Entry 87-5
Emily Shaffer’s Five Favorite Baits
The Denny Brauer Flip-N-Tube
Editor's Note: Emily Shaffer of Mount Juliet, Tennessee, a member of Strike King's professional team, and a 9-time Bassin' Gals Classic qualifier, has three first-place titles, 15 top-10 finishes and the WBFA 2002 Angler-of-the-Year title. With her career winnings at just over $200,000, Shaffer holds the record for the single largest bass, 9.01 pounds, weighed in at a Bassin' Gals Classic event, beating the 25-year history of the Bassmaster Classic and the 19-year history of the Bassin' Gals Classic. This week we'll look at Emily Shaffer's five favorite baits and how, where, when and why she fishes them.
Shaffer: I like this tube better than any other tube because it has a solid head. This tube will stay against the eye of the hook better than tubes without solid heads. I've used this tube when I've fished behind other anglers who have fished with tubes made by other manufacturers. Even though the anglers in front of me have flipped and pitched their tubes in all the same spots I flip my Denny Brauer tubes, I'll catch bass in places where they haven't. I think that's because the Denny Brauer flipping tube presents a different look and a more-compact bait than the tubes do that the bass are accustomed to seeing.
After I've flipped the tree or bush with a Texas-rigged tube, I'll pick up another rod that I have another Denny Brauer tube tied on with no lead and fish it like a jerkbait around the visible cover. Unlike many other fishermen, I don't flip it into a treetop or a brush top and let it fall to the bottom. I'll flip it into the top and let it fall about 1 to 2 feet, then jerk it to the surface, twitch it, jerk it around, allow it to fall through another hole in the brush, jerk it back to the top and twitch it around.
I'll use this tube almost like a surface lure and give it a number of short jerks and short falls when I work it through a treetop. I believe twitching the bait on the surface causes the bass holding in the treetop to see the lure and become interested in it. Then when the tube starts to fall, the bass will attack it. I try to fish the tube all the way through the tree and not just fish it vertically in the holes between the limbs or bushes.
My favorite color tube is black-and-blue or pumpkin with a chartreuse tail. When I flip the tube, I'll use 20-pound-test line. If I fish the tube like a jerkbait, I'll usually use 17-pound-test line.
Another time I fish the tube is during the summer months when I fish deep water with a Carolina rig on ledges and drop-offs. To be honest, there are very few times of the year or kinds of cover that you can't fish a Strike King Denny Brauer Flipping Tube successfully, which is why it's one of my five all-time favorite baits to fish.
Contents:
- Part 1: The Diamond Shad
- Part 2: Spinner Baits
- Part 3: Why I Crank
- Part 4: The New Zero 3X Salt-Impregnated Lure
- Part 5: The Denny Brauer Flip-N-Tube
