Denny Brauer - Advanced Flipping Pitching Jigging (1996)

hi folks i'm denny brauer and i want to welcome you to what i feel is one of the finest flipping and pitching and deep water jigging segments that we've ever put together i think in this segment you're going to find some things that are definitely going to help make you a better fisherman stay tuned for what i feel is one of the most action-packed flipping pitching and jigging films that we've ever done [Music] oh yes took off for that deep water [Music] i've got the worst job in the world i really do i mean look at my hand already look at they're tearing it up and here i've got this bass that he's wanting me to do the same thing he's wanting me to unhook it come on jump get off of there do it yourself i'm tired unhooking these things i bet you folks hate it when you have that problem what's going to surprise you is we're filming this video on public water i know you've seen a lot of fishing shows and probably a lot of videos and a lot of them get shot on private ponds and phosphate pits and places where fishing's real easy well fishing is real easy today but we've hit it right and we've actually hit it on a public body of water a place where any of you can go out fishing and we're doing it at a time of the year that's in my opinion not the best to really be showing you this technique we're doing it during the warmer months we're looking at water temperature that's running anywhere from 85 to 90 in some of these shallows and i know a lot of the bigger fish are forced out deeper and we can back off these points with a jig and we've shown you some of that action and catch some of those bigger fish i would love it if we could catch a five to seven eight pound fish every flip up here shallow but that's not really the intent of this here video that intent is to show you some pointers to show you the techniques and hopefully make you a better fisherman and i think we've hit it right i mean with this many fish catches if you don't get an idea how i make most of my money you never will whoa fish what are you trying to do [Music] i know what you're trying to do you're trying to get away aren't you oh that's a pretty bass right there about a three and a half pounder ate that og let's catch another one before the wind blows us away [Music] there's one whoa come here dog that's a nice fish there right in that little weed point come here i want to talk i want to talk to you a little more there we go there's a pretty bass look at how he's hooked look down that big old mouth got him right in the roof of the mouth there right where he's supposed to be hooked there we go good old flipping fish doesn't get to me a whole lot more fun than that folks if you don't like flipping you probably don't like fishing there's a nice little fish that's a good way to start the morning nice little jig fish yeah that's a pretty one with that jig come here yeah well that's a fat fish that's probably two and a half pound fish there he is again oh there's a big one there oh he acts like he's the king of the pack [Music] jump for us yeah yeah i know you'll come off if you jump but i want to see you come on yes oh yeah that's a big one where are you going which side you're coming yeah we are having fun now come on jump again for the camera we don't care if you get away we're going to let you go anyway come on oh you're too big you're too big oh come to me yes you are a beauty [Music] there's one even right in the weeds that's a pretty one that's a chameleon brown jig we're in an area here where the water's a little colder or a little clearer i should say and i switched to that brown brown's just a little better clear water color than the black and blue for me probably my number one flipping pitching bait is a jig it's probably the number one bait in history of bass fishing as far as amount of dollars won and numbers of big fish caught it's just a dynamite bait it's my personal confidence bait and and there's reasons for that when i'm fishing a bait right in the middle of heavy cover it's easier for me to shoot that jig because it's a compact bait into a small hole a lot easier than a big old lizard or a worm and plus it just seems to attract bigger strikes and boy big fish make me money and i don't think any of you folks would be unhappy with catching the biggest fish you ever caught so i'm going to talk a little bit about jigs the different weights the colors what i use for trailers on them and then we'll talk about some of the other flipping baits but let's start with the jig if i had one color to choose from that would be it right there black and blue for some reason all around the united states a lot of the water color we fish is conducive to using a bait that color very very good color choice dirty water my first choice of color since we're on color would be that right there texas craw it's black got a little bit of chartreuse a little bit of pumpkin tied in and that's become a real real favorite there's another good choice black with bright chartreuse yellow can be a good dirty watercolor for those of you in the southern part of the country especially in the springtime of the year texas is a renowned area for using a black jig with this hot pink or red what we call texas red in there in fact we just come out with a bright red jig just for that situation so keep in mind the area you're fishing at times there's a local favorite a local color don't be afraid to match it'll help you catch a few more fish this is another example white years ago nobody fished a white jig unless they were fishing for stripers now everybody's fishing a white jig for bass especially around vegetation and clear water when they're feeding on shad this emulates a shad real good so that's a good color choice to have in your tackle box we've already covered the black and blue now let's cover natural colors these are the clear water colors your pumpkins your pumpkin greens this is what we call a a chameleon crawfish it's my favorite clear watercolor it's also a good color when fish around boat docks in clear water during the summer time when they're feeding on bluegill because if you put a kind of a trailer that'll match that pumpkin pumpkin green trailer behind there it actually looks like a bluegill in the water when you're swimming it if you're fishing on the bottom it looks like a crawdad so a lot of these colors it depends on what zone you're fishing them in how effective they're going to be but as you can see in my tackle box those are the basic colors i carry and i just match the color to the time of year and to the water color and take it from there as far as weights i've got a zone in my taco box here of quarter ounce i've got a zone of 3 8 and i've got a little area that i've got a half ounce once in a great while uh i'll have a need for a one ounce jig and that's say i'm in the southern part of the