At the recent FLW Championship on Cross Lake, fishing pressure was high and options were limited.
The pros had to commit to a small piece of water with a relatively small amount of cover and fish it over and over -- slowly. And while they can do that, it doesn't mean they like it.
Up-and-coming Georgia pro Pat Fisher, who finished 4th, was one who succeeded at it, so BassFan.com asked him for a few tips on what it takes to flip all day.
1. Parse the Cover
If you know you're going to be fishing 25 boat docks over and over -- or even if you only fish one or two -- don't just fish the whole dock, Fisher says. "Focus in. When you fish a boat dock, fish the whole thing until you figure out right where the bass are positioning themselves.
"A lot of people don't see that. The see a big boat dock, and have to flip the whole dock before they catch a fish -- and then they don't pattern them. Fish usually do the same thing" from one dock to another, he says. "They get on one area in one depth of water. And when you get to the point where you know a fish is in there, and you flip in there and get a bite, that's what flipping's all about.
"I always start on the deep side first and work my way in," he says, in part to find out how deep the water really is around the dock. "I'll work down one side of the dock, but target the shadiest part of it. The shade way up under the back of the dock is where most of the fish will be."
After he figures out where the fish are, he'll still start at the deep end of the next dock but "won't fish it as slowly. Maybe I'll just fish one (dock) pole one time. But if I know the fish are in the 2-foot range, when I get there I'll throw at a pole three times because that's where they're supposed to be. And if a fish is there, he should grab it."
2. Find the Fish
Figuring out where the fish are on a dock doesn't just mean which spot or piling. It also means finding out whether they're on the bottom or suspended.
"Usually if they bite before your bait hits the bottom it means they're suspended," Fisher says. "They're not sitting there on the bottom, they're somewhere in the middle. It's a reaction bite. Something drops in front of them and they grab it.
"But when you have to hop it up off the bottom, that usually means that they're on the bottom."
3. Fine-Tune Your Presentation
At Cross Lake, Fisher found that lure presentation was even more important than usual. "When you'd flip the tube in, you'd have to present it very quietly. It could barely make a splash. If it made a noise, the fish would spook because of how shallow they were."
Another aspect of presentation is lure action. During practice at Cross, he found that the bass bit his tube before it hit the bottom. "But that changed during the tournament," he says, so he fine-tuned his presentation.
"I'd flip in next to a pole, and my tube would fall and hit bottom. If there wasn't a fish on, I'd leave it there for about 2 seconds and give it a hop -- make the rattle work in the tube. If a fish was there, he'd grab it."
Then there's bait choice. Fisher chose a Zoom tube because he had confidence in it, because it was the "right time (of the year) to throw plastic baits" and because he wanted to trigger strikes: he felt the darting action of the tube would work better than the straight fall of a jig.
The final aspect of presentation is bait color. Fisher said the water was green, and he could only see his bait about 4 inches under the water. That poor water clarity "probably had a lot to do with the black (with red flake) working well," he says. He also chose that color because he paid attention: a largemouth he put in the livewell during practice burped up a black crawfish that had red spots.
4. Take a Break
It's 100 degrees, sunny and humid, and you're fishing the FLW Championship in summer, on a tough lake with a slot limit, for $260,000. On top of all of that, you're fishing the same docks over and over. How do you keep your focus?
Fisher says he knew flipping/pitching all day "would work in that tournament. I knew that if I stuck with it, I could get bites on it. It was just a matter of time.
"But sometimes you do lose your focus," he says, "especially if you lose a fish. When that happens, usually what I do is take break. You can get too hot or too tired. I get a water out of the cooler and take a 3-4 minute break to refocus, to stop and think."
Even with short breaks, exhaustion can build up over days of repeatedly doing the same movements. "In 10 years of fishing my arm has never hurt as badly as it did in (the FLW Championship)," he says. "I was ready to go home after that."
