Feeling The Flipping Bite

Tim Zdrazil

@bassfisher3k
Tim Note: These are my thoughts and are not endorsed and/or approved by any other fisherman. This is only what works for the Tim man... ; )

Recently on Twitter, F. Stillwagen (@Whostosay1   give a follow please) stated/asked the following:

Instead of trying to have a protracted Twitter discussion, I thought I would just jot down my thoughts on this topic. I don't think of myself as a master flipper, but I have been actively flipping for the past 8 years, and I have fallen in love with this technique.  I have a lot of confidence doing it and have caught a lot of nice fish flipping. There are a million explanations on the difference between flipping and pitching, so I'll leave that to you to go explore, but they are both short line techniques typically involving Texas rigged soft plastics or jigs. However you can flip or pitch just about any bait. I will focus on soft plastics with a brief nod to the difference in the hook set fishing jigs. 

"I guess it takes practice because when I flip I just can't feel the bite..."

Yes. Just like any other technique in bass fishing it takes practice to get bites and bites to gain confidence. I once went four straight fishing trips with only a flipping jig in my hand for the entire day in order to gain confidence with a jig. For me the biggest difference between casting a soft plastic stick bait like Mister Twister's Comida and Flipping the same bait is the presentation itself. With casting you are mostly working the bait back to the boat horizontally relating it to the bottom. You could be ticking it slowly through grass or simply dragging it over the bottom back towards the boat, but it is mostly a horizontal presentation. With flipping or pitching you are working the bait much more vertically.  This is where the practice and confidence is really important. With the short line techniques you are putting the bait through or over something. Here in Florida that is typically grass of many types or lilly pad stems. However this could be any kind of cover. It could be a limb of a fallen tree. It could be a dock cross beam. But you are basically working the bait almost in place over a piece of the structure. This feels much different, but you will start to 'feel' the difference and notice things like how the bait falls and what it feels like when it hits bottom. With this up and down bait presentation, I typically have three different 'bites' that breakdown as follows:

1. The 'arm yanker'. This is by far the easiest bite and does actually happen from time to time. You drop the bait in the right place and a bass literally grabs it and runs. If you miss this bite, I can't offer you much here. During the ABA Ram Trucks Open on the Kissimmee chain, I had one decent keeper do exactly that. I pitched into a small hole in the kissimmee grass, I jigged the bait up once and it stopped (we will talk about that again in a minute). It felt like the weight had wedged in the grass. Then the bass shot away with the bait in its mouth and nearly yanked the rod out of my hand. I snapped the rod back and hauled the keeper out of the grass and into the boat. You really can't miss this one and if you flip long enough you will get one of these for sure. 

2. The 'bump, thump, or tap'. This is the most traditional bass bite and is exactly how a bite feels on many baits and presentations. Sometimes this could be a couple of rapid taps or just one solid thump on your line. The point here is that it is literally the same bite you have probably felt many times. It really is no different. My kicker (pic above) in the ABA event was this bite. One sharp thump told me the fish was there. 

3. The 'stop or hey something is different'.  This one takes time and experience to truly understand, but I have a simple tip that will catch more fish. Once you get the 'feel' of what a bait feels like falling over a lilly pad stem or a thick section of grass edge this will be easier. If you are flipping grass that is in four feet of water over and over again you get a feel for how long it takes the bait to fall to the bottom. As your flipping along and that drop changes or the bait just stops(like mentioned above) you almost know at that point that a bass has grabbed it on the fall. You may not feel anything other than the fact that the bait stopped way too soon. The other thing that can happen is the bait just suddenly feels 'weird' or 'different'. My simple tip here is one told by many fisher folks. If it feel different or weird in any way. SET THE HOOK! I will say here though that you should be careful in heavy wood cover with that tip. You could hurt yourself if it's not a bass. I've done this. It isn't pleasant. 

"...set the hook properly."

The hook set is also not much different than most casting applications. For me it is almost always the same. I feel the bite, I reel up slack while lowering the rod tip and 'feeling' for the weight of the fish on the line, then I make a very hard fast hook set to penetrate the soft plastic and bury the hook. There are many variables, but the vast majority of my fish come with this hook set. I do change this somewhat based on line type. With braid I go all out and don't care one bit how hard I hit the fish. However when I use fluorocarbon line, I try not to 'snap' as hard. It's still aggressive, but it is more of a hard fast pull than a snap. We will cover lines below. You might have noticed in the first fish catch mentioned above (arm yanker) was actually two types of 'bites' and I jumped right to the snap hook set. Like I said there are many variables. That fish was a stop first. I misread it as a grass stop and not a bass stop. Luckily for me the fish was dumber than I was because he turned into an arm yanker and took up all the slack for me, so all I had to do was hit him hard and swing him aboard. Again practice makes perfect. You will get the hang of it. Just do it and do it and do it until you have the confidence.  The one side note here is on jigs. When I am flipping or pitching a big jig, I hit every 'bite' immediately. I don't feel for the weight etc. I take up line and slam them as fast as possible. Now that I use Liquid Mayhem scents on literally every bait that goes in the water, I could probably give the jig bite more time, but in my experience the bite is too fast not to hit immediately.  Liquid Mayhem will help you learn this technique, because I truly believe the bass hold onto a bait longer than without. It gives you a little more room for error. 

"Is it the rod?"

It certainly could be. It could also be the line you use. I only flip with braid, gliss (new line type from Ardent that fishes and feels very similar to braid), or fluorocarbon.  There is very little 'stretch' in these lines and relay anything that happens to your bait very well. I know a few guys that flip with mono line, but for me there is simply too much stretch and not nearly the sensitivity as the others. If you are flipping with mono and having trouble feeling the bite. Give braid, gliss, or fluorocarbon a try.  It should improve your chances. The rod is also a critical element in all types of fishing, but particularly with flipping and pitching. For me, it's all about a very fast sensitive tip and a whole lot of back bone. My flipping rod of choice for most lighter flipping is a Big Bear 7' 3" 3/4 heavy rod with a fast tip.  The tip is all about sensitivity and allows the bass to take the bait without running into a wall. The tip has some give in it so it allows the bass to load up a bit before you hit them. This is especially helpful in the arm yanker. If the fish hits a brick wall when running away from you, they could throw the bait before you set the hook. A good flipping stick is just like the greatest hairstyle of all time, the mullet. A good flipping stick is all business at the bottom and a party at the tip. ; )  

These are just my thoughts and observations, but I truly feel like they may help those learning to flip and pitch. Short line fishing is like pure hand to hand bass combat, and frankly it ROCKS!!!

Fish on my friends!!!

​

Twitter:  @bassfisher3k

Teams:  Ardent Reels

               Big Bear Rods

               Mister Twister

               Liquid Mayhem 

               Skoll Gear

               Lockjaw Jigs

               Lazyman Hooks

               Thrasher Sports Apparel

               TohoMarine.com