Top Five Tournament Baits of 2013, #4 Smack Tackle's Flitterbait

Smack Tackles Flitterbait 2 in Black Back Shad

In my number 4 spot is Smack Tackles Flitterbait in size 2. This bait was rarely thrown in tournaments but it did a lot of the behind the scenes work. When I needed to find out where fish were before a big tournament I'd take the flitterbait out and pre-fish with it. It allowed me to cover water quickly and work all of the depths. There really wasn't any other bait as versitile as the flitterbait in my tacklebox. I could vertical jig the bait in deep water for the lethargic bite, hop it across the bottom to get the fish holding on deep structure, burn it just below the surface to get aggressive strikes, slow roll it back to the kayak to pick up active spread out fish, etc.... and these were just the methods I found to be most productive. There really isn't a wrong way to fish this bait. The reason I rarely threw it in a tournament was because I just couldn't keep fish from throwing the hooks on the jump. I lost well over a dozen 16+" bass on the flitterbait this year, one smallmouth in particular I still don't like to talk about. However, in a tournament situation I felt like I needed to land every fish I could get to bite, because I was sure my competitors would. For that reason I used the flitterbait to find where the fish were feeding before the tourneys and then switched to single hooked lures during the tournaments. Just as an example.....In a river I threw the flitterbait and started to pick up fish at the head of tapper ups (area before the riffles), I knew then that I had to take extra time to work those areas with other single hooked baits such as texas rigged chigger craws, spinner baits, etc. 

 It wasn't until later in the tournament season that I started to talk to the guys at Smack Tackle about their flitterbait. I told them I really liked the flitterbait but I had problems keeping fish hooked up. They told me to try adding split rings to the hooks and see what happened to my catch rate then. In theory what was happening was that as bass was shaking side to side the hooks were getting jammed up. The fish was then using leverage to throw the hooks during the fight. I had heard of this problem before on top water Zara Spooks, in fact some of the big name bass guys were cutting the factory hooks off and adding split rings to increase catch rates. I really didn't think much of it at first but after a few trips out with the slightly modified flitterbait I was sold. However, the fish weren't real happy about the improvement.

Another reason that the flitterbait made it into my top 5 tournament baits of 2013 was because it catches a wide variety of species. The guys who started the Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail put a twist on their tournaments by offering bonus points ( Points toward the Overall Trail Standings) for a random specie of fish exceeding a certain length during the event. Each event offered 30 points for "bonus fish" such as crappie or saugye, all of which is very possible with the flitterbait. Ive caught smallmouth, largemouth, crappie, drum, bluegill, white bass, and saugeye on it in the last month alone.

The flitterbait allows me to fish anywhere in the water column I choose to fish, cover water quickly, and catches nearly every fish that swims.....and thats why it made it into my top 5 tournament baits of 2013. Now that I have this bait dialed in its going to be a bait to watch for in the upcoming tournament season.

Check out my #1 Tournament Bait Here
Check out my #2 Tournament Bait Here
Check out my #3 Tournament Bait Here
Check out my #5 Tournament Bait Here