Photo by Saito - It’s no secret that Ish Monroe would spend the rest of his days bass fishing with a flipping stick in his hand and a frog at the ready. While he’s widely known as one of the top shallow-water anglers among touring pros, his tactics aren’t so much. 

Recently, he placed third at the Toledo Bend Bassmaster Elite Series, using a strategy he calls “dropping bombs on ’em.”

Outside the Box

Anglers have been conditioned to pitch the lightest weights possible when fishing shallow cover and to be as stealthy and quiet while presenting their bait. If the fish are spooky, covert tactics are useful, but Monroe prefers to pitch and flip heavier weights to create a reaction strike.

At Toledo Bend, he fished a ¾- and 1-ounce River2Sea Junkyard Jig designed by Tommy Biffle to run up the leaderboard. Read more