Seems like I never hear the term Pitching - but Flipping is common. Even when they're obviously Pitching, the commentary is calling it Flipping!

 

Karl

 

 

Dunno here - I call them different things cause they are different.

Flip - no line comes off the reel during the 'cast'

Pitch - line comes off the reel during the 'cast'.

Yup. It’s harmless but it irks me too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone actually flip. I’ve certainly never done it. 

Just now, Finessegenics said:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone actually flip. I’ve certainly never done it. 

I've done it a bit - paddle the canoe into a mass of lily pads and do some flipping into nearby 'holes'. But mostly I pitch.

I flip pads from the bank sometimes, but more often than not I'm pitching past flipping range, which is remarkably small to my way of seeing things

Gary Klein has a good Video on this topic or look up Dee Thomas who introduced flipping to professional bass fishing.

The original flipping rod was 14’ long without a reel similar to a jigger pole. Dee “flipped” the jig using a combination of the rod and line. Pitching follow when rods without a reel and over 8’ long was outlawed for tournament bass fishing. To make longer cast requires “pithing” in lieu of flipping.

Like lots bass fishing terms the definition gets lost in the fog of time.

Tom

Ive only actually flipped maybe 3-5 times (because conditions rarely allow it), however, when you get on a flipping bite, it's just too much fun. The thing with flipping is that there has to be almost zero wind. You're so close to the fish so you cant be blasting the trolling motor ANYWHERE or even really even using it to "spot lock". if you can navigate near grass with your trolling motor at 20% or less power, then you are able to flip, and I'm not talking about 20% to stay still, but rather 20% to move 20ft, then have your boat still... That flipping is a funny game, and it is the one of the closest cumbat fishing strats out there. Rarely used now adays due to what @WRB said...

People tend to get terms mixed up ie rod action/power, gear ratio/IPT, etc. 

I'd be likely to do more flipping if I had a 14' rod, using rods half that length means you have about half the range/utility, I'd also probably do more of it if I was on a watercraft of some sort, but as most of my fishing is done from shore it's not nearly as useful to me as pitching is, which constitutes one of the absolute must know skills for an accomplished angler, the difference effectively being able to pitch and present my lure that subtly was one of the most revolutionary moments I've ever had as an angler, might be the easiest way I've found to go from no fish to one, or one to several in a day.

I can flip because I've got an 8' flipping rod but unfortunately I don't own a pitching rod.?

Flipping is more fun to say and gives a more specific meaning as far as putting baits into heavy cover. You can pitch the same area, but you can also pitch in a lot of places including sparse cover that you wouldn't flip. What we really need is a third term that just means working heavy cover at close-ish range.

 

Flitching? 

It's pitching but flipping sounds cooler even though nobody really does it unless they're bed fishing. 

I don’t recall the year I was fishing lake Cachuma in SoCal when a Western Bass tournament was going on? Early 70’s ?

This guy in a aluminum boat, no:eat but a 2X 8 in the bow was fishing this event from NoCal.

I remember talking to my friend Don Seifort the rep what the bite was currently at Cachuma. His reply was spinnerbaits.

Dee Thomas won this event by flipping trash and floatsum in small deep wall pockets, he had this presentation to himself and won easily. Deep water bluff walls flipping trash and whatever created isolated cover. No reel, no bass boat, no electronics just the knowledge that shallow bass are biting bass....his hallmark. What Dee didn? ‘t didn’t say was shallow water could be 1’-2’ under floating cover in 25’ of water!

Dee figured this out and know one did,  he is in the Fresh Water Hall of Fame, I am not!

Tom

 

7 hours ago, WRB said:

What Dee didn? ‘t didn’t say was shallow water could be 1’-2’ under floating cover in 25’ of water!

 

That's Wild!

 

 

Karl

Flipping just sounds like what it's supposed to be called. It has a better ring to it than pitching. It almost seems right because it's more or a flip than a pitch in my opinion.

 

The one that bothers me is confusing power and action. This is inexcusable. You think your mother in law is judgemental? Say medium heavy action in front of me.

 

Kind of like how everyone calls cover "structure". A tree isn't structure, a dock isn't structure, grass isn't structure.  A dropoff, rockpile, or hump, those are structure.

 

It's splitting hairs, but it's nails on a chalkboard to me.

Anytime anyone calls a pitch a flip I wanna go on a rampage. Instead I say the magic word: GoosFraba.

On 2/27/2021 at 1:19 PM, Sphynx said:

I flip pads from the bank sometimes, but more often than not I'm pitching past flipping range, which is remarkably small to my way of seeing things

I did some real flipping in FL. Flipping really calls for a longer rod than pitching. I've done both, but I don't have a real flipping rod. I have a 7'3" frog rod (XH) and a 6'10" jig rod (Hvy). The frog rod gets used for actual flipping occasionally.

I've learned to just relax and let people use the words they want.  So long as I can figure out what they're trying to say, that's all that's really important.  Words are just a means of communication.  So long as the communication happens, I try not to parse the details too much. 

 

Otherwise flipping and pitching would be on a list of about 10,000 things people say wrong all of the time.  And life's too short to get upset over something that happens that frequently.  

When I say I pitched, it means I pitched.  The same goes for when I say I flipped.  

1 hour ago, the reel ess said:

I did some real flipping in FL. Flipping really calls for a longer rod than pitching. I've done both, but I don't have a real flipping rod. I have a 7'3" frog rod (XH) and a 6'10" jig rod (Hvy). The frog rod gets used for actual flipping occasionally.

Yeah, I only own I think 2 rods shorter than 7ft, but I'm not sure that even my 7'11 swimbait/arig rod is long enough to make a useful flipping stick from the shore, in theory it can, but for a bank guy unless your fish are dirt, dirt shallow you can flip most of the day and not really be fishing where the fish are, little different when you can move to the places fish are at, considering you can effect nearly soundless and glass smooth presentations I think it would be a pretty effective technique, it just doesn't work most places I fish.

I can probably count on one hand the times I've used a flip cast from shore.  I'm not sure why length of the rod is that important, though something 7' or better is nice to stay back and get that extra foot or so of line, but really you can pitch or flip with any rod and reel, including spinning.

8 minutes ago, J Francho said:

I can probably count on one hand the times I've used a flip cast from shore.  I'm not sure why length of the rod is that important, though something 7' or better is nice to stay back and get that extra foot or so of line, but really you can pitch or flip with any rod and reel, including spinning.

^ This. I've never flipped from shore, but I've done plenty of pitching...and yes, with spinning gear.

When I was doing seminars all the time the way I taught newbies the difference between flipping and pitching is that a pitcher throws the ball when pitching so you throw the bait when pitching.  If you do a flip you end up in the same spot just like flipping a bait, no extra line comes out so you hit the same spot.  I just got back from lake Okeechobee and we did a ton of both.  More pitching than flipping but when you have 1 foot of open water on either side of the boat and then 6 foot tall reeds......you flip.?

Roland Martin down on Okeechobee is the first time I've heard the term flipping and or pitching. 

Of course he was tearing them up with jigs and huge live shiners. 

 

I've only flipped with worms, teaching my daughters to catch bluegill.