(Editor's note: The following is the latest installment in a series of fishing tips presented by The Bass University. Check back each Friday for a new tip.)
No tour-level pro – or weekend angler, for that matter, can hope to be consistently competitive without being able to flip and pitch. But those two terms encompass a wide range of conditions, cover and lures. “There’s a lot of things that come into play when you’re flipping and pitching,” said Oklahoma pro James Elam.
“Usually it’s a stained-water deal,” he said, but even that is subject to some exceptions, like during the spawn when fish tend to get around shallow cover.
Some basic considerations include the weather. “If you’ve got sun, that means the fish are probably going to seek out shade,” he said. You also need to consider your approach in order to maximize stealth. Furthermore, if you’re on a body of water that has current, like a tidal river, that comes into play as well. “They want to be in an opportunistic place where the food’s coming to them.”
One of his favorite flipping and pitching situations is when bass are buried in the grass. That could be less than a foot of water, or it could be out to 20 feet on lakes like Sam Rayburn or Toledo Bend. In these scenarios he’ll usually employ a 7 1/2- to 8-foot McCain heavy or extra-heavy rod that’s “a lot like a broomstick.” The goal is to make it easier to pitch a big weight, usually 3/4- to 1 1/2-ounce, but in super-matted situations he’ll use 2 ounces or more. He uses 50- or 65-pound Seaguar Smackdown Braid and colors the last 5 or 6 feet with a black Sharpie marker to blend in better with the vegetation.
His favorite grass flipping bait is a Molix Creature, and as a general rule he believes that “the smaller the bait and the less stuff you have hanging off of it, the easier it’s going to slide in and out of cover.” He puts it on a Trokar straight-shank worm hook and adds two bobber stoppers, so that he won’t have to constantly re-rig the lure. Less “messing with your bait” equals more efficiency, he said, and that equates to more flips. Most of the fish will get it on the first hop, so he typically makes a total of two hops and then moves on to the next target.
When he wants more bulk but still has thick grass in front of him, he’ll add a punch skirt. That provides the look of a jig, but it’s more streamlined and doesn’t have an open hook.
Even in grass flipping there’s often a pattern within a pattern. The fish might be on the straightaways, on the edges, in the holes or in the thickest vegetation. They might be on a specific type of vegetation, or where two distinct types mix.
If you want to learn some more of Elam’s specific tackle choices, including what he employs when fishing a jig or around docks, rocks and wood, as well as why he uses different gear ratios for grass flipping versus flipping rocks, docks and wood, check out his full video, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.
