Some Winning Techniques of Bass Fishing
Day 3: Flipping and Pitching with Rick Clunn
Editor’s Note: Rick Clunn of Ava, Missouri, has won every major bass tournament in the nation in his more than three decades of competitive bass fishing. He's the only angler to win four Bassmaster Classics, with two of those Classics back-to-back. Many have called Rick Clunn a fishing machine. Knowledge powers the Rick Clunn fishing machine. Clunn is the consummate student of bass fishing. He reads, studies and researches to determine not only the best way to catch any bass but also the most-productive way to take big bass. Clunn believes three techniques will catch more big bass consistently than any-other tactic you can use: crankbaiting, spinner baiting and flipping and pitching.
 If you'll research the records of Bassmaster and FLW tournaments, you'll see that the flipping-and-pitching strategy has dominated the wins in many of these contests. According to Clunn, "Flipping and pitching allows you to be very precise with your fishing." Clunn believes that no matter what lure you cast, that lure won't catch bass, if you don't put the bait where a bass is holding and close enough to the fish to make it strike. "If you can choose between dropping your lure beside a fish or not dropping the lure beside the fish, always put the lure as close as you can to the fish," Clunn emphasizes. Flipping and pitching enables you to place your bait right next to a bass holding in thick cover.
 To take more big bass with the flipping-and-pitching tactic, Clunn feels you need to mentally decide where the bass is holding on the cover you want to fish. "You can't think about the obstacles that will prevent you from putting a lure where you believe the bass is holding," Clunn comments. "Once you decide where the bass are on the bush, brush, stump or whatever type of cover you’re fishing, then you have to be mentally disciplined enough to put that bait as close to the bass you can – regardless of how you have to move your boat or cast your lure." The flipping-and-pitching tactic enables you to place your bait in the exact spot where you believe a bass holds and put that lure right in front of the fish's face. With most lures, you have to cast around, beside or under some type of cover. However, when you flip and pitch, you can fish through cover or cause your bait to fall vertically right beside the cover.  Most bass fishermen act like general practitioners to catch really-big bass. Instead, Clunn suggests you become a surgeon – dissecting the cover and using the flipping-and-pitching technique to put a big lure in front of a bass's face that it will eat.
When I suggested to Clunn that he often fished with techniques most other anglers didn't, he quickly corrected me by saying, "No, I'm fishing with the same tactics and the same lures as everyone else. But I'm convinced that one of the reasons for my success is that I'll fish these strategies longer than most-other anglers will. Often a fisherman only may try one of these tactics for about 30 minutes.  If he doesn't catch a big bass or any bass, he'll switch lures and techniques. Then that angler may change to smaller lures that are less physically demanding to fish. I've learned with these three big-bait, big-bass strategies that you must fish them 3 to 10 hours to make them successful." Clunn believes that, "80 percent, if not all of the tournaments I've won have been with these three tactics and lures." To catch more and bigger bass, try the techniques of this master of catching really-big bass.
  To learn more about how to fish for bass, go to “How to Bass Fish Like a Pro” and “Catch the Most and Biggest Bass in Any Lake” , or go to http://www.amazon.com/kindle-ebooks, and type in the names of the books to buy them. Too, you can download a Kindle app for free and buy the book from Amazon to read it on your iPad, Smartphone or computer.
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