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Flipping Big Grubs
By Russ Bassdozer

Jan. 29, 2002

The Bass Tubs of Oklahoma are expert instructors who do bass tank seminars at outdoor sports shows for Gary Yamamoto, educating hundreds of thousands of bass anglers on how best to use the world's finest Gary Yamamoto soft plastic baits. When not doing tank shows, these fellows are hot on the trail of any tournament they can find, big or small, in the Southeast.

If you can't make it to see a live Bass Tubs of Oklahoma show this winter? Well now! Just settle back in a cozy chair, and enjoy reading! We're proud to have five seminars for you here from the Bass Tubs of Oklahoma! We sure do appreciate everything the Bass Tub of Oklahoma guys do for us. I hope you will enjoy their live shows and online seminars on Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits.

Instructor: BILLY HURT

Favorite Bait: 8" Big Grub in Black/Blue or Watermelon Pepper

Favorite Lake: Kentucky Lake, Tennessee

Hi Billy! It's good to hear from you! How did you first start using Gary Yamamoto's baits?

Several years ago at Kerr Lake, NC, the Hula grub was the big bait back then in North Carolina and Virginia. Everybody was using them, but they were close-mouthed, and I did not know about it. I was pre-fishing for a tournament and having a tough time, but other fellows were catching good fish. I didn't know what to do about it until I ran into a local guy who said, "I'll tell you how they're doing it." He took me into a local tackle shop that sold the Yamamoto Hula grubs. At first I said, "Man, that's a high priced bait," but I bought a bag of junebug-colored Hula grubs and some stand up style jig heads that this fellow said to use with them. The first rocky point I went back to on Kerr Lake...BAM! I caught a 3 pounder on the first cast. Every rocky point I went back to...BAM! I caught 2-3 fish off each point on the Hula grubs. These were the same points I had already fished with no luck with lizards, french fry worms and everything I could think of until this local fellow showed me how and what to do. I've never stopped using Yamamoto baits since that day.

Which one bait is your favorite Yamamoto, Billy?

Although I started out with Gary's Hula Grub, my favorite bait he makes now is the 8" single tail Big Grub pegged to a 3/16 bullet sinker.

What do you think your favorite bait imitates? What does a bass think that it is, Billy?

On Kentucky Lake, Tennessee, we have an eel called a lamprey. These lampreys attach to bass behind the vent, and they literally suck the life out of the bass. They can get real big and slimy. Anyway, the tail of an 8" grub with a 3/16 bullet sinker flops back and forth just like one of those eel's tails looks when the eel comes off  a bass and swims back down to the bottom.

The trick for me is to get the proper tail action with a 3/16 oz. sinker. The sinker is just enough to make that big tail want to flop back and forth like an eel swimming for the bottom. This is not really a fast fall, but a medium to slow fall. If the sinker's too heavy, it falls too fast. That's unnatural. If the sinker's too light, there is no tail action.

Is there any particular season you feel your favorite Yamamoto bait is better than at other times of the year?

In spring, right before they go on the beds, and the bass are in thick bushes. I feel that bass think this 8" Big Grub is their natural enemy, either a lamprey or some other critter. The bass attack it because it is an enemy. They just don't want it swimming around in the bushes near their beds. The big grub seems to outfish anything else that people throw in the bushes this time of year.

What kinds of applications or techniques do you use with your favorite bait, Billy?

Most important part to me is to get it into the center of a bush or right beside a stump. Most people cast, but I do not. I flip with only the amount of line I can hold in my hand off the spool. When I flip, I lean the rod forward to let slack line sink the bait perfectly straight down. Thinking about that eel again, or any fish you release off the side of the boat, even a bass...they swim straight down head first every time. I think a bass that's in a bush or a stump considers it dangerous when a big grub swims straight down headfirst to where the bass is at the base of the brush or stump. It's exactly what it's natural enemies would do. It's an application of the big grub that bass just do not like to see. You're not just trying to appeal to their hunger. You want them to run over, pick it up as if it was a natural enemy like a lamprey, and crush it.

How often do you use your favorite bait, Billy? What would make you say, "I'm going to use one now!"

Anytime I find material that I can flip, I will use it. Even if I am getting bit on some other bait, I still want to know if I can get a better bite or a bigger bite on Gary's Big Grub. That's how much I believe in it for flipping. Eighty percent of the time, I am flipping visible cover - brushpiles, rocks, laydown logs, stumps, junk that I can see in or under the water. The very best material is when I can flip and move to the next target on the trolling motor, just flip straight down a whole succession of targets.

How do you retrieve your favorite bait, Billy?

I flip the Big Grub behind the target so that it will fall within inches behind the base of the target. I jig it a couple of times, hop it, then pick it up a few inches and let it fall right back straight into the base of the target. Then I pick it up with the line in my hand and put it back in behind the other side of the target and repeat. Then I pick it up with the line in my hand and put it back in and repeat at the next target.

