If you suddenly flipped how you catch fish, how do you think you'd do? By "flip fishing," I mean suddenly fish the opposite of how you currently catch bass. So, if you focus on lmb, it might be fishing for smb. It might be a Southerner suddenly fishing for northern bass. It might mean a daytime exclusive angler suddenly fishing at night. It might be from fishing water with ramps to back country wilderness water, which you reach by portage, running wild rivers, or floatplane. 

 

Whatever you pick, make sure you don't pick something you've already done successfully at length. For example, because I fish ponds today, I couldn't flip to the world's largest lakes in this exercise because I've already fished them successfully. Or I couldn't flip from the little rivers I sometimes fish to a great river because I've already landed fish beyond counting on the Mississippi. 

 

I'll do two flips, one where I think I'd fail and another where I think I'd succeed:

 

My first flip would be changing from a canoe angler to fishing out of a bass boat bristling with electronics. I have nearly no experience with electronics and I think I'd largely fail because even my cell phone can confound me and I think I'd be frustrated by staring at a screen when one of the pluses of fishing for me is looking around. I think I'd quit it pretty quickly and go back to fishing with my head up and turning. 

 

If I flipped from fishing northern bogs to the Everglades, I think I'd do okay. I watch Old Lady Angler of YouTube fish the Everglades and it looks pretty similar to how I fish northern bogs. Even by night, I think I'd be alright because a northern night is as dark as a southern night. Yeah, the gators might spook me at first, but I've fished around bears and moose and kept my cool.

You’re flippin’ crazy……

My primary fishing was in northern, Canadian Shield lakes and the walleye and pike lakes across the Canadian provinces. Because the seasons up there are shorter because of regs and because it wasn’t until late May before the ice even went out, I’d drive to Southern impoundments in Missouri, Kentucky, or Arkansas early in the year. I struggle on these lakes. Everything is so different, deeper water, more weeds and standing timber. I’d spend 4 days to a week once a year and I’d spend most of my time beating the banks and fishing docks. If the bass weren’t there, maybe guys were getting them fishing 20-40 feet deep in standing trees or working creek channels, I’m just lost. I’m not able to spend all the time needed to figure out these waters as I’d have to drive home and back to the waters I’m used to.

I don't think I'd be able or even want to.

I"m a 100% freshwater finesse spin fisherman, for over 60 years.

I would need to replace all my gear to become a power fisherman, somehow acquire a new mind set.

I do saltwater fish too, but that's a whole different game, though lately I have been using freshwater gear for inshore fluke fishing.

Bottom fishing in over 40' of water with a ripping tide for tog ain't no place for finesse.

Flipping from being someone who’s struggling to catch bass into someone who finds it easy to catch bass would be fun.

I've caught LM, Spots, and Shoal bass so I'm sure Smallmouth would prove a nice new challenge. I would adjust and I ain't scared of a new challenge.

I moved from Illinois to Florida 3 years ago and I flipped to doing a lot of flipping flippin'. Now I just recently flipped back up north to Washington state and now I gotta flip to western style bassin'. Kind of flippin' nuts, but I've done ok!

Because I fish quiet, natural, crystal clear mountain lakes, I’d say my flip fishing would be crowded, dingy, manmade, urban reservoirs. While I am confident in my fishing abilities enough to know that I could catch a bass out of a puddle if I needed, I do know that regardless of results, I wouldn’t enjoy myself as much. Pulling 4-6lb bass out of a quiet mountain lake while nobody else is around is about the pinnacle of happiness for me.

At 76 years old I'm very happy where I'm at and how I fish. Comparing to Katies 2 flips: I think I would fail at both. I experiment with electronics, but they mostly confuse me. I've fished big water but would not enjoy the peace I get from small waters if I went back to a big boat and all the stuff that goes with it.

So I'm happy where I'm at. No flippin for me.

I’ve fished for trout- creeks and streams and lakes, I flipped to salt- seawalls and bridges. Switched to small mouth- wade fishing, mostly small rivers.

My flipping from small mouth to large mouth was the most challenging. Almost all the same gear, and bait , lures,…etc.

Accessibility was the biggest issue, getting to where they were. When I moved from NC to Fl, I banked and dock fished, but most of the bank fishing is rough in Fl. It is mostly private property or fenced by city or state. Getting my humble little boat changed it for me.

