them and finding fish in only 1 area.  The fish you do find will be worth it.

Have any other tips worth sharing?  Post below!

Tips on Fish Preperation

Ever gone to a restaurant, friend's house, or family member's house and had fish that tasted like fishy, skunky, mud?  I have.  All the fresh squeezed lemon in the world can't cover the offsetting taste of improperly prepared fish.

Fishy Fish... really?
Fish shouldn't taste fishy.  I know that might sound like an oxymoron, but if you've ever had overly 'fishy' tasting fish it can sometimes be enough to induce the gag reflex.  Not good.

You can avoid this by following these simple rules:

-Keep your fish cold and/or alive.  Warm dead fish are no good.

-Clean your fish ASAP.

-Rinse your cleaned fillets thoroughly under very cold water, multiple times throughout cleaning is ideal.  Rinse out any signs of red or blood from the fillet with a kitchen sprayer on full blast.  As you are cleaning you want to keep your fillets in a safe place, away from any fish slime, the cleaning board, or anything other than freshly cleaned and rinsed morsels of meat.  A clean plate or bowl is ideal.

-Do NOT soak your fillets in water as your clean them unless you want them to turn into prunes.  The same thing that happens to your fingers in a hot-tub or swimming pool can happen to your fish fillets.  It can leech out all the oils that the keep the fillets soft and delicious, turning them rough, shriveled, and just not quite as good as they could be.  They won't dry out or be harmed if you just leave the cleaned and rinsed fillets on a plate while you finish.

-Zipper out the center line (aka mudline or bloodline) -- that reddish colored strip in the middle of the fillet.  This is where contaminants and muddy/fishy flavors can reside.  With a walleye fillet you can slit both sides of the tail-end of the fillet and literally just pull the strip of meat off of that centerline on both sides, leaving a strip of red/pinkish flesh to be thrown out.

-Cook your fish quickly over high heat.  Fish cooks much much quicker than any other meat you are used to cooking, so it requires special treatment.  Get yourself a temperature probe if cooking in oil.  375 degrees is what I like to use, and the fillets will cook in under a minute.  If you cook your fish with lower heat, you will have to cook it longer to brown, and cooking longer means overcooked dry fish.

-If not cooking right away, freeze right away.  Vacuum sealed is best, but a ziploc bag with fillets and water with as much water squeezed out as possible and no air bubbles is almost as good.  Air is your enemy when freezing fish.

-Always double check for bones before cooking.  If you did everything right, your fillets should be 100% boneless.  No one wants to bite into bones, or worse yet, inadvertently try and swallow one.


Anything else that can or should be done?   Post below!

6 reasons why you could be catching more fish!

6)  Snap Swivels.  I truly despise these things.  They might seem like a good idea at first, but they ruin lure action and give off negative que's to the fish.  If you have the option to tie your line directly to the lure or bait or hook, DO IT!
5)  "Everyone else is fishing here so it must be a hotspot, right!?"  Most of the time, wrong.  I've seen it happen many times where 1 or 2 boats or ice houses set up somewhere, and before you know it, everyone else thinks it must be a hotspot to be fished!  Did you ever consider that its likely the first few people fishing there weren't and aren't catching anything?  Fishing new spots is almost always better than fishing community holes.
4)  Too thick of line.  While using the heaviest line possible is nice for not losing fish, its also nice for not catching as many fish in some situations.  Thick lines can ruin lure action, cause tangles, and often result in less fish being caught.  For example, Don't use a heavy braided line or thick monofiliment line for panfishing or walleye fishing.  Match your line size to what you fishing for and what lure you are using!
3) I need livebait.  Maybe, but in many situations, no, you do not.  Nearly all bass tournaments have banned live bait.  There's no need for it.  I almost never walleye fish with live bait yet limits still come into the boat.  Artificial lures today are simply more effective than live bait at covering water and triggering fish.
2) Old fishing line.  Replace your fishing line once a year!  Braids can sometimes last longer, but monofiliments ought to be replaced at least once a year.  Much longer than that and they can become brittle, lose knot strength, and cause you to break-off on a fish you would have otherwise caught with fresh line.
1)  Mismatched gear.  You wouldn't tee-off on a long par 5 with a sandwedge would you?  Go for a short put with a 3 wood?  The same concepts hold true for fishing.  Sure you can catch fish using a heavy rod for panfishing, or an ancient ugly stick/buggy whip rod for heavy bass fishing, but why would you?  You are best off fishing for the species your gear is made to target using lures that fit the rod weight, line weight, and overall setup.  This is why you see most serious fishermen with 5-10+ rods in the boat at any given time.  Each setup is for a specific presentation or style of fishing.
Put a little more thought and effort into your fishing this year and you will catch more fish!  Any other things that you have noticed makes a notable difference in the number of fish brought into the boat??  (or not brought into the boat!)