Flipping And Pitching

[nickniescior]

Hey Guys and Gals, 

During this cold NJ winter when everything is frozen, I am teaching myself how to pitch and flip.

so I have 2 questions,

when you do the wrist motion from movie the rod tip high then low, is that a slow motion, or is it more of a quick, flicking motion.

Also how far can you accurately Pitch?

Thanks guys!

[Ozark_Basser]

When you get the hang of it, pinpoint accuracy at 30 ft is no problem with a fluid motion in the wrist. Longer rods help.

[Angry John]

Flipping rods are best 7'6 and longer because rod length plays directly into range. Pitching you can use a shorter rod for more accuracy. A flip is normally a few feet at most while pitching is for a lot further 20+ feet accurately

[Fishes in trees]

I don't flip very much, so I can't speak to that.  I pitch quite a bit.  I think that it is all about practice, the more you do it the better you get.  I will pitch at an object if I think I can hit it.  That varies from day to day, 30 to 40 feet is common.  The conservation lakes that I fish in are relatively clear water so I don't want to get too close.  In muddy/seriously stained water, I think that you can get closer.  The maneuver I work on most now, is when the bait hits the water, usually a little long ( on purpose ), then I drag it on the surface to where I want it to drop straight down. Then let it drop.   Flicking the spool with your thumb to pay out 6 or 8 feet of line and then stopping it again to avoid a backlash, while allowing for a directly vertical drop, as much as possible,  is a constant challenge for me.  Some days I do a good job with that maneuver, others I am picking out backlashes every few casts.  Seems like a heavy weight helps, the jika rigs that I pitch to deep weed lines are half ounce, minimum.

 

 I pitch wacky senkos quite a bit.  The weighted, weedless hook I use, o-ring and senko, all together weigh right around 3/8 oz.  I find that bait relatively easy to pitch out to 30 or 40 feet.  Longer distances are a challenge.   If I need to go longer than that, I'll pick up my spinning rig, with braid & fluorocarbon leader and throw a tx rigged stick bait, fluke, tube, whatever.

 

I generally start out with 5 or 6 rods rigged for pitching and then another couple of spinning rigs.  A couple of the bait casters will have similar jig/soft plastics combinations, but different line weights.  One is always rigged with 10 lb Abrazx for throwing a 1/4 oz jig/soft plastic combination.  I always carry a couple of similar weights jika rigs with different line weights.  Then there will be a dedicated wacky senko rod. The Fenwick AETOS with 15 lb Abrazx and a lighter rod with the 10 lb abrazx will see most of the action, but I like to have the others rigged and ready for back up.  I understand that many rods is overkill and when I fish as a co-angler, or have another guy in my boat, I cut down on the number of rigs somewhat.

[Montanaro]

Hey Guys and Gals,

During this cold NJ winter when everything is frozen, I am teaching myself how to pitch and flip.

so I have 2 questions,

when you do the wrist motion from movie the rod tip high then low, is that a slow motion, or is it more of a quick, flicking motion.

Also how far can you accurately Pitch?

Thanks guys!

The motion is somewhere in between. Depends on distance and how stealthy you want to be.

I can pitch 20 yards fairly accurately but it's not a realistic scenario.

[J Francho]

Maybe this will help. There's three casts: flip, flip punch, and pitch.

[EmersonFish]

There are a lot of variables when it comes to pitching, in particular (distance, weight of the bait, action of the rod, line type, obstructions in the way, etc...). The bottom line is, you want to get your bait to your target and enter the water as quietly as possible. The simple answer is, learn the basic pitching technique that I assume is demonstrated in many videos (I haven't looked myself), and practice with a number of different lures at a number of different distance and angles. What you'll find over time as you target fish this way more and more is that you are making a number of different casts to get the job done without even thinking about it. It becomes second nature to roll cast a bait to a more distant target one cast, then turn around and almost backhand swing your bait in behind the low hanging branches of a tree the very next cast. None of this stuff may look textbook, but it gets the job done. You just need time with a rod in your hand. You may flick your wrist more than the next guy. As long as you are hitting your targets, not spooking fish, and not picking line out of your spool every third cast, you are doing just fine.

Then you can start skipping baits. That's for another thread.

[nickniescior]

All of these answers were awesome, thanks everybody!

 

[corn-on-the-rob]

Baitcasters and pitching were new to me last season, it took me that whole time to realize something I was doing wrong but it was subtle. When I would make a pitch I would almost push forward with my hand that is on the rod trying to gain more distance. The best thing I can compare this to is when people who havent thrown a knuckle ball much try to push the ball instead of a normal throwing motion. I stopped trying to push it further and realized the distance was proportional to the speed that the tip went from low to high during the motion. Saved me energy and gained distance.