I haven't really messed with flippin' jigs before. I have a vertical eye on the jig which I thought would be good for thicker vegetation. I wasn't very impressed to say the least. I was throwing it into thick pockets of matted vegetation and they either weren't penetrating enough or I would pull up a pound of salad each attempt. Should I just stick with flipping a beaver style bait on a flipping hook? Or can someone help me improve my technique or setup?

 

 

Set up

 

MH 7ft rod, 15lb flouro on 30 lb power pro, revo MGX reel.

 

bait: terminator 1/2 oz flippin jig

For the mats I have been fishing late summer I find I can get away with a 1/2 to 3/4 ounce tungsten pegged bullet weight sinker for beaver baits. Those will punch through and come back out the punch hole with hardly any salad.

 

If I go to a jig I have better luck using at least one ounce. There is just much more resistance with the jig profile than a texas rigged soft plastic with nothing sticking out to catch in the mat. So I largely have scrapped using a flipping jig for that type of punching application, particularly from a kayak.

some jigs come through the slop better than others. Try an arkie jig with a 60 deg line tie. The best I've ever seen with staying clean are the new Siebert dock rockers. Depending on what your flipping into, a punch rig might not even come through it.

The simple answer is, I don't flip jigs into really heavy vegetation, kayak or no. I tend to think that's a job for a streamlined plastic rigged weedless behind a big bullet or punching weight. And In lighter weeds, I have better luck with heads that have less of an angle on the tie, like 60 or even 30. An arky, brush or perhaps ideally a bullet head.