When fishing gets tough, the tough get out their flipping and pitching rods with heavy fluorocarbon line and find the thickest, nastiest cover to catch bass.  Lures that these flippers use are compact and have a natural appearance.  Since its thick cover these anglers are fishing, lures with little or no appendages are preferred.  Long ribbon tails or meaty lures tend to get hung up in the thick cover; in addition to refusing to punch through matted grass.  Popular baits anglers like to flip are crawfish shaped lures.  The F2 Wooly Bullee by YUM has the crawfish shaped, but it’s the unique pinchers that drive bass flipping crazy.  The pinchers shape and thickness result in giving the YUM F2 Wooly Bullee a swimming action not found in other soft plastic crawfish shaped lures.

When the goes gets tough on Beaver Lake in Northwest Arkansas, angler normally break out a spinning rod and reel, ultra-light fishing line, finesse worms like the YUM Houdini worm, and fish deep or drop shot offshore structure.  I always refer to Beaver Lake as the home of the shaky head.  Beaver Lake’s ultra clear, deep water is made for this style of fishing.  Plus, if the water level is dropping fish have a tendency to get off the bank and move to the first cover or structure they can find.  Of course these light-line anglers whack a bunch of small spotted bass or sub-legal smallmouth, but there are bigger bass to be caught.  Where?  Right on the bank of course, but there are some conditions for anglers to be successful when flipping in this situation.  First, the water must have some color to it; although you can catch fish flipping shallow when the water ultra-clear, the bigger bass will get shallow once the water has some color to it.  The second is a falling water level.  That’s right; falling water level.  Why?  Because it pushes the bass tight to cover next to shore in stained or dirty water on Beaver Lake.  The last condition is to have deep water close by or near channel swings up the river arms.  Beaver Lake has 2 river arms that flow into it: War Eagle River and the White River.  Both are great places to go flipping and their water clarity is always somewhat stained or muddy depending on the time of year.  There are a flipper’s paradises.

 

All flipping lures have their own characteristic.  Some lures will swim while sinking; others have no movement at all.  That’s what drives a bass flipping crazy over the YUM F2 Wooly Bullee (www.lurenet.com).  The YUM F2 Wooly Bullee’s pinchers start swimming once it hits the surface of the water till it’s on the bottom.  An angler can swim the YUM F2 Wooly Bullee over every twig, limb, stump, or drop it in and around aquatic vegetation.  Sometimes a bass will just inhale it as it swims from one piece of cover to another, but most the time a bass will annihilate it and swim off with it.  Just take the F2 Wooly Bullee in Black Grape/Chart, pitch it in clear water and watch the pincher move.  It’s mesmerizing.  The highlighted Chartreuse pitchers are hypnotic.  In stained or muddy water these pinchers not only are easy for bass to see, but give off vibration that helps a bass find it.  If the water is really muddy, anglers should spray extra attractant to the lure.

Having trouble catching bass on your lake?  Do you refuse to put a spinning rod in your hand and go fishing in ultra-clear, deep water offshore?  When the going gets tough, try going flipping in the thickest, heaviest cover you can find.