Daylight was solely a pale promise on the horizon as Walker Cline and I pulled away from a dock on Indian Lake in western Ohio. It was utterly calm and a heavy haze hung low over the water.
Walker sat within the bow fussing with deal with whereas I rowed throughout North Fork Bay. His rig consisted of a stout, 18-foot cane pole, a heavy brass spinner-bucktail mixture, and a heavy line concerning the size of the pole. A couple of foot above the lure he had simply clamped on a heavy sinker. We had been going bass fishing, however with that outfit it appeared like a misplaced trigger. I’m a light-tackle man myself, and was sure that this could be a wild goose chase.
“Pull arduous on the best oar, and take it simple,” Walker mentioned. “There’re some stumps simply forward we should strive.”
I pulled proper, regarded over my shoulder, and within the faint gentle, noticed an object barely seen on the water’s floor. Farther on I picked out one other.
“Now swing the boat round quiet-like, and push me as much as about 20 ft of that first stump. Maintain a bit of to the best.”
Turning round, Walker stood up within the bow with pole held excessive and commenced swinging the spinner simply, forwards and backwards. As quickly as we had been in vary he swung the spinner far out, a bit of previous the stump, and dropped it within the water. By elevating the pole upward and behind him, he drew the spinner previous the mark as soon as, twice — after which twice on the opposite aspect. Nothing occurred, and I wasn’t in any respect stunned.
“Push on to the following one,” he mentioned.
As quietly as I might, I moved the boat ahead till Walker might drop his spinner close by. First that mild swinging, then he positioned the lure simply past the second stump and … wham. A bass rolled as much as nail the spinner, and in the identical movement Walker introduced his rod again arduous to yank the fish alongside. He sat down and easily grabbed it by the decrease jaw. I’ve by no means seen a two-pound largemouth taken so quick.
“Maintain ‘er proper right here,” he mentioned. “Typically these stumps are good for 2, possibly three.”
Standing up once more, Cline positioned the lure on the opposite aspect of the submerged stump. The boat drifted in a bit of nearer, so on the following toss he was shut sufficient to circle the stump with the fluttering spinner. He despatched it twice round and was about to select it up when a second bass struck. Walker introduced it alongside. Two minutes for 2 bass — it was arduous to imagine.
We fished on previous a number of extra stumps and I watched the magic continue. He misplaced one which was hooked flippantly, however made up for it on the very subsequent stump when a 3rd bass went on the stringer.
Just a few lights had been approaching in cabins alongside the shore by now, and much again on the dock somebody was warming up an outboard. A hound canine barked. We noticed one other fisherman row out from shore.
“It’s getting busy round right here,” my associate mentioned. “Let’s push up into a number of the slim channels.”
The primary channel had fallen timber and brush piled excessive on one aspect and a thick mattress of pond lilies alongside the opposite. I rowed slowly in order that Walker might work either side, however for 100 ft or extra there was no motion. Simply swing, drop the spinner, and retrieve. Then we reached a spot the place an incredible previous elm had toppled over and angled out into the channel.
Walker dropped his spinner in near shore, simply inches from the tree. He solely wanted two passes, for on the second an previous resident bigmouth boiled out of hiding to cease the retrieve.
This one couldn’t be horsed to the boat just like the others, so Walker sat down and held the rod as excessive as he might whereas I rowed arduous, a means from the tree.
The bass jumped twice and misplaced floor each occasions as my associate grimly placed on the stress. After I’d pulled the boat far sufficient away from the tree, there was no place for the fish to go however beneath the boat. That’s when Walker grabbed himself a fats jumbo of about 5 kilos. He strung the fish and mentioned, virtually nonchalantly: “That should be sufficient. It’s after 7 o’clock and I’ve to open the store at 8.”
That was my first lesson in flipjacking.
Walker Cline is a mighty uncommon man. He admits to 80 years and has fished for 66 of them — all in the identical place. Meaning he was fishing again in 1890, when Indian Lake was a canal reservoir for the busy Miami and Erie Canal. Cline figures, conservatively, that he’s taken someplace between 10,000 and 11,000 bass on this time, with about half of them operating three kilos or higher. Native residents may even let you know concerning the time Walker took 57 bass in just some hours, or concerning the time he hooked three lunkers round one stump when different boats throughout had been having no luck in any respect.
All that quantities to a tremendous record. However much more superb is that every one these bass had been taken on a cane pole, and most of them on home made lures. He began flipjacking as a boy, and now, nonetheless at it, he’s one of many final of the breed.
Hardly a heat spring morning passes within the slumbering, crossroads village of Huntsville (close to Indian Lake) that the identical ritual isn’t enacted. No less than an hour earlier than dawn, Walker strolls the quick block from his dwelling to his barbershop. (He’s the city’s solely barber, and the mayor as effectively.)
Early risers will see him activate the sunshine inside, to not open the store for the day, however simply to select up his pole and an assortment of lures. Then off for the lake in a classic automotive that’s not fairly sufficiently old to be again in model once more.
Walker normally fishes alone as of late as a result of there aren’t many individuals left who can take the rugged enterprise of flipping. To face all day and even for just a few hours in a ship whereas manipulating a heavy 18-foot pole can grow to be a chore. However Cline is constructed for the job. At 80, he’s nonetheless erect, lean, and in splendid form. Years of canepoling, and farming from time to time, have left him with thick, highly effective wrists. Even on windy days, when dealing with the boat is kind of tough, he nonetheless refuses to make use of an outboard motor.