country where there's matted vegetation all across the water and i've run into this actually up north too on a few lakes to where i've got to punch the jig down through that mat of grass then that one ounce jig can be very very handy so keep that in mind but what to look for in jigs as far as style i like this type of head it just seems to come through the brush easier without getting hung up it comes through the vegetation very well i like the line tie turned sideways like that i feel it allows you to hook a higher percentage of fish and this is the new jig that i designed for strike king it's the daddy brauer pro model and that it's that way for a reason to put more fish in the boat the weed guard is a very flexible weed yard it's got a tournament grade weed guard in it which allows you to come through the brush but it will flex to where if that fish just barely bites down on it you're going to be able to hook him i've got a big double rattle on the back of this bait that makes a tremendous amount of noise i'm sure you can hear that over the microphone and on the back of the rattle i've got a little spur there almost like a spur on a worm hook so that when you're using soft plastic and you thread that crawdad on there that spur helps keep your plastic from sliding down a neat neat feature this particular hook is a good needlepoint mustad hook and a good way to test whether your jig hooks are right is just put them on your fingernail and if they'll slide they're not sharp enough if they'll stick they're ready to fish you want a needle point you don't want a cutting edge a cutting edge when you set the hook with heavy line will cut a big hole in the fish's mouth you need something that'll stick so stick with those needle point hooks and i think you'll be a little bit happier but rattles you know when to use them when are they good when are they bad right now i'm using them 100 of the time i think they're an advantage now once every fisherman in america gets to throwing rattles then maybe it'll there will become a time in the future where a quiet jig will generate more strikes but right now this is the only jig i'm fishing it's got that big old rattle in there and i can really use it in that heavy cutter cover to help attract fish okay what do i put behind these baits i never fish a jig by itself i know there's some anglers that do but personally i feel that it's naked without something on behind it my number one choice of all is that right there that is the junior size strike king bohog you put it on behind the jig and it's probably the size of the average crawdad that swims in the water how do you hook them that's always been a question that i get asked a lot at seminars do you go through the fat first or do you go through the hide first i like to go through the fat first you just find that hole there and you slip it in that way you've got the fatty part down i think it looks more natural that way and with these two-tone frogs like this black and blue one you've got the black the dark side up and if you stop and think about it but everything i know of that swims in the water it's lighter side is its belly whether it's a bluegill a crawdad a shad and you want that down it's going to look more natural this lighter side down plus it's going to have better action it's not going to ball up as bad it'll help you hook more fish speaking of balling up i'm sure everybody that's fished jigs has had a problem where they've set the hook and they come back the fish got off and there they were their hook was buried right into their pork frog since we've got this rattle on the shank of the hook it actually keeps the pork frog back on the bin where that very very seldom happens if you're not using my jig a little tip is just get a piece of plastic worm about an inch long slip it on to the shank of your jig then put your pork frog on and it'll keep it back here where it belongs but i think that'll help you catch more fish but that's my favorite size pork trailer right there uh real cold water where i want to slow it down and i'm in an area where there's some great big old fish then i'll go to the senior cut of pork which is a bigger cut slows the bait down even more as it falls has a little bit more action but in cold water i like to stick to the frog type cut i don't want a bait that's got a whole lot of action because the metabolism of the bass is so slow they're not in a chasing mood and they know something that's got a lot of action is not natural now once the water warms up and it gets hot there's a little trailer out called the strike king pigtail it's got these action legs and they actually swim as it's going to the bottom it looks very natural and i probably use it more than any other cut of pork or any any other trailer during the warmer months of the year when i'm jig fishing neat neat neat trailer those are the three cuts of pork i stick with i i don't experiment any further than that the only thing i will do different once in a while when i want to match up a certain color say i want some bright chartreuse that i want to add to this here particular jig i will use one of these regular old big claw crawdads i usually snip it off right there where it changes from a worm body to a crawdad body i'll just pinch it off and shorten it up the reason i want it shorter like that is i don't want it way out behind the bait where they have an opportunity to just nip the pinchers slide it up there about a half inch thread it in behind that rattle look at how neat of a bait that makes you're ready to go fishing and you don't have to worry about the pork drying out so this is a favorite combination amongst a lot of people during warmer weather when you're jig fishing is to go to some type of plastic trailer rather than pork i do however think that a fish will hang onto pork longer they probably like it a little better so under tough conditions you probably are better off using the fork but this gives you more options color wise and you can get into all different colors here's the color i was talking about when i'm trying to emulate a bluegill i think that imitates it about as perfect as anything you take one of these jigs like that and put in front of it and you've got a pretty good bluegill combination or if you're working it and crawling it on the bottom in real clear water it probably looks like a natural colored crawfish so don't be afraid to mix it up you can see my selection of different plastic trailers i've got here i even have them in different sizes you can see the difference between the four inch and the three inch right there real tough conditions if you're fishing some of the river systems where there's not a lot of big fish bites are hard to get i would probably downsize to the three inch and actually trim the jig down and this is something a lot of people don't do as far as trimming jigs you can bunch the skirt up