@Swamp Girl I get ya. I don’t want to be that person staring at the screen. I would miss too much going on around me. I am not knocking electronics , please don’t get the wrong impression. I think its cool, and neat. My friends have them. They are a great fishing aid.

I was even looking at some new gear, mapping, side and down imaging. It was on sale, had a place picked out on the console where to mount it and everything. While was playing with the buttons and looking at the screen, I realize that would be my view for the day. I walked away.

Gonna fish for Stripers a little more this year. So gonna find out. Working a hair jig on Baitcaster

I might get spun out on large deep lakes since I have little experience on them. Aside from that I feel like I'm pretty solid in fresh water.

No salt experience so I'm pretty clueless there. I suppose I could probably blow out my flip flop, step on a pop top, stick my foot in the water, and catch a shark. 😂

Greetings All,

Interesting theme. I'm not sure I meet all the criteria but I'll share my experiment over the past year. I decided to give heavier line a healthy go and used it at several locations across Arizona just to see how it would go. Typically, I'm an ultra lite angler using 4 pound mono to taunt multiple species.

A few years back I salvaged a rod and reel combo from a lake. I snagged it with my crappie jig and manage to haul it in close enough to get it. The reel was a nicer 4000 sized spinning reel. By the appearance of the reel along with the deterioration of the rod grip, I wasn't sure if there was much to salvage. To my surprise the reel was rather well sealed. The higher tier products do have advantages. It didn't take too much effort to get the reel back in working condition. So I'd spooled it with 10 pound mono and was looking for the opportunity to put it back in action.

I do a lot with weedless worms, and TRDs. So I figured I'd simply scale the rig with a heavier weight and see how it all goes on this 4000 sized reel combo. It didn't take me long to realize that it was just too heavy of a presentation. I went back to my tiny 1/64 oz bullet weight and all was better. The heavy line worked out to make me fearless in the weeds. Although I couldn't cast as far, I was catching fish in places I wouldn't use the UL gear confidently.

Using the heavy rig, I was comfortable pitching that TRD into the reeds or deep into the tree bases and connecting with bass. I did have to upsize the hook from my typical fine wire EWGs to the basic 2/0 EWGs at the big box stores.

I tried this out in the urban canals of metro PHX with great success. It was great where there wasn't too much current. I could slip it into areas gently and get hooked up. The heavier line rubbing on the concrete was not as much of a concern as I had more line to work with. Yay!

It was good fun for me to be able to be in the comfort zone knowing I've got more leverage available. I was able to broaden the scope of fish catching by using the heavier rig.

Now that 4000 reel works great and casts well. It is really heavy. So using it for a few hours and you'll know you been using the heavier gear. It also requires more diligence to make a precision cast too. There is a lot of rotational mass to manage in making a precise cast.

These days the heavy rig is in the rod holder when I'm in the yak and it gets used when there is a high probability location that is full of snag potential. I just swap for the heavy rig and do it to it!

I am glad the effort payed off. I got to restore the reel to functional glory to catching fish again. I learned that while upsizing the line, I didn't need to upsize the lure. I'm happy I've got another rig to use.

Be well, Cheers!

I've never saltwater fished. Never been on a bass boat...so I know flippin zero about electronics. Never fished for trout. Never fly fished but want to. Have fished moving water but don't really like it. Flippin to the flippin above would be to flippin much in most flippin cases.

I grew up fishing cover, shallow, for northern largemouth and that’s carried through to me to today. I try to learn something new every year and expand what i can do, but my bread and butter is still < 10’ with non finesse baits.

I think the flip I’d struggle with would be TVA lakes where ledge fishing offshore is the deal. Watching Jacob Wheeler and others graph areas of similar type, pull up and catch fish on the first couple casts through and then do that over and over again with a range of baits and locations is an aspirational goal but not something I think I could do right now.

Deep, clear, western lakes would be my other flip struggle. I have a couple lakes around me that set up like that. Finesse fishing has never been my thing as much as I’ve invested a bunch of time into it the past couple years. My brain says that baits should only ‘kinda’ be seen by the fish and lakes where the fish can see a bait hit the water 20’ away is a struggle. I am learning it slowly, but it’s very different.

the flip I’d love is shallow southern lakes set up around cover (grass or wood). something like a santee cooper. Up here I get coldwater largemouth in relatively clear lakes. Going south to minimal to modest visibility where I could wind around the lake with a bladed jig or pitching bait all day would be a dream.

