Story by Pete Robbins - Photos by Mark Jeffreys

Weatherford, Tx. – When Gary Klein made his way east from California at the tail end of the 1970s to enter BASS competition, he had a distinct advantage over the competition: He was one of the few practitioners of the flipping technique. Most of his adversaries hadn’t even heard of it.

Fans of professional bass fishing may remember the rookie campaigns of Kevin VanDam and Timmy Horton as transcendent, but Klein’s inaugural season was every bit as stout. He won an event and finished second in the angler of the year race to Roland Martin.

It was Martin’s last AOY title, and Klein later claimed the crown, but that first season still weighs on him. He had led the race all season, only to see Martin claim first place on the last day.

“I ended up one pound, fourteen ounces away. Since 1979 I have logged everything I caught, and I’ve logged missed opportunities. If I get ten bites, I want to touch ten fish. That’s what separates the polished pro from the weekend fisherman. 

“I looked at my missed opportunities and had to figure out why they happened. The rod was definitely a part of it.”

Since that time, he’s been noted for his perfectionist tendencies. He’s also maintained many of his sponsors, companies like Quantum, Mercury and Berkley (Trilene) for over two decades. That stability provides him with credibility when he makes suggestions on how to improve products. But one of his newest sponsors, SPRO, also exemplifies his constant need to tinker and adjust in order to maximize his time on the water.”

SPRO has allowed him to design both a signature jig and a “Chatterbait” type lure that he feels will move him closer to being one hundred per cent on the water.

The latter lure, named the “Shake and Bake” reflects his approach to problem-solving. “I hand built it to address every issue I didn’t like about the original. Don’t get me wrong – the original is a fish-catching fool. I loved it. But it had a poor line tie and with that single hook you end up losing some big fish.” He remedied those problems by upgrading the component and replacing the single hook with a 3/0 double, with one hook point on each side of the blade.

“Every component, from the SPRO snap swivel to the hook to the 3D eye, to the continuous wire, that’s all my deal, exactly the way I want it. It takes the original and makes it one step better at each point.”

The rod’s parabolic bend allows him to use heavy braided line at maximum efficiency – it gives a slight bit where the line does not – but it’s heavy enough to drag bass out of the thickest cover possible. Clearly, the pros’ enthusiasm for flipping has not waned at all in recent years, and the coast-to-coast popularity of punching mats has made this type of rod a necessity. The other feature that makes it unique is guides which revolve around the blank, the first mainstream production rod to feature that innovation. This maximizes power by minimizing stress on the rod and line.

Thirty years after he arrived on the national bass fishing radar, Klein’s time on and off the water remains focused on those variables he can control. “There are so many uncontrolled variables in our sport,” he said. “In order to maximize your day, you have to control the ones you can. You don’t know what Mother Nature is going to swing at you. If you get ten bites first thing in the morning and only land three of them, then bad weather rolls in at 9am and you don’t get another bite, you’ve missed your chance.”