and you can cut the skirt off basically at the back end of the hook i just make kind of a little semi-circle cut i also come up here to the weed yard cut the top corner off that weed guard so it's a little more compact and that makes a smaller profile bait and i think you end up hooking more fish and that's really about as extensive and complicated as i try to make my jig fishing these are the two boxes i carry one completely full of jigs another completely full of plastic trailers and i also got a crate of different colored uh pork frogs that i carry for certain situations and then i keep experimenting during the day if one thing's not working try something else something i've really noticed that makes a difference is in cold water the speed of fall of the bait when you're flipping there's times they won't hit it if it goes zoomed to the bottom they want that slow fall warm weather there's times they won't hit it if it's too slow they want it getting to the bottom in a hurry they want that reaction strike so experiment with different weights keep in mind when you're flipping and pitching how that bait is falling is just as important as when you're crankbaiting on how fast you're reeling there's no difference it's just a difference in a horizontal versus a vertical so if you keep that in mind i think you're going to catch more fish [Music] there we go boy i saw the weeds move there that was a neat [Music] a deal come aboard yes [Music] you folks want to pay attention to when you're flipping weeds like this and if you see the weed shake next to your bait a lot of times it's an indication that the fish is turned and moved to the bait so really be prepared for your for your line to take off after that happens yes sir he was buried right up in them even though it's early in the morning a lot of times they like to seek out that cover i had that little pigtail trailer on the back of there that has that action as it falls he just couldn't handle that it looked too much like supper to him or breakfast i guess [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] folks what we've got here is probably one of the best examples of great flipping cover you could ever ask for we've got two laying down trees coming off the bank that cross forming an excellent sanctuary for a bass to hide ambush prey whatever but if you can find places like this on your lake those are excellent situations to flip and pitch jigs worms or whatever the bait may be right into the middle of these bass get in there for the shade they're hiding waiting to ambush the bait fish the crawfish or whatever that's coming by so don't be afraid to get in there where they live laying down trees are great great places to flip and pitch especially after cold fronts if you get a cold front situation that comes into your lake a great tip is to go to wood for some reason fish like to go to that wood and hold there tight a lot of times it takes several flips real close into the target but usually the key spot is the heaviest piece of of the exact exact piece of cover for this uh two trees here would be right where they cross right there where the two trees intersect would probably be where the biggest bass lives now if you've got drop and water conditions on your lake move out to the end of the tree that's probably where the fish is going to be if the lake's coming up move on in shallower and get closer to the bank do exactly what the lake level is doing and you're probably going to catch more fish another great fishing situation folks is wherever you have wood mixed in with weeds weeds are great cover wood's great cover when you have the two together it makes it a special spot it's like a magnet to the bass something else you might want to look for is where you have a weed bed end and it turns into bare bank a lot of times so fish will set up right there where you have that edge once in a while it could be big rocks turning into small rocks but anytime you have a change pay a lot of attention because that's where you're going to get a lot of your bites and also where your weeds make a point those fish will relate to the points they'll relate to the pockets when you get that bite pay a lot of attention on you know what was the situation was that fish on the outside of the weeds the inside did the weeds make a point did they make a pocket was it back in a bay was it out on the main lake you start to put all those things together and you will catch more fish here's a good one come here right in the middle of those weeds yeah that's a nice nice flipping fish right there pretty pretty fish a little a little tip folks when you catch those fish most of us are releasing them nowadays always grab them by the jaw like that that way you don't take a lot of slime off them you don't hurt that fish you can unhook him put him right back in and he's going to be a lot bigger the next time you catch him another good tip for places to look for to find those bass is you can see how we have the overhanging branches coming off the bank where it makes that little shaded area shade is just a great great place for bass to gang up especially on bright sunny days a lot of times you'll be going down a bank and it'll be all sunny and then you get to a little section that's shady right where you have the contrast where it goes from the sun to the shade is an excellent place to look for fish and if you just happen to have a laying down tree in that shade that makes it double good again you've got a combination of cover let's see if we can't catch one out of it well you talk about a perfect pitching place right there where those logs come off the bank where it's shaded that is about as nice as it can get right there make it hit the water soft let it go straight to the bottom on a slack line pick up and feel if he's there if he's not shake it a couple times work it through the branches you don't get a bite bring it on out and put it into the next little hole in the cover where you think he might be hiding don't be afraid to get right in the middle of that stuff that's why we use heavy line in the flipping and pitching technique so that we can winch them out of there you got to go where they're living because a lot of times they're not going to come to the bait you got to go to them well there should be one living there he's probably living there whether he wants to bite or not it's the deal a lot of times i'll make a pitch or a flip into an area where i know that there's no way i can get the fish out but if i can get him to bite and get him hooked a lot of times i can take the boat into him and then figure out how to get him what we've got here is we've got a stump that's sitting right out from the grass and i'd pitched a black and blue jig in there and had a fish hit it real hard but didn't take it so something you need to try when a fish hits a bait like that doesn't get it is switched to