Flipping the Mats
How Wesley Strader targets late-summer big ones
A great pattern this time of year is flipping for bass that are feeding on bluegills in grass mats along shorelines. The bluegills are there because they’re eating some kind of tiny bugs that are at the top of the mats. This is a pattern you have to commit to all day; I put every rod and reel I’ve got in the rod box and just have two flipping outfits on the deck. You start at point A and just keep flipping until you get on fish. I don’t know why it is, but bass tend to school or congregate under the grass. When you catch one, you can be sure that there are others in the immediate area.
Where to fish
The first thing is to find the bluegills. Listen for them popping those insects. When it’s really good, they make so much popping that it’s almost deafening. That doesn’t guarantee that there are any bass around, but usually there are.
If you can find a ditch cutting through a grass mat, or a depression, or any kind of migration route in and out of the grass, that’s a good place to start. Also, if you’re fishing main-channel grass, you need to fish where the current is washing through that grass. But otherwise, you just fish along at a good clip until you get on some fish, then slow down and work the area thoroughly.
Tackling up
By late summer the grass is pretty thick, so I use a 1-ounce Reins tungsten sinker for flipping. If that grass isn’t so thick, I might go to a ¾-ounce weight, but I have gone to a 2-ounce sinker at times when the grass was really crisscrossed in there.
My hook is a Trokar TK 130, 4/0 or 5/0, depending on the size of the bait, and I tie it on with a snell knot. This causes the hook to cam around into the fish’s mouth when you set the hook. Also, I put a sinker stopper about 1/16th of an inch up above the sinker so it stays with the hook. That way, when the bait is falling through the grass, it won’t get separated from the weight and will go all the way down.
My favorite baits are a Zoom Z-Hog, Z-Craw and Speed Craw, and I go for colors that look like bluegills. In order of preference, that’s California 420, green pumpkin and sprayed grass. About 90 percent of the time, a fish will hit the bait just as it’s falling through the mat. If I don’t get bit, I might yo-yo it up and down a time or two, bring it up to the top and give it a shake. Otherwise, I just keep flipping and moving along at a steady pace.
My flipping rig is a Max 3D 795 Powell (7 feet, 9 inches) and 65-pound-test braid on a Lew’s Lite baitcaster. Usually, when you get on fish, they’re good ones and you need something stout enough to haul them out of there.