This Week @ Bass Edge

Flipping with soft hands

Bill McDonald held his rod up, and shook it slightly. Suddenly the lonely bush a few feet in front of him erupted as he set the hook. He quickly wrestled the three-pound bass from its thick branches. As Bill released the fish, he explained that it had taken the bait only after it had caught on a branch.

“A lot of guys, I feel like, are too aggressive trying to jerk that bait out of there,” Bill explained. “If you pull up and it’s tight on something … first thing hold it for a minute because it could be tight because it might have a fish on it. If you feel any quivering at all, set the hook. If not, then just kind of shake your rod tip and 90 percent of the time that bait will come right back out of there.”

I remembered the comments made recently on stage at the Toyota Texas Bass Classic by Stacey King about his team’s day on the water. “If these younger guys would have slowed down, we could have caught Kelly and his team.”

Bill and Stacey are in the same boat when it comes to fishing slowly. Bill worked a line of brush flooded by what many said were the highest water levels ever experienced on Indiana’s Lake Patoka with methodical precision.

“I’ll let that fish tell me how long he needs it. I might let my bait sit in there five seconds, or I might let it sit in there 10 or 15 seconds. I pick up and just hold my line tight. I feel like in the springtime and the fish are spawning, when that bait goes in there I think the fish makes a half circle, and then they just move in and suck it in. You just feel tension on it ever so lightly. That’s when you set the hook.”

Bill does all of this with “soft hands.”

“I don’t hold the rod really tight, because I don’t think you can feel as good when you have a firm grip.”

As Bill maneuvered the boat along the shore, it was obvious that he wasn’t trying to fish every spot, but being selective.

“I don’t like big clusters of bushes. If I had my choice, I’d like one bush between me and the bank. I like isolated cover. I’d rather fish a pocket that has five, six or eight bushes than one that has 200 bushes in it. There is just too much area for the fish to be in that situation.”

Bushes that “umbrella” out over the water and offer the most shade tend to be good fish holders and those near deeper water are preferred.

“It’s kind of like going into a (restaurant); the biggest person in there is usually sitting closest to the buffet line. I feel like a big fish does the same thing.”

When Bill locates his target, he “goes for the heart.”

“My first pitch in, I will pitch right for the center of the bush. I feel like the biggest fish in there, for the most part, lives in the center of that bush. And when they spawn, they spawn at the base of those bushes. If you can’t get them on, you can’t get them in the boat.”

A 7 ½ heavy rod with 20- to 25-pound monofilament test line is Bill’s weapon of choice. He also believes that tungsten flipping weights are an important part of the formula.

“It has the blunter nose to it instead of the tapered bullet weight. The bait will hang with that weight a little bit better. A lot of guys don’t like that, but I can sit there and shake it a little bit before it pops over, and when it does pop over it makes a pretty good little dart. From watching crawdads in clear water, that’s what they do.”

Speed Craws and Brush hogs are favored baits when Bill is not throwing a jig. And he likes to work as close in as possible.

“I feel like I can be more efficient and get my bait in the target area. If the water is dingy, I get as close as I can to the bushes. If the water is clear I stay back a little ways from them.”

Bill’s day on Patoka ended far too early as many fishing days do, but he had released several scrappy bass, including a 4 ½-pounder. It’s always a good day when you get to spend even a portion of it doing what you like best.

“I’m basically a shallow-water fisherman … about 90 percent of the time. I don’t mind fishing deep, but I’d rather fish shallow. And I like to pitch and flip.”