Canepoling for bass was as soon as a largely practiced artwork. In ponds and sloughs alongside the Jap seaboard it’s often called skittering, and pork frogs had been used for bait as typically as spinners. One of many first synthetic lures ever manufactured -the tandem spinner-was made for canepolers. One mannequin was full with luminous blades, a forerunner of the luminous lures used at the moment by bait casters. Different well-liked baits and lures elsewhere had been stay crawfish, strips of pickled pork, and even the big, whiterubber nipples from child’s bottles with treble hooks hid within the open finish. When chugged slowly close to the floor, the latter was particularly lethal on many Midwestern waters – so lethal, actually, that industrial fishermen used them to catch bass when it was nonetheless authorized to market them.
Native residents may even let you know concerning the time Walker took 57 bass in just some hours, or concerning the time he hooked three lunkers round one stump when different boats throughout had been having no luck in any respect.
Nonetheless one other canepoling lure was utilized in shallow waters of the deep South the place alligators had been ample. Bass there have a behavior of loitering within the alligator wallows, so ingenious anglers reduce imitation child alligators from previous black shoe leather-based, and connected treble hooks to the ft. Years in the past in Georgia’s Okefenokee swamp I noticed an eight-pounder taken on such a lure.
By the years Cline has been completely completely happy together with his personal lures. Often he modifies the colour of the tails and lets it go at that. The spinners are giant, about two inches from finish to finish, and designed to spin simply. Most of them are constituted of brass sheet, however Walker has used quite a lot of supplies.
He’s most specific about tails. Groundhog hair is the most effective, he feels, so on sure summer time afternoons he closes the store to hunt his personal. Pure bucktail is suitable, and from time to time he’ll use fox-squirrel tail. Years in the past, when flipping was extra well-liked, Cline made spinners to order and mailed them everywhere in the nation. He did all this work within the rear of his barbershop.
Walker has a wholesome angle for a veteran who’s seen fishing stress skyrocket prior to now few years. It appears somebody is casting the stumps all day lengthy. However he’s a bit of disturbed about the best way Indian Lake has modified.
Now a 5,800-acre impoundment, Indian Lake was fashioned from a dank wilderness swamp again in 1852. For a few years thereafter the lake was stuffed with useless timber, however ultimately these decayed on the waterline and toppled over. Now time is destroying these too, and solely old-timers like Cline know how you can discover them, though youthful fishermen have marked just a few with iron pegs.
Most of the shallows have grow to be choked with lilies and different crops. However in recent times Ohio fish biologists have introduced the scenario beneath management with aquatic weed cutters.
I met Walker Cline accidentally. I used to be at Indian Lake engaged on a fishing film – how you can use bait-casting deal with – when the climate out of the blue went unhealthy. I drove to Huntsville for lunch and a haircut. Walker was busy after I got here in, so I browsed round.
His store is a web page out of the American previous. Chairs are previous mahogany relics that some day ought to wind up in a museum; the artwork above a pair of previous mirrors advertises a model of “hair restorer and beautifier” lengthy since forgotten; on a small stand close to the door is a set of fishing pictures and mementos made in bygone days on the lake. The again of the store is dedicated to lure making; bucktails and spinners of each design cling throughout the mounted head of a seven-pound bass. I used to be thumbing via some previous deal with catalogues after I climbed into the chair and advised the barber to chop it quick.
“I noticed you trying round,” Walker started. “You wish to fish?”
“Certain do.” I answered. “Reality is, I’m engaged on a fishing film proper now.”
“Ever flipjack?” he requested.
I hadn’t, and subsequent morning that led to my first lesson – out “on the stumps” earlier than dawn.
The second lesson got here two evenings later. I’d completed the movie and stopped in at Walker’s store to see if he wish to exit after dinner. I supplied to do the rowing.
“Decide me up between 5:30 and 6 and I’ll be prepared,” he mentioned. By 6:15 we had been within the boat. The lake was crowded — in sizzling, noisy distinction to that quiet first morning.
“This has been a busy place all day,” Walker mentioned. “We could have hassle getting a bass to hit.”
“That’s take a look at,” I advised him. “Let’s give it a strive anyway.”
Walker directed me previous a number of boats and right into a patch of open water. He stood up, scanned the surf ace caretotally, and mentioned, “About 30 or 35 ft up forward is a patch of stumps. They’re utterly hidden, so let’s work as much as them slowly and I’ll really feel my means.”
I pushed the boat ahead as Walker labored the water forward of us by moving the spinner slowly from proper to left and again once more. Then abruptly he raised the rod. He’d discovered the stump, certain sufficient, however he’d sunk the treble hooks proper into it.
“Now I’ve the place figured. Let’s get this unhooked and I can work the stumps throughout. Maintain it … proper right here.”
I backed water simply and Walker swung his lure forwards and backwards for distance. Then he dropped it gently into the water. After a number of casts, he suggested we transfer to the left a bit of. He forged once more and this time it was no snag. The massive cane pole pretty jumped because the bass utterly circled us earlier than Walker grabbed him. He held the three-pounder up for inspection, and I observed a few boats transfer in nearer.
Learn Subsequent: Outdated-Faculty Suggestions for Catching Big Bass in Small Ponds
Twenty ft farther on he hooked andifferent — a pound and a half, possibly, which he launched with a bit of extra flourish than needed. Extra boats moved in nearer.
“Now that everybody thinks this can be a hotspot,” he whispered, “let’s get out and do some severe fishing.”
And severe fishing we did: up one aspect of a protracted, slim channel and down one other. He caught three bass faster than I might inform about it, and one in every of them was a magnificence. 4 kilos, anyway.
Then the old-timer circled and mentioned: “Your flip, son. You’re taking the pole and I’ll row. You’ve been doing all of the work and I’m having all of the enjoyable.”
“No,” I answered. “It’s your recreation.” To inform the reality, I used to be afraid I’d get to love the sport an excessive amount of.