a different color i switched to white maybe he'll hit that maybe he didn't like that black and blue once in a while you just need to lay the jig down and pick a spinner bait up or a topwater bait and give that fish a different look once you locate him don't leave him until you try several different changes the baits changes the colors in order to try to catch him and then if that doesn't work don't be afraid to come back an hour later he may be more in the mood to eat the bait rather than just bump it one other little thing you might try when those fish are hitting them bait short or just bumping them and dropping them and not taking them is get some scent put scent on that bait i think it really makes a difference especially for the bigger fish it makes the bait a little slicker it'll come through the cover easier it reflects light it's it's more slimy it'll reflect light like something that's natural in the water and i think they hang on to it a little longer so whenever they're short striking i drowned it into some scent and boy it makes a lot of difference on the number of strikes i get another little thing that i'll do since i fish tournaments is right before a tournament i'll take a jar of pork frog and empty a little of that formula that they put in to preserve it and put some sand in there and let that pork absorb that scent and i don't i think it probably cuts back on the life of the pork but it'll sure get you more strikes jump you little bass jump you don't like that hook in your mouth he was out there i pulled it away from the weeds and come on there you go boy he flat inhaled it it's a nice little bass i remember many a tournaments i could have used one like this there we go just like going to the dentist isn't it well that's a healthy little fish about a two pounder let's see if we can get another one he probably come off the end of that log right there i was just working the jig out from the weeds and the log flipping pitching jig fishing i think equipment's very very important i know back in the years when i was a fishing guide there were a lot of people were using the wrong equipment and it really kept them from catching a high percentage of fish so i'm going to go through and tell you about the equipment i use when i use it how i use it and why i think it will give you an advantage and i think a good place to start is with the rod i pretty much settled on a seven and a half foot rod for flipping and pitching i think it's a comfortable uh length for me i'm a pretty good sized person if you're a little shorter you might want a little rod but i i want to get caught up in using too short a rod because you really need the leverage to get the fish out of the heavy cover and the longer rod will actually let you get a little more distance in your flipping and pitching naturally in tournaments the longest length we can use is eight foot so we are limited there but seven and a half foots a good choice do not go shorter than six and a half action wise i know a lot of my fellow anglers out there use real stiff rods to flip with and i'm not saying that's wrong everybody has different arm strength and different speed at setting the setting the hook i like a little bit of a loose tip in the rods that i use and this is what i call an 80 20 action 80 of this rod is pretty stiff and the last 20 percent has got a little flex to it and that really allows me to do a couple of things number one if i'm flipping i'm fishing real close to the fish and there's a lot of impact there when i set the hook if that big old five pound fish is in that brush pile and i jerk hard and there's no give something's going to happen either i'm going to end up tearing a bigger hole in the fish's mouth and he's probably going to jump and shake the bait or i'm going to break my line it's usually a negative situation so what that rod is doing is giving me a little bit of a shock absorber which helps cushion that hook set and then the backbone takes hold to punch the hook in the rest of the way and you still end up i think landing a higher percentage of fish the other thing that i think the flexible rod allows you to do is get more distance pitching if you're using a real stiff rod you end up just lobbing the bait but with a little bit of flex in that tip it actually acts as kind of a spring to fling that bait out there and it's just more comfortable to fish with i can flip with this rod i can pitch with this rod and i can cast and i actually end up using this same rod a lot of times when i'm fishing deep structure and in this video you're going to see some of the deeper brush pile fishing fishing on stumps off of points some of the summertime jig fishing patterns that i'm using the same rod for that that i actually flip and pitch with now we will be fishing a lake that the water is fairly stained if i was on a real clear body of water and had a downsized lines and go to lighter fishing line i would go to a little lighter action rod and then i dropped down to a six and a half foot rod because it doesn't give me quite as much leverage and i'm not as apt to break that lighter line uh by light line i'm usually talking no lighter than 10 pound test 10 to 14 pound test line is light line for jig fishing and casting when i'm in the flipping situation i very seldom ever go with lighter than 20 pound test because i'm putting it into heavy cover and i need the strength to get the fish out of there uh once in a great while in a clear water situation uh boat docks that do not have a lot of cover you might want to downsize to 17. but if the water's dirty and we're in the middle of those brush piles i've usually got 25 or 30 pound tests lying on i like the monofilament some people like the braided lines that's a matter of choice but with the monofilaments i stick to the 25 and 30 in dirty water line color that's endless it's really what you prefer i like clear line in the clearer water i can still see it pretty good if i'm fishing a lake that's got a lot of vegetation in it i'm fishing green line the regular moss green line because it matches the vegetation and i think it's harder for the fish to see in flipping and pitching because especially in flipping where it's a dirty water situation i i don't think it matters if you use fluorescent line if that's what it takes for you to see that line and to determine when you're getting a strike go ahead and use it okay we've talked about the rod we talked about the reel or we've talked about the line the reel is another important thing in flipping and pitching i prefer bait casting equipment i think it gives you more control i've seen anglers use spinning equipment and and are very good with it but i like the leverage that a bait casting reel gives me this particular reel is six point three to one it's got a it'll pick a lot of line up in a hurry that's an advantage as you will see during this tape where