Name: Ace Fat Flipper
Length: 15cm
Weight: +/- 90g

The new Fat Flipper from Gordon Griffiths is a brand new jerkbait and I have to say: it’s worth it! I was offered the chance to test a prototype of this new jerkbait and I must admit I was impressed. The name seems to suggest that it is nothing more than a fatter version of the well-known regular flipper but it’s nothing like that at all. Contrary to the smaller version this model suspends or sinks really slowly when you attach it to your jerkbait leader. I used a 9” leader with a heavy-duty coastlok snap to fish this jerkbait and it more or less suspended after every tap I gave with the rodtip. The Fat Flipper is easy to use and you can aim for the horizon if you want. But once in the water, the fat flipper seems to move without any water resistance so a heavy rod is not a necessity. If you fish it with soft, gentle twitches of the rodtip, you can fish it like a glider. It swims left and right like a glider in a glide path of about a foot wide. If you fish it with long sweeps of 1-2 feet long, the lure flashes and darts and it creates a lot of flash in the water. The maximum running depth is about 4 feet deep, but if you should opt for a heavier leader, I think the Fat Flipper will sink slowly and you should be able to fish it deeper than 4 feet.

The colors on the Fat Flippers are new for this year. It’s quite a turn-around in comparison to the regular flippers. Phillip Griffiths has told me that from now on Gordon Griffiths will apply a thick epoxy coating on their lures when producing these lures. I’m sure these new lures will stand up to pike’s teeth a lot longer now. And I bet a lot of people will be pleased to hear this. The coating was somewhat weak on the older flippers but you will surely hear a lot more about these new jerkbaits from Gordon Griffiths!

Dirk Van Nieuwenhove