If I only had one lure I could take bass fishing with me this month, it would be a Strike King 4-inch green-pumpkin flip tube. I’d choose that lure because no matter where you fish in the nation, that lure – this month and almost any month – will catch bass. I also will pick this lure to fish, since you can fish it in many different ways. It’s an extremely versatile lure that smallmouths, spots and largemouths will eat all year. To be honest with you, if I only can have one lure to fish the rest of my career as a tournament bass angler, this lure is the one I’ll choose.
Typically I’ll fish this tube on a 7’6” Lew’s Custom Speed Stick flipping rod, a Team Lew’s light reel Hi Sea fluorocarbon line. With this rig, I can flip the tube under docks, into laid-down trees in the water and on top of or into the grass. I like going into battle with bass with heavy line. If I can pick another color besides green pumpkin to fish, I’ll select a black-and-blue tube. The biggest bass I’ve ever caught on a Strike King tube I caught in Texas, and it weighed 9 pounds. The biggest bass I’ve ever caught in a tournament weighed 10 pounds, 6 ounces that I caught in Florida.
You often read about big names in tournaments who win Bassmaster Classics and Elite Series tournaments. However, you rarely ever read about blue-collar fishermen like me, who fish on the Elite Series and want to win a Classic but aren’t disappointed if we get a check in a tournament and can pay our bills. Really and truly, more fishermen are like me on the Bassmaster Elite Circuit than there are high-profile anglers like those you’ve read about for years.
We have 75 of the best bass fishermen in the country participating in the Bassmaster Elite Series and its 10 tournaments each year. When I’m at home and have time, I’ll fish some local tournaments too. But usually I don’t have time. Our season has the Bassmasters Classic each year in February, and then the tournament circuit begins again soon after that. I usually don’t have any time or at least very little time to be at home until the following September. Most of the time my family and I live on an RV on the road. When I am at home, seems like all I do is cut grass at our house.
When our Elite Series fishing season ends in September, I like to bowhunt and goose hunt for about two to three months. I feel I need time to reboot myself and more or less forget about fishing until the season starts up again. Then I’m eager and enthusiastic to bass fish and compete once that happens.
