Winningest Patterns: 2007
Finesse Beats Flipping As Winning Technique

Photo: FLW Outdoors/Gary Mortenson Andy Morgan won the Wal-Mart Open at Beaver Lake this year with a spinning rod – a tool he used to shun.

When BassFan analyzed the winningest patterns from 2006, flipping was king, just as it is every year. But the football head was shown to be a major factor last year, where it hadn't before.

This year, flipping once again rules the overall roost, but it got beat as a winning technique. Several other trends emerged as well.

Year of Finesse

Although it's the source of many a grumble, finesse tactics have climbed big-time. They were a factor in 24% of this year's wins. That's about one of every four. And finesse "placed" another 12% of the time ("place" meaning a 2nd- through 5th-place finish).

And while flipping, overall, was a factor in more Top 5s (20%), finesse factored in winning twice as often as flipping.

That's a big-time reversal from last year, when flipping factored in 17% of the wins and finesse just 12%. Think about that – the winningest technique in the history of bass fishing (flipping) got buggy-whipped this year. Not only that, it got beat in the winning category by cranks and tubes/football-heads too.

Some of that's certainly due to the schedule – BASS visited New York three times, FLW Outdoors ended its Tour season at the Detroit River, and the dropshot dominated each of those events. But note too that the FLW Tour venues tended to be smaller, pressured fisheries, where finesse techniques, or long casts with jigs, were critical.

It'll be interesting to see if finesse retains its winning hold next year, when the FLW Tour moves to a limited-practice format with a day of rest before competition. That could allow for more power-fishing techniques.

The crankbait was a big factor back in 2004, but nearly dropped off last year, when it factored in less than 10% of the wins and places. The crank made a big comeback this year though, mostly in the Bassmaster Elite Series. It was a factor in 15% of the wins this year, which is significant. Credit two of those crank wins to Kevin VanDam, who threw the tool at Guntersville and Grand Lake.

The technique of dragging both tubes and football jigs fell somewhat this year, compared to last – likely a factor of the venues, and the rise of finesse as the preferred deep-water technique. But casting and dragging was still a factor in 13% of the wins.

Another notable trend is topwater. Although it wasn't a factor in wins, it did factor in 1 of every 10 Top 5s. Numbers for the swimbait also improved.

The tables below explore the percentages more completely. Table 1 shows the breakdown for each technique in terms of wins and Top 5s. Table 2 illustrates how prevalent certain techniques were during each month in which competition took place.

Notable

> To read last year's Winningest Patterns story, click here.

– End of part 1 (of 2) –