When I flip, I do not use the reel. I pick the bait up out of the water using the line in my hand - no reel. The bait is almost always in the strike zone. With the line in my hand, I can take it right out of the water and dip it right back in on the opposite side of the target or the next target in succession. I'll flip down a whole row of targets like this, never using the reel.

How deep will you go with them?

I usually fish shallow. The deepest I flip is about 6-8 feet and I am usually in shallower water than that. As long as there is cover to flip, it can be as shallow as one foot. I can actually see bottom where I am flipping at times, and suddenly there's a bass appearing out of nowhere in water less than a foot deep! That's a lot of excitement when a huge fish has to roll over on its side, you see this big flash, but it still takes a second or two's discipline to wait to set the hook!

When the water is up or rising, I'll be fishing thick brush banks, flooded scrubtrees and drowned bushes. When the water is low, I'll ease on down the creek channels looking for shadows of tree stumps to flip on the channel edges. Fish use the stumps as cover to come out of the channels to cruise up on the shallows.

Please tell us some of your favorite colors for your favorite Yamamoto bait, Billy.

I use two basic colors in the Big Grub - 520 black with a blue tail, and 194 watermelon pepper.

What kind of rod, reel and line selection do you use, Billy?

I use a 7.5 foot Shimano V rod. It's heavy action with lots of backbone. My favorite flipping reel is the Shimano gold Chronarch with Super Free Spool.

If the cover is not too thick, like stumps, I will use the 16 lb. test Sugoi. When I flip into the very thickest types of cover like tangled brushpiles, I use the 20 lb. test Sugoi.

What kind of hooks and weights do you use with your favorite Yamamoto bait?

I use a 5/0 Daiichi red hook and a 3/16 oz. bullet sinker. The sinker is pegged right on the head of the bait so it always falls exactly vertical on a slack line. If the sinker is not pegged, it will slide down the line away from the bait. The sinker hits bottom, and it stops pulling the bait down. So the bait doesn't get down all the way to the base of the target. Remember the eels and all other critters? They swim headfirst straight down into the base of the target. If not, it's not natural. I have watched fish follow the bait down, then lose interest and swim away if it stopped before bottom.

What is the bite like on your favorite bait?

The first way is there's a little tick like a bluegill, only it could be a 6, 7, or 8 pound bass! The second way is you know you're flipping in 4 or 5 feet of water, but the bait stops like it got stuck on a limb halfway down, only it could be a 6, 7, or 8 pound bass! The third was is you flip it into the base of the target and next thing you know your line comes screaming out of there headed straight for open water! Fishermen can get bored when there's not much biting. At such times, they're prone to suggest all kinds of theories why bass hit like a bluegill or like a tree limb or like a runaway freight train. My theory is a fish will rise off bottom to hit a bait halfway down because the bass doesn't want other nearby bass to see the prize or get it first, or start streaking out of cover with it so other bass can't steal it off the first one.

How do you set the hook, Billy, when you are flipping the Big Grub? 

In really thick brushpiles, there is only one way the fish can come out - the same way the line went in. I reel right down so the line's not slack anymore, then set the hook extremely hard. I keep turning the reel handle all the time because I want to get the head turned in an upward position coming straight at me. Once the head is up and pointed at you, then any swimming the fish does only brings it closer to you. It's like leading a bull by the nose. You've got to bull the fish out by pulling it by the nose, quickly.

What about the points on the Daiichi hooks, Billy?

One of the reasons I use them is they're round surgical needle sharp out of the package. The second reason I like them is they are the most "file friendly" hooks I've seen. If something happens like the hook bangs a rock and it messes the point up? The point just gets real sharp again when you bump it with a flat file.

Not all hooks are "file friendly" like that. Some hooks have a plated finish or underlying alloy that isn't the kind of metal that you can file well after they dull, or the complicated shape of the point can't be filed. Especially when fish are right in front of me in a tournament, I like the time-saving option to re-sharp once or twice rather than re-rigging every time the hook gets a little dull.

What can you say about the red color of the Daiichi Bleeding Bait hooks, Billy? Have you seen it make a difference?

To me, when I go to buy a spinnerbait or crankbait, one of the things I look for is a little nip of red. Most hard baits have a splash of red on the head, a red chin, throat, gill, eye, or mouth. I do not think it was put there by accident. It's been there ever since the earliest models of bass lures were made. That little red chin is a lot more appealing to me because in my experience, it catches bass. With dark-colored soft plastics like I use, there's no efficient way to put a little splash of red under the chin, except a red hook.

Is there anything else about your favorite Yamamoto bait that you would like to share with our readers, Billy?

Yes. The most important part to me is that the Big Grub needs to fall straight down on slack line when flipping. I do not use the reel to make slack, so I lean the rod forward to put slack in the line so the bait falls straight down. If you let the line get tight or any tension, you hold the bait back from its descent. That doesn't look natural. Bass like baits that fall straight down all the way to the base of the cover.

Thank you, Billy! 

Russ, we cannot tell you how much the Bass Tubs of Oklahoma appreciate meeting the many people who come out just to see Gary Yamamoto baits in the bass tubs, and now to read our seminars here too. Thank you all!

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