we have some fish hit the bait and actually run at the boat being able to take that line up to catch up to that fish and set the hook is very important so a high speed reel can be an advantage if you're a tournament angler another place that's an advantage is say you pitch over here to a stump let it go to the bottom shake it a couple times and don't get a bite boy you can get it back in a hurry and get it into the next spot and at the end of the day because you're using a high speed reel you're probably going to get more presentations in than your fellow competitors so equipment does have advantages but the key is find what works for you if you're losing fish having trouble placing the bait where you want to whatever it's time to look at some of the equipment that we use because we make our living with it but if everything's going good you're able to get that lure where you want to you're landing a high percentage of your fish you're not breaking lines stick with what you're using because you're doing things right come out from underneath that vote what are you trying to do to me come here darlene quit that fighting yeah oh that's a nice one yeah come here we are having fun now come here give up the fight yeah that's a pretty fish he's laying in about eight foot of water just kind of crawled over one of them stumps gave it a little twitch and boy did he inhale it i don't know once in a while they want it jumped once in a while they want it crawled that one just kind of wanted it jumped over that stump let's see if there's another one there there we go he caught me handcuffed folks that wasn't very nice of that bass i'm going to show you exactly what happened in case you didn't catch that and this is liable to happen to you when you're fishing i'm pulling it back out just right there to make my next flip and he grabs it you've got two choices jerk like i did and hope you don't get all tangled up in the real handle like i did i got lucky i still got him or if it's a big fish and he hits and you can tell it's a big fish you're probably better off just to throw the line back at him get down here take a couple cranks and then get a good hook set to where you're back here and have more control over the fish but you will see that happen when you are flipping once in a while when they're a little tentative about taking a bait they'll wait until that bait starts to move away from the cover and if they catch you like that it can be it can be pretty exciting at times a nice fish don't be afraid to switch colors i was fishing a black and chartreuse what we call a tri-colored jig and getting a few strikes on it but in this darker water i went to an even darker bait to black and blue and it seemed to make a difference on the number of bites so that's why we carry a lot of different colors a lot of different weights since i've moved out of the weeds into deeper water i've gone to a heavier jig when i was up in the weeds i was fishing quarters and three-eighths now that i've moved out in that seven to twelve foot zone i've gone to a half-ounce jig where i can feel them stumps down there a little better get down there a little faster where the fish are at and utilize my time a little better so be willing to experiment with color and experiment with the weight of the jigs and you'll probably catch more fish on jigs more consistently there are several different presentations we use to get the bait into these different areas and one i want to start with is the actual flipping and you know what's enough lying what isn't enough line i think an easy way to judge is just get a handful of line hold it out beside you with the rod straight up and have that bait about even with the reel i think that's a good amount of line to work with now you're just dipping the rod down you're getting that bait swinging just practice the swinging of the rod the dipping of the rod i'm left-handed so i'm always using it with my left hand if you're right-handed then you're going to have to switch hands as the bait is actually falling but once you get that motion down and get that bait swinging back and forth then you can see what i'm doing with this other hand i've got the line sliding through my fingers that's how you get the distance don't get in the habit of doing this i see a lot of people flipping this way where they're hanging onto the line that's what i call dabbling bad things happen when you're hanging on the line you get a bite now you're going to end up with a bad line cut it's going to be wrapped around your reel handles you're not going to get a good hook set the end results are not going to be good so practice this practice bringing this hand right back down to the reel the reel is now engaged i like to hang onto my line too but i like to feel it right here in front of the reel that's a very good place to help it'll help you tell a little bit more about what your bait's doing and you're also in position now to do two things if you get the bite you're in position to set the hook if you don't get the bite you're in position to bring the bait right back and make your next flip just letting it slide over those fingers that's all there is to flipping very important not to try to reach out too far like that if you over flip now your line's tight and if the fish hits you can't get a good hook set so what i try to do is when i make the flip my rod tips at that angle now i can follow the lure to the bottom keeping slack line just kind of following it down as it settles with the rod tip until it hits bottom giving it a couple hops bringing it right back a very important key to flipping is keeping the boat the same distance from the bank or the line of cover the grass line the boat dock whatever it is you're fishing those you that are good at boat control are going to be good at flipping those of you that aren't are going to have some problems you're going to be too close and too far away so it takes a little practice i like to use a foot control trolling motor right now i'm using a 1224 evinrude trolling motor on the front of my boat which is very very quiet allows me to sneak up on those fish and allows me to maneuver that boat without having to worry about steering it with my hand or i can use both hands for the flipping technique very good technique in dirty water or heavy cover where you can get close to the fit when you get into those clear water situations where you're going to scare them if you get right up on top of them and try to flip or if the cover's a little sparse or if you need to shoot it way up underneath a boat dock then we go to the pitching technique rather than flipping and where with the flipping we had the handful of line now we don't do that but we still have the bait about even with the reel i i think it's a good idea when you're first learning to pitch to maybe grab the back of your trailer just to help direct it a little