Michael Murphy IMA Flit Tips

Look for an announcement from Murphy in the not-too-distant future of a signature jerkbait rod. We can't give away the details yet, but it's going to be a perfect tool for the Flit, part of a system he's developed for maximizing the bait's effectiveness. While we can't tell you who is going to make it, we'll give you the lowdown on the specs so you can use the right rod from your current arsenal.

"It's 6'10" with a real limber tip," he said. "I call it a medium-heavy, but it's not a typical medium-heavy. It's similar to a crankbait rod with a softer tip and a lot of backbone. It's somewhere between a medium and a medium-heavy. The problem is that if you go into the store, no two medium-heavies (from different manufacturers) are the same. You want to make sure it's on the lighter side, not the heavier side, so you can make extremely long casts."

"I've played around with a lot of different lines," he continued. "I prefer fluorocarbon, 8 lb. test with the Flit 100 and 10 lb. test with the 120. You can also use mono if you don't want it do dive as deep."

Just remember, this is hawg time, and the bite-sized morsel called the Flit 100 may look like a snack, but you should expect to get some big bites mixed in with the numbers. So don't pull too hard on that light line. Keep the fish away from the cover, but baby them once they're in open water. The sharp hooks will hold and you'll really have something to be thankful for. And with New Years Resolutions in place, even a fish on a diet can occasionally afford to splurge on a snack-sized bait.

For more information about the Flit and the entire line of Ima lures, go to www.imalures.com

For more information about Michael Murphy, check out www.michaelmurphyfishing.com