Learn to Flip and Pitch and Become a Better Multispecies Angler
Anyone can learn make a long “bomb cast” or “hero cast” and hope to get bit. That’s why beginning bass anglers love to fire out a Rat-L-Trap or a Carolina Rig and cover water. It can be very effective at times. Learning that basic casting motion (and the ability to make an especially long cast) will translate to other types of fishing, but it doesn’t teach you as many lessons as making a short flip or pitch cast into heavy cover.
Hear me out.
Flipping involves using an engaged reel and a fixed amount of line to put lures into tight spaces. You drop a lure quietly into thick vegetation or trees, plan for a reaction bite, and muscle the fish out of cover. If you don’t do it right, you’ll end up with a lot of extra line in your “spare” hand and will be out of position. Pitching is also a close quarters presentation, but this time the reel is disengaged – you start with a length of line out and swing your jig or Texas Rig forward with a downward motion of the rod that allows the lure to shoot just above the water’s surface and enter a target zone quietly. With either technique, the goal is not covering a lot of water, but rather making surgical strikes, removing the lure and then making another. You’re in the strike zone almost all of the time.
Experienced bass anglers know how critical flipping and pitching are, yet beginners tend to resist them. Not only do they take some practice, but natural human tendencies tell us that: (a) there can’t possibly be bass within a rod’s length or two of the boat; and (b) the more water we cover the better.
As I’ve written before, learning different arm angles is critical to becoming a good bass angler. At some point you’re going to have access to a prime target that you simply cannot hit with a power overhand cast. You might need to go under a dock or under some overhanging trees. You might have a target in front of you or above you that prevents raising your arms. Or perhaps the heavy splash of the appropriate lure will scatter a bunch of spooky fish and prevent them from biting. That’s why learning to pitch and flip will instill so many lessons that apply across the board, whether you’re targeting stream trout, Amazon peacock bass or roosterfish in the rocks. Here are a few of them:
Ninety percent of the fish live in less than ten percent of the water – This lesson applies everywhere, from grayling in Alaska to bass in Mexico to tuna in Panama. Most of the water is devoid of your target species. The more time you can spend with your bait or lure in areas where the fish are located and potentially feeding, the more success you’ll have. Flipping and pitching will imprint upon your brain the importance of accuracy and efficiency.
Learn to manage line – The first time I fly fished for trout, and got a strike while I still had loose line around my feet, reminded me of flipping for bass on a place like Lake Okeechobee. You want the rod to load and stay loaded, so I wanted to get that fish on the reel, but I had to do so without creating slack. You also don’t want a bunch of line hanging around your legs or a boat cleat when a fish goes off on a blistering run. That forces a bit of forecasting – what am I going to do when that fish strikes to make sure my line is in the right position? I learned that from flipping.
Learn to assess angles and entry – When you’re flipping a jig or a heavy Texas Rig into thick grass or under a dock, you need to try to figure out not only where the bass is likely to be holding, but also which way it is likely to be facing. It’s the same with trout on a small stream. They want to exert as little energy as possible and get as full as possible. That’s a universal rule that I learned from close quarters bass fishing.
You only get one chance to make a first impression – When fish are shallow, or skittish, or even when they’re locked onto a feed, they still have primitive survival instincts that will lead them to ignore your lure or abandon the chase of it if something seems off. Flipping taught me to be as quiet as possible (Power Poles down!), not to saw the grass with my braid, and to pay attention to the sound of my lure’s splash. I’m awkward and not particularly coordinated, so I have to constantly remind myself to reduce my presence in the fish’s lair.
First strike is critical – When you flip into thick hydrilla, even with 65-pound braid and a 7’11” whipping stick, it’s imperative that the second you feel the strike you drive the steel home and get the fish moving toward the hole. Each second he’s diving in the grass, or wallowing around, is another chance for him to get loose. It’s no different from a rainbow trout that has a log jam in its sights, or a surface-feeding yellowfin tuna that goes straight down to 200 feet deep. Yes, there are many times when you have to let a fish play himself out, but your greatest chance of losing a trophy fish are at the strike and then again at the boat. Make the right move up front and you improve your chances of success exponentially.
Because I’ve spent decades pitching Senkos under docks, punching creature baits through the grass, and dropping jigs into shoreline laydowns, these lessons came pretty easily to me as we’ve expanded out species list over the past decade. When we went to Alaska and fished narrow streams for rainbows, Dolly Varden and grayling, I immediately grasped the value of a simple roll cast. I’ve never had any formal casting lessons, and if I had to make an 80’ cast to spooky bonefish I’d be trickscrewed, but put me in a situation where a short flick cast makes the most sense and at least I get the concept – and can minimize my mistakes with a little constructive criticism. When we go to Guatemala, the captains use teasers to bring the sailfish toward the boat, and then you employ a pitch bait to quietly get a hook to them, often right in the propwash. It’s not a matter of making a long cast, but rather a precise drift, directly in the feeding direction of pez vela.
If you can manage your presentations at short range, and then battling fish in close quarters, it distills all of the skills you’ll need for longer distance encounters – so you’ll be ready to expand out further without sacrificing fundamentals. Furthermore, you’ll be surprised at how many different fish, including true trophies, you can catch without ever making a long cast.
