The Starting Spot: Flipjacking Bass, Small Lures for Big Bass, and Palaniuk Predicts Victory

The Starting Spot Daily Bass Fishing Headlines are the perfect way to start your day with some of the top bass fishing articles on the internet. It’s the quick, informative, how, where, and who you need to know. So, rub the sleep from your eyes, pour that first cup of the day, and head to your Starting Spot.

Today on The Starting Spot: Flipjacking Bass, Small Lures for Big Bass, and Palaniuk Predicts Victory | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

In this edition of The Starting Spot:

-Great name for a crazy technique and a real fishing blast from the past. Check out this re-publishing of a story that first appeared in Outdoor Life magazine in 1956. Get ready for flipjacking!

-When the bass have seen more than their fair share of the standard offerings, using baits much smaller than you’d expect can have big results.

-I remember this whole Bassmaster Elite story starting on the Mississippi River and ending on the St. Lawrence River. It was inspirational then and it’s inspirational now. There’s a good reason Mercer calls Palaniuk “The Prodigy.”

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Flipjacking: We Uncover the Lost Art of Cane-Pole Fishing for Bass

by Erwin A. Bauer

From a story on OutdoorLife.com: This story, “Flipjacking,” appeared in the November 1956 issue of Outdoor Life.

Daylight was only a pale promise on the horizon as Walker Cline and I pulled away from a dock on Indian Lake in western Ohio. It was completely calm and a heavy haze hung low over the water.

Walker sat in the bow fussing with tackle while I rowed across North Fork Bay. His rig consisted of a stout, 18-foot cane pole, a heavy brass spinner-bucktail combination, and a heavy line about the length of the pole. About a foot above the lure he had just clamped on a heavy sinker. We were going bass fishing, but with that outfit it seemed like a lost cause. I’m a light-tackle man myself, and was certain that this would be a wild goose chase…MORE.

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Make Small Lures Produce Big

by Pete M. Anderson

From an article on BassResource.com: Lake Champlain runs nearly 125 miles from Quebec, Canada, down the line between New York and Vermont. And every inch of it attracts bass anglers. That makes it a frequent stop for tournaments, from local clubs to national tours.

Smallmouth bass are a major draw on Champlain. But its largemouth are on equal footing, especially if you enjoy fishing jigs. You can flip the reeds that stand in Missisquoi Bay at the lake's northern end, cast at milfoil beds submerged in the Inland Sea, or poke matted vegetation in South Bay. So, these bass see more than their fair share of this classic big-bass lure. Just ask Bassmaster Elite Series angler Alex Wetherell…MORE.

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My Finest Hour: Palaniuk foretells St. Lawrence victory

by David A. Brown

In a story on Bassmaster.com: Event: 2013 Bassmaster Elite at St. Lawrence River
Scenario: Having notched his first Elite victory a year prior at Bull Shoals Lake, Palaniuk was, no doubt, hungry for another blue trophy. However, this event run out of Waddington, N.Y., carried an even greater sense of urgency.

Making the victory ever sweeter was the pure redemption it brought. Two months prior, Palaniuk had suffered a serious setback during the Elite event at the Mississippi River after it was determined he had culled in Minnesota waters — a violation of state law.

After leading the event for the first two days, Palaniuk had his second-round weight erased. That dropped him out of the Day 3 cut and jeopardized his 2014 Classic qualification. Once the news had settled, Palaniuk famously predicted a St. Lawrence victory…MORE.

Thanks for starting your day with Fishing On SI. Lines in!