By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor
Time is ticking down. The pattern that worked yesterday isn’t working today. It’s crunch time. There’s an hour left until the weigh-in starts. Your nerves are starting to fray. What do you reach for when you absolutely need to generate bites?
We’ve been asking pro anglers from the various leagues that same question as a way to find out what their ultimate confidence baits are regardless of the situation, along with the reasoning behind their choices. As one might expect, the answers have run the gamut, from big-line, big-weight flipping to light-line finesse and from topwater to slow-dragging baits.
This week, Jason Christie details the origin of his affinity for flipping and what bait he’s relies on more than others to get things going.
After checking out the latest installment in the series, head over to our Feedback page and let us know what your go-to bait is and how you rig it.
> Angler: Jason Christie
> Confidence bait: YUM Christie Critter (flipping/pitching)
> Gear used:7’3” heavy-action Falcon Rods Cara casting rod, Lew’s Hyper Mag Speed Spool casting reel (8.3:1 ratio), 25-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon line, ½-oz. flipping weight, 5/0 Eagle Claw Lazer TroKar TK 130 flipping hook.
> Origin: “Everybody thinks I’m all flipping and frogging, but I’ve become more versatile over the years. If I look back over a lot of events where I’ve needed a bite or a big bite, I’m going to pick up a flipping stick. I can remember one of the first times fishing with my uncle. He flips into a grass bed and jerks a fish out of grass and over the boat. It never stopped. It came off, but I saw that and said, ‘I want to do that.’ I went and bought two rods and big line that night. I can still remember my first really big fish flipping. It seems like when I was younger, those where the guys who intrigued me. It was not the shaky-heads guys. It was Denny (Brauer) and Tommy (Biffle). That’s what I wanted to do.”
> Why he trusts it: “That bait has caught so many fish for me lately. I know if a fish sees it, he’ll bite it.”
> One more thing: “If you look at all the guys that we call hammers they all have that one thing they go to. They can do a lot of things like (Greg) Hackney and Kevin (VanDam), but there’s always that one thing that if they have their way, if they do that they’ll do and do it better than most.”