bit and you're just doing an underhand swing just shooting it out after a little practice you'll become very good at this letting the rod do the work you're still keeping it low to the water where it doesn't make a loud splash as you can see on some of the footage we shot today where we were skipping it underneath boat docks and that you can get to a lot of places that most people can't get if you get real proficient at the actual pitching part i even get to where i skip it right across the top of the water like that shoot it underneath the target you can develop a lot of distance you get a lot more range than you do with actual flipping you can see i can reach way over there with an underhand pitch that's a long long usually i don't fish that far but you can see if you combine flipping and pitching how versatile you are in heavy cover fishing there's not a hiding place a bass can get that you can't reach one other little thing that you might like this to impress your friends i don't know i like to use this deal whenever there's a camera crew around but once in a while we'll have overhanging trees or we'll have a boat dock above us where if we got this rod up here trying to flip or even trying to make some of those pitches we're hitting the cover i use a little roll cast i get my two or three foot of line out just make a little circle and shoot it off and you can keep that rod tip down real low and make that little loop cast and shoot it in underneath that cover that looks good that'll impress your friends as long as you go the right way you go the wrong way you're liable to knock yourself out and look pretty silly so keep in mind that you're just making a little loop with it just going in a circle trying not to hit your rod and then releasing the line at the right time and that bait will just shoot off so those little different casts will get you into those heavy cover places where those big bass live and are going to get you some excellent results we've talked a lot about the technique uh the equipment the different baits we use in flipping and pitching and jig fishing but when should you do it i think that's very important what seasons are best what weather conditions are best and i think that's where a lot of anglers have a problem they're trying to kind of force a technique when it's not really right and i can maybe simplify that a little bit for you and i don't always guess right either but what i try to do is after real bad weather situations cold fronts etc boy i like to pick that flipping stick up and go to the heaviest cover i can find i look at a bass like this analyze where was he a week ago where was he when you caught him last if he was up on a shallow flat that didn't have any cover and you get a big old weather system come through he's probably going to move deeper he's going to drop into one of them creek channels or if he backs off a point and suspends he's going to be a hard fish to catch but if you got some brush piles up there flooded willow trees or grass beds boat docks whatever your cover example might be he's just going to get tight to that cover and i'm going to be able to catch him with the flipping and pitching technique because of the cold front rather than letting it defeat me sunshiny days are also excellent flipping situations because they force those bass tighter to cover then i'm trying to get into those shady spots you know i'm always analyzing what's the weather doing to the fish i'm also looking at the water temperature springtime of the year uh fall of the year and on into the winter those colder water months are normally when a higher percentage of fish are shallow especially the bigger fish and around them shallow water targets that are conducive to good flipping and pitching once in a while on some lakes during the summer time you can have a good flipping and pitching bait but spring and fall are your two prime months for it so also keep that in mind dirty water conditions are a plus versus clear water conditions in dirty water you normally have a better flipping and pitching bite it also pertains to what's the water level doing if a lake's dropping normally the flipping and pitching bite is not near as good as if the lake's rising a rising lake i would get to the bank and i would pick that jig up or the lizard or whatever the bait may be put it on one of these long rods and get to hunting for that heavy cover and i think you're going to catch more fish so analyze the season analyze the water temperature analyze the water color just analyze everything you can and put all these pieces of the puzzle together and i think you'll have a better idea when to pick this up and when to lay it down and try something else the question a lot of people have is exactly how do i work the jig well when i make my initial presentation i always let it go straight to the bottom on a slack line following it down with a rod or if i'm in deeper water then i'll feed line out as it settles down until it gets to the bottom and then i think it's the most critical part and i think this is where a lot of people make their mistake especially with the new rattling baits on the market because they're in such a hurry to get that bait shaking and making noise i think a lot of times they pull it right out of the fish's mouth so as that as that lures falling you watch if the line twitches moves sideways does anything wrong stops falling before it gets to the bottom i think you should go ahead and jerk if your bait's mated to the bottom and you've had no indication that you've had a strike the best tip i can give you is really be careful when you pick that bait up don't get in a hurry to get that rattle sounding you need to weigh that bait have an awareness level of what that bait should feel like as you go to pick up on it so many of your jig bites are just going to feel like man there's moss on it there's a leaf on it that's some of the biggest bass you're going to have bites you you're never going to feel it's just going to be a little added weight and if i go to pick up and that jig's heavier than it should be i drop that rod tip down so that i've got slack in my line take a couple of cranks and jerk straight up usually keeping the rod underneath my arm for leverage and i only jerk one time i think if you jerk correct the first time you want to keep your line tight uh this two or three hook set deal i don't think is a good deal jerk once jerk hard you got that heavy line it's not going to break keep the line tight a lot of times i'll take it to my side then to keep the fish from jumping especially in tournament competition i don't like to see them jump because that's when a lot of them can shake the bait and get loose so i'll try to keep the rod tip a little lower if you're just out fun fishing and you don't care whether he gets off and you like to see him jump like we do for a video once in a while