I've pretty much done it all from deep clear lakes to shallow rivers the Pacific and Gulf for all kinds of fish, mostly bass the past 26 years. The only thing I can think of is FFS that I haven't done and have no interest in it.

If I had to flip, I would go from bank fishing Missouri ponds and backwater areas, to fly fishing for trout and salmon in Oregon. Interesting topic Swamp Girl.

19 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

I think the flip I’d struggle with would be TVA lakes where ledge fishing offshore is the deal. Watching Jacob Wheeler and others graph areas of similar type, pull up and catch fish on the first couple casts through and then do that over and over again with a range of baits and locations is an aspirational goal but not something I think I could do right now.

TVA doesn’t have to be complicated, just catch the small ones you take out all the tricky stuff 😂

A lot of places the ledge is right on the bank so that makes it easier

I flipped from Northern bass fishing (a mixture of LMB/SMB) to southern fishing (LMB/Spots/Striper). Granted there is a learning curve whenever you switch from any region - but that being said - fishing up north is MUCH easier overall.

I am going to do two flips.

Flip one. Southern LMB. Seriously have no clue where to begin. I think I would be alright targeting them in slop. After that I don’t know what I’d do.

Flip two. Big water like LSC, ST. Lawrence, Erie etc. quite frankly big water scares me in general. I do not feel comfortable on it. Safety or fishing skill wise. It’s mind boggling to me how people can break this down. My only thought process would be to fish it small. Pick an area to focus on and have at it. How I’d do? No flipping clue.

12 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

I flipped from Northern bass fishing (a mixture of LMB/SMB) to southern fishing (LMB/Spots/Striper). Granted there is a learning curve whenever you switch from any region - but that being said - fishing up north is MUCH easier overall.

As someone who did the same, I completely agree. I went my entire first year in the south and could count the total amount of ANY fish caught on two hands. That's actually what led me to look for this forum.

I went from the north doing more finesse and topwater to the south where its all spinnerbaits, jerkbaits and power fishing. I think my flip would be going specifically to smallmouth. I've caught them accidentally up north but anytime I targeted them I zeroed out. Now with some more years of knowledge and this forum I think I could come around to at least getting fish in the boat but it would take me quite a while to pull A-Jay's class of fish.

Any saltwater fishing I've done was more like live bait fishing fresh waters...not really my thing but it's nice to switch it up every so often and experience different fish.

13 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

fishing up north is MUCH easier overall

I think this depends upon where you fish. @N Florida Mike has consistently caught big bass through this winter and he's largely fishing from shore...and he's catching the less aggressive Florida bass. Of course, Mike is also a big stick.

8 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

I think this depends upon where you fish. @N Florida Mike has consistently caught big bass through this winter and he's largely fishing from shore...and he's catching the less aggressive Florida bass. Of course, Mike is also a big stick.

And WHEN the wonderful Mike is fishing - Florida and Texas winters December/January are basically march/April weather here and may/June weather in Maine! Fish are up shallow and making beds in some places and they’re roaming the abyss eating a shiner every 3 days in others and even sitting under a block of ice belly down eating an alewife every month in even more north others!

I’m hoping that the weather FLiPS to spring sooner than later here! 😂❤️👍

I use to be primarily a deep water angler. I caught multitudes of bass on spots not being fished by other anglers. I fished deep water so much that my growth as a shallow water angler suffered. Eventually , every single off shore structure I fished were discovered and fished to death. I did a 180. I had to learn to cast. Casting offshore was simple , putting your lure in a tight spot between a rock and tree took some practice. I still dabble offshore but the bulk of my fish come from visible cover.

17 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I use to be primarily a deep water angler. I caught multitudes of bass on spots not being fished by other anglers. I fished deep water so much that my growth as a shallow water angler suffered. Eventually , every single off shore structure I fished were discovered and fished to death. I did a 180. I had to learn to cast. Casting offshore was simple , putting your lure in a tight spot between a rock and tree took some practice. I still dabble offshore but the bulk of my fish come from visible cover.

I'd be your opposite. I'm an accurate at-cover caster, but off-shore, with no electronics, I'd be lost. I do catch fine fish at where I estimate the shallow, 5' areas drop to 8' to 10', but beyond that, I wouldn't know where to cast nor how to use electronics to find structure.