tips for flippin'

[fish2]

hey I was wandering what I am doing wrong with my flippin. I'm not very good with it and I have been practicing it a lot. Why do I always end up with a birds nest and my bait never goes that far? I don't know if I'm not using the right weight or what or if I have my brake system set wrong?

[woody]

I'm still learning too, I'm glad you asked that question.

[pig n jig]

For one thing, you have the technique names a bit backwards.

When Flipping you pull out enough line to where the jig reaches the depth your fishing and engage your reel and control the flipping with both the rod and line by hand.

Pitching is where you use your reel during the presentation.

[pig n jig]

The picture to the right is flipping.It is done in shallow water as the reel is not disengaged/engaged for the presentation.The line is controlled by hand by retreiving or releasing the amount of line needed.The only time you use the reel is to set the required line amount when the depth changes. I personaly do not flip in water deeper than 4 ft. Pitching uses the reel to underhand cast the jig to the designated target.

[fish2]

ha I thought I was doing something wrong and I was I was trying to put both techniques together. now it makes more sense thanks friend.

[pig n jig]

Adjusting the reel for pitching is sometimes difficult.This is really where you will notice a difference between reels.

If you list what reel your using to pitch, I can help you reach your goal easier.

I will try to narrow it down a bit for you.

I recommend using a 1/2 ounce jig or heavier for most pitching presentations.

Birds nests , backlashes, professional over run or whatever you call it is caused by excessive spool speed.Your spool rpms are faster than the line/lure is travelling.

If your reel starts to backlash in the beginning of the pitch,you need to apply more magnetic setting or centrifugal weights or both if you have them.

If your reel backlashes after the jig enters the water, you need to tighten your spool tension knob a bit more.

When your jig is reaching its destination, if you lift slightly upwards on your rod tip, it will stop your lures forward mometum and lets your jig softly drop through the water.

I hope this helps. Ivan

[lowrider]

and practice practice practice.

[pig n jig]

Also another thing I might add.I do not like a longer rod when pitching.I have a Saint Croix Avid flipping stick that is 7'3" long.That is borderline to being to long for pitching in my opinion.Longer rods are better suited for flipping presentations , especially as I fish from a deeper sided aluminum boat, I do not have the space for underhand pitching without raising my rod higher in the air.

I like a 6'10" rod with a softer tip action for pitching.This lets you pitch easier by loading the rod tip under a controlled underhand swing motion.Loading the rod tip so to speak allows you to pitch the jig further with less effort.

A softer tip allows you to feel the fish before it feels resistance so you can set the hook before it lets go.Not all days are like that but every once in a while the bite is really soft.Some people I have fished with didn't even know the fish had their jig until it pulled on the rod and 9 times out of 10 they still missed it because their first instinct is to pull back on the fishes resistance and not think to set the hook.Condition yourself to set the hook, smile when it was nothing and grin like the cat that ate the canary when there was a fish there.

[Jim80]

Nice breakdown p-n-j very informative , Once you get your reel dialed in it should be a little easier fish2 , I would suggest getting a bucket or something a long that line and practicing in your yard until you get the hang of it , it helps the process along a bit .


Jim

[lowrider]

i've found that in my yard practice it helps to stand on something that will mimic your distance off the water. a flatbed trailer (4 wheeler) works nice. if nothing else use a couple of 5 gallon buckets side by side. or just 1 if you have good balance

[Jim80]

I mostly fish from the bank so I stand near some trees and pitch jigs under low hanging branches into buckets it's done wonders .

Jim

[Basscrazie]

Great info guys..I use to fish from the bank and you get the cast down cause I get tired of replacing baits..

[Jigger]

What size lure are you trying to pitch? It's probably too light if you're getting a bunch of backlashes. Or your line may be too heavy for the bait you're trying to pitch. Like someone else already said, the bait has to be traveling faster than the reel spool or you get an overrun. You've still got to develop an "educated thumb" when you pitch. I'd tighten the brake down a little and ride the spool with my thumb a little more and up the size of my bait or go down a line size or two. That should help eliminate the backlashes.

As far as learning how to pitch or flip, the way I did it is to grind the hook off a 1/2 or 3/8 jig and practice in the den while you watch TV. Pitch under chairs, to a target, in a hat, to the cat, whatever. I used to do it by the hour until I could place a jig wherever I wanted it.

Pitching is my forte. I love to pitch to targets. I use a 7 1/2 ft. Falcon Original Flippin' stick. I've got two of them and they always go with me.

[keithdog]

I have to agree with pig n jig, especially about using heavier jigs to pitch with. I really got started pitching a little over a year ago. I found that using heavier weights was much easier when learning to pitch. After you get the hang of it, then it's easier to master pitching lighter jigs. Also, I HIGHLY recommend you purchase Kevin VanDams training video, Pitching To Heavy Hitters. It's available through Bass Pro Shops. It's full of very helpful info regarding many aspects of both pitching and flipping.

[lowrider]

http://www.basszone.com/2008quickflips/flip1.htm

here you go.

[66KingFisher]

I need to practice these two techniques myself, but for $100 i'll just set a few shot glasses in the corner of the room and go for it....lol.

[pig n jig]

Remember I said earlier about this is where you will notice a difference in different reels when pitching jigs ?