then you can have it up high but keep the rod position in the right place when you go to set the hook and be aware of how heavy that jig feels if you pick up on it and it feels too light he may have it be coming at you they do that a lot of times they'll grab it and come at the boat and you pick up and you you can't find your jig boy crank up and catch up with that bait and then set the hook uh if i pick up on it it feels like it should that's when i'll get there and jump it up and down get that rattle to working make that rattle work for you to attract those fish and then bring it out of the cover and make that pitch or that flip right into the next target and go through the same process all over again i'm trying to put it in as many places during the day's time that i possibly can where i think they might live and i'm always hunting for that subtle strike jig fishing is not easy but it can be the best way i know of to catch the biggest bass of your life [Music] there's another one yeah oh there's a good fish yes oh are we having fun now i hate my job this job just didn't any fun whoa [Music] yeah darling you're too big you're too big come on board yes what a nice fish let's go get another one we don't have time to mess around they are biting now this could be in every cast spot once in a while you'll find a place like that where you barely get it in there another one's got it get that school turned on and keep them turned on there we go again yeah all right we got them biting one gets the rest of them excited if you get that school excited you can just really catch some fish [Music] once in a while the jig isn't the right choice of baits whether you're flipping or pitching or casting so you need some options and the natural options are going to plastic worms and lizards we can go to the extremes which i'm going to show a few of them but probably my second choice right after the the jig would be the lizard especially during the spawning season for some reason fish on targets they just hate lizards and you're going to generate a lot more strikes with a plastic lizard than you will it with a jig at times so don't be afraid to put it on and what i'm doing is i i like this type of bullet sinker it's got the little screw in deal there uh the favorite weight would be anywhere from a 3 16 to a half ounce this particular one's a 3 8 and the hook i like a straight shank hook if you can see that right there that's a style of hook that i want to go flipping with and with your flipping hooks you need a fairly sturdy hook because you're using heavy line and you've got to get those fish out of heavy cover i've recently come out with this new flipping hook right here this is one of the smaller sizes but uh mustad's helped me develop that and it's got vanadium steel in it it's very very strong hook and makes an excellent flipping hook so you might find that choice on the market and it'll be labeled as a flipping hook but with the lizard i'm just threading it through the head down about just starting around the bend and then pop it out slide it on up pop the line in there thread it around move the bait up a little bit and just slide it down and work it a little bit in there make a channel and just get that point so it's barely touching through then i'll slide that slip sinker down and the neat thing about it you can screw that slip sinker right into the head of the lizard so now that you you've got a compact bait and if you pull it over a branch and it gets to that position your sinker doesn't go sliding down here and go think to where you think you gotta bite it's just like a jig now because it's compact years ago i used to toothpick that slip sinker so it'd stay next to my piece of plastic but now with these new new type of bullet weights you don't have to do that that's a neat neat combination and that's how i rig it that's very weedless it'll come through all types of heavy cover when i am fishing that lizard around those spawning areas flipping and pitching it these are three of my favorite color choices if though if the water's a little on the clear side i like to go with the watermelon color a little dirtier i like this what we call green pumpkin or dark punk and some people call it that's a good choice uh another good choice is what we call pumpkin with this bright green flake those three are probably my favorite choices when it comes to the lizards something else that'll get you a lot of bites when you want to downsize is just taking a regular crawdad and forget putting it on behind a jig texas rig it just like i did that lizard and you catch a lot of fish flipping it by itself in fact for some people that is their number one flipping bait just a texas rigging a crawdad some other popular worms and i want to talk a little bit about worms because there's so many different choices out there i think it gets confusing and i'm going to lay just a few of my favorites out here to where you can look at them and i can show you where i use them and why okay right here see how we have the hook tail on those two worms those are great flipping worms in dirtier water because as they fall they put out a lot of pressure waves to help help attract fish if i'm fishing vegetation then i probably want a bait that's not so dominant a little subtler in the water and i like these ribbon type tail worms i will be flipping them down to the grass they come through the vegetation better they'll come through bulrushes that's how i decide what worm i'm using color wise the june bugs the red shads those are all popular colors but it's just what you've got confidence in normally if you're confused about color you can go to a dark color like a june bug a black grape or just a straight black worm and catch a lot of fish in all different watercolor situations worms allow you to do it's unlimited what you can do color wise that's what the manufacturers like about it that's why you got 200 pounds of them you don't need them all for some of you folks on the clear water areas certain parts of the country where fishing is real hard and you're not fishing for those giant fish you i realize you do have to downsize baits and a logical choice is going to the little four inch ring worm type bait or to the tube baits your gitzit type baits those are great choices you can rig them weedless you can pitch them into the same places we're pitching the bigger baits there are numbers bait they'll get you more bites you probably need to fish them on a little bit lighter line and therefore your odds go up or breaking off a big fish if you do get a bite but at times when fishing's real tough you do need to downsize and you do need to go to baits like that so give those a try also the more i'm in this business the the more i also learn i can look back a couple of years ago in one of the pro-am tournaments where i'm flipping boat docks and pitching a jig and flipping it around the piers of the boat docks and and i'm having a good tournament i'm catching quite a few fish and the amateur i drew for the last day of the tournament i've got a chance to win my side he's got a chance to win his side and he asked me he says gosh i don't want to flip a jig behind you i know you're going to catch all the jig fishies he says what do you think i should do i said well i would give those fish a different look i would flip and pitch a spinner bait around those piers after i i fished a jig and maybe that different look will generate some strikes well not only did it generate some strikes after about an hour he had me fishing a spinner bait and we both ended up having a good tournament i like to shorten the shaft on the the spinner bait just a little bit it makes it drop better the type of blade i like is uh just this indiana style or a colorado style always using just one one uh blade i don't like two blades on there because they don't flutter as well going to the bottom as far as the head of the spinner bait my favorite weights are anywhere from a quarter to a half ounce with 3 8 probably being the best all-around choice and i'm either putting a plastic split tail on behind it or going back to one of them white pigtail pork trailers that i use on the jig and that makes a dynamite drop bait don't be afraid to put it underneath boat docks underneath overhanging limbs or pumping it down beside a laying down log and it's going to get you a lot of good strikes ah there is he oh come right off that stick come here oh man whoa he want to get back in where he was that's a beauty see how that little sticks coming through them weeds he was laying right underneath the shadow of that there you go go back join your buddies boy this is a good morning for fishing this is fabulous they are really aggressive biting the bait good he just took off streaking for deep water and that's what a lot of them will do a little technique i try once in a while that i think works real good especially in the fall period of the year and really a key place is around boat docks but once in a while along the edge of the weeds like what we have here it can be productive too or even along willow trees and bushes and that's the swimming technique of a jig most of the time we're letting it go straight to the bottom hop it a couple times and bring it out but you can actually take that jig make your pitch out there never let it go to the bottom keep the rod about in this position and just keep it swimming along just kind of moving like that through the water and it kind of looks like a bait fish the key is not getting the rod too high if you get the rod up here you don't have any room to set the hook if you get the rod way down here as you're swimming it he's got too tight a line and he can't inhale that bait real good so the proper place to keep it i feel when you're swimming it is about in this position right here to where you've got a lot of room to set the hook if he does hit it and i always kind of like to keep the rod against my body in other words to to this side right here because i've got more leverage with my arm if i'm on the other side like this doing it he can pull me a lot better and i can't get as much force on the hook set so i try to fish against my body as much as i can like that when i'm something you might check if you do get into a situation where your jig's continually getting hung up on you once in a while after you catch a few fish you will start to flex your hook up and if that happens you're going to get hung up quite a bit i'm not a believer in opening my hook up some people do that right off the bat they take a pliers and bend the hook up a little bit they think they're going to catch a higher percentage of fish i don't agree with that i want that hook perfectly parallel with the with the shank of it i think it's got better hook penetration that way but what will happen is after you catch a dozen fish or so this weed guard is going to get weaker and weaker and you're suddenly going to get hung up with that jig more and more so i'll take that weed guard and i'll flex it back towards the head towards the line tie and that puts more memory in it it makes it stiffer again it'll keep you from getting hung up make the bait easier to fish with there boy look at that fish oh man that was neat i saw him actually take the bait come here you want to jump one more time i didn't think so that was a neat deal that bait didn't settle four inches under the water to touch i don't know whether you could see it on the camera but man what an aggressive fish that was that's why it's so important to be in position to set that hook the minute the minute it hits the water boom that's when he hit gosh that's that's one thing about this shallow water flipping things can happen in a hurry that was a neat deal in the near future we're going to introduce another video it's going to be another kind of how-to but we're going to use my son chad he recently graduated from the university of missouri with a degree in fisheries and wildlife and he's now out fishing full time as a professional fisherman and i know i've gone to a few of his seminars and listened to him and he's got a totally different perspective on bass fishing because of that wildlife and fisheries degree he understands why they do certain things the weather behind it the different colors the sound factors uh what colors why they work so good in certain different color water and i think in that video that he's going to do it's really going to open your eyes to some of the scientific end of bass fishing uh i've always had theories about why they do things he sho he's actually put it into words and explained to me why some of my theories do work so i think that's going to be a really neat feature and we're looking forward to when he does get that shot [Music] there we go that wasn't very nice of that bass [Music] there's one whoa got him right [Music] fish on we are having fun now come on jump again for the camera we don't care if you get away we're going to let you go anyway come on oh you're too big [Music] as you can see flipping pitching and deep water jigging can be a lot of fun if you've had as much fun watching this as i've had making it gosh i need to quit i need to go home this is too much fun [Music] you

Channel: Old School Bass Fishing Vids

Views: 22,776

Rating: 4.9162788 out of 5

Keywords: Flipping, Pitching, Big Bass, Larry Nixon, Rick Clunn, Bill Dance, Roland Martin, Jimmy Houston, Randy Blaukat, Kevin VanDam, Jig Fishing, Plastic Worm, Lizard, Flipping tube, Topwater, Spinnerbait, Strike King, Team Daiwa, Pork Chunk, Pork Frog, Bo-Hawg Frog, Jig Trailer, Bassmaster, FLW, MLF, Major League Fishing, Ultimate Match Fishing, Swimming Jig, Trophy Bass

Id: UwmJLz5sBoI

Length: 59min 49sec (3589 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 28 2021