I should have said you will notice a huge difference between reels when trying to pitch with jigs and I will add especially when pitching lightweight or weightless lures.

I want a pitching reel to have a good smooth spool start up and I want the spool to stop when the lure/line stops.I do not want to have to rely on thumbing the spool during a pitch presentation.The good smooth spool start up is what seperates a good pitching reel from the not as good reels.

It's worth noting that many lower priced reels may have the same features as the high end reels but the parts used in each can be very different in quality and performance.

One thing you can do when learning to pitch is to add a drop or two of your favorite oil to your spool bearings.This slows the spool start up ,as you get into the flow of pitching the lure, the oil is working out of the bearing and the spool start up continues to get faster.It will help you will be able to learn at a slightly slower pace and it will bring you up to real time speed as the oil works out of the bearing while practicing and learning your pitching technique.I believe this trick speeds up learning and getting used to the pitching technique.

I hope this helps. Ivan

[fish2]

p-n-j I use a Quantum Energy PT E760 reel

[zooker]

Originally Posted by fish2

p-n-j I use a Quantum Energy PT E760 reel

one of better reels. your setting needs to be bait specific- each bait weighs differant- set the reel to let the bait fall rather quickly not slowly then put the brake setting in the number 3 position.line weight has alot to do with it.. i use 12 pound mono-ande-on both reels with lil porblem..

i have been using the pt 760 and 860 since they came out.. the 860 i set at brake position #2 and do most all my blade work with it..inculding skipping and pitchin a spinnerbait...yeah i said skippin-not a trick to try at a beginner stage..

zooker

[pig n jig]

Originally Posted by fish2

p-n-j I use a Quantum Energy PT E760 reel

Hey Fish 2, I sent a PM message to you in regards to your reel. P N J

[pig n jig]

Originally Posted by zooker

one of better reels. your setting needs to be bait specific- each bait weighs differant- set the reel to let the bait fall rather quickly not slowly then put the brake setting in the number 3 position.line weight has alot to do with it.. i use 12 pound mono-ande-on both reels with lil porblem..

i have been using the pt 760 and 860 since they came out.. the 860 i set at brake position #2 and do most all my blade work with it..inculding skipping and pitchin a spinnerbait...yeah i said skippin-not a trick to try at a beginner stage..

zooker

They are a great reel. I probably liked the E750 best.I found myself fishing that more than the faster speed reels for some reason.Ivan

[zooker]

paint comes off way to easy to be a GREAT reel pnj..


zooker

[pig n jig]

Originally Posted by zooker

paint comes off way to easy to be a GREAT reel pnj..


zooker

But the exterior coating doesn't effect the performance of the reel any. It just looks like you spent way to many hours out on the water fishing them.
That was the only reason why I sold the ones I had. I didn't notice the tour editions finish being the same way but I didn't keep them but 2 weeks before selling them. Ivan

[pig n jig]

Here is what I Basically sent to Fish2.

1. Turn your infinity brake sytem selector switch to its highest setting.

2. choose the lure selection and tie it to your line.

3. adjust the spool tension knob a so it starts to feel a little tension or feels like its starting to get snug. What this does is it rides on the end of the spool shaft and controls the speed of the spool rpms at the end of the cast.

4. Hold the rod with the rod tip about at the 10 o'clock position and engage the reels thumbar. The lure should remain where it was or slowly decends to the floor.

5 adjust your spool tension knob so the jig falls fairly freely to the floor but the spool stops the same times as the lure stops falling.

Note: I like to start out with a slower falling setting and as I explain further down the list, it will become clear as why I do.It basically prevents problems from the start to set it a little tighter.

6. Get comfortable pitching the jig at that setting.Make little adjustments to your brake selector switch to increase your pitching distance.Once your reel starts to birdsnest on the initial part of your pitch, you have adjusted the brake a hair to far, back it to a slightly higher brake setting.

7.As you have the brake set properly, you can loosen the spool tension knob in tiny incriments until the pitches start to birdsnest at the end of your pitches.Again adjust the spool tension knob tighter in small adjustments until the minor backlashes disappear.

8. You are now set properly for that particular jig weight.

Note; You will have to make adjustments when using different weight selections.

[Joel]

Learning to pitch on dry land has a few critical disadvantages. The biggest issue I had trying to learn this way was that when my jig hit the ground it just stopped, causing either a big, mean birds nest, or you had to thumb your spool to a instant stop. Repeating this over and over again ingrains the wrong message. You need to be able to spool your reel so that you jig continues to free fall to the bottom, hence, you will start to manually "feed" line out so that your jig isn't pulled back towards you once it's in the water. Also, you just want you jig to hit the water low land soft. Practicing on dry land doesn't allow you to gain this feel. Pitching into a bucket does make for learning what a particular wt'd jig feels like on you jigging setup, but the correct feel/action on the water will be somewhat different.

What I suggest if at possible, it to find a pond or lake with open water, and practice from the shore.

My jigging setup is a 7 ft MH rod with a fast action tip coupled with a Daiwa TDA 150A spooled with 50 lb Power Pro and a 3 ft 17 ft mono or flouro leader. I do not use leader line. I set the brake to 3 now, but started off with 5 for a full season. I also set the magnetic braking so that the jig almost free falls but not quite. You need to play with this setting to get it right for you. Also, use a 1/2 oz jig and trailer. Don't switch weights or type of lures.