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Recent Article: Pitching and Flipping Pure Adrenaline
Some people climb mountains, while others race cars or motorcycles. Then there’s a rare breed that actually ride bulls to achieve their thrills. I prefer to get my adrenaline rush by pitching and flipping the thickest cover I can find for largemouth bass. Other fishermen like me know the experience can often be over quicker than an 8 second bull ride. It doesn’t matter because for me, there’s nothing more thrilling than having a 10 pound plus largemouth on a short, tight leash that doesn’t want to be controlled.
When searching for trophy largemouth, I locate the most burley brush piles, thickest weed beds, gnarly log jams and nastiest rock piles in the lake. If it has danger written all over it, then you have located some promising water to investigate. Veteran bass prefer to locate their haunts adjacent to deep water access so they will always have plan “B” for an escape route.
Equipment:
Make sure to leave the wimpy fishing gear at home. Stout equipment is necessary for fishing in heavy cover. For my rod selection, I recommend a 7’ to 7’- 6’’ heavy or medium-heavy action baitcasting rod with a strong butt section so you will have the capability to “horse” the toads out of thick cover. I prefer some flexibility in the tip 
section because it gives me the control I desire while pitching and flipping my lures. Secondly, the rod is resilient enough during those split second runs which trophy largemouths are famous for.
The majority of the time, I use high-speed baitcast reels with a 6.2:1 or 6.3:1 gear ratio. All anglers have personal preferences and many are more comfortable using lower gear ratio reels for their flipping presentations. I require a smooth drag system and often set it fairly tight. I feel secure with this combo set-up, incase I have to suddenly take up a lot of slack line in an instant.
When fishing under these heavy cover conditions, my selection for line must have excellent abrasion resistance, good casting qualities, and must be sensitive enough so I am able to feel structure and strikes. I never spool up with less than 20 pound test, and often 25 or 30 pound test is recommended. My hook selection for Texas rigging plastics is a 4/0 XGAP XPoint hook. When using larger plastics I prefer a 5/0 Fat Gap Daiichi Bleeding Bait hook.
Tips While Pitching & Flipping:
1. A strike can occur at any given time. Make sure your boat is always positioned correctly, so you will be ready to fight a big fish.
2. Rod position is important. I don’t let my rod get any higher than 45 degrees. Then when you believe you have a hook up, drop your rod towards the water and take up any slack line with a couple quick turns of the reel, and you’re ready for a good solid hook set.
3. Be a line watcher. If your line jumps, or moves in any direction, set the hook. I also like to keep my finger in contact with the line, so you can feel subtle pick-ups.
4. Be aware of the depth you’re fishing. For example, if you’re fishing in 5 feet of water, and your jig only drops 3 feet, set the hook. An aggressive bass will take your offering before it ever has a chance to reach the bottom of the lake.
5. I’m always checking hook points to make sure their sharp. At the same time, check your line for nicks and frayed areas.
6. Prime targets. Make repeated, repeated, repeated casts. Especially when
fishing highly pressured lakes. Keep working your lure in the zone until you aggravate the bass into biting.
7. On certain days, a more subtle presentation works best. Then there are
other days when I like to add two or three rattles to my lure selection. Unfortunately, the bass will have to clue you in on their various mood swings.
8. When I’m pitching and flipping, I work my lures like I’m trying to hang them up. It helps you get your offering in every nook and cranny. I would rather lose a few lures than pass up a big, feisty HAWG. Pitching and flipping is a great technique to use during frontal conditions, and on bluebird days after cold fronts when bass hold tight to cover.
The Hook-Up:
After the strike and hook set, make sure you “horse” the big bruiser out of her safety zone before the bass gets the upper hand on you. Use this brief element of surprise to your favor. Stay on your toes because many anglers often lose a huge bass near or at the boat. I have experienced where these bruisers lunge for your trolling motor and lower unit. I have also noticed that when you apply too much pressure on a big bass, they will head for the surface. You certainly do not want a monster thrashing around out of the water because it is much easier for them to throw the lure. When I sense the big gal rising up, I thrust my pole into the water to keep the bass from breaking the waters’ surface.
At this point there isn’t any doubt that the big bruiser got a good look at you and the boat, so that’s the last place she plans on going. Now there is only a few feet of line left between your rod tip and the bass. The next lunge she makes you will need to be ready to rip some line off your reel. This is when I also loosen my drag quickly and “free spool” if you have to. If your fortunate enough, and there is no obstructions in the water near your boat, you can play the bass around the boat to tire her out.
Lures That I Keep Wet:
There is a long list of plastics that work for pitching and flipping. Big craws, zipper worms, brush hogs, lizards, and twin tail grubs, just to name a few. My go-to lures begin with a jig-n-pig. The pork trailers offer a soft natural texture and the salty flavor that big bass love. I prefer my jig colors to be dark, such as black, junebug, or black and blue, which have always worked well for me while in lightly stained and stained water. Of course I’ll use more natural tones when fishing clear water. The majority of the time, I Texas rig large plastics. The tube baits I use are 4 ½ inches and larger. My plastic worms range between 10 and 12 inches in length. I prefer using the larger 5” size senkos, which work well Texas rigged or flipped when weightless. There are also times when a large plastic craw can be a good choice.
Of course there will be times when it is necessary to down size the lures you use. One occasion in which I choose a selection of smaller profile baits is when I am fishing on a highly pressured lake. After a cold front would be another reason to select the smaller lures. This is also a good time to leave the rattles in the tackle box. But, the best thing about pitching and flipping is the monster bass will keep your adrenaline flowing faster than the rapids in a river.
Gregg is a nationally known trophy fisherman who resides in the Show Low, Arizona area. He has achieved numerous awards including four Arizona state records. For more information on multi species trophy fishing or to checkout Gregg’s “Trophy Fishing Secrets” book, just visit his website. www.munckstrophyfishing.com
Gregg’s sponsors: The Dimestore Fishermen, www.dimestorefishermen.com , TTI-Blakemore Fishing Group, www.tticompanies.com , Bearpaws hand poured baits, www.bearpawshandpouredbaits.com , Megastrike Inc., www.megastrike.com , Catch-N Tackle, www.catch-n.com , and Horne Chevrolet pro-team.
Recent Article: Sharks
Relating fishing trips can get boring but sometimes a trip needs telling. This is one that needs to be told.
Recently, I ventured on one of my many summer shark trips in search for the famed Southern Cal mako shark. A mako search certainly isn¹t new for me, I fish for them many times during the summer. Of course I don¹t write about them all, most of the time each trip is sort of automatic and bares very little difference to the previous one. But this story needs telling for a couple of reasons. First, the overbearing presence of blue sharks this trip
was amazing, especially in light of all the hype about their impending demise. Secondly, I saw two makos pass by my chum line, one was eight feet long and probably 200 pounds the other at least six feet and easily over 100 pounds. Past experiences have produced many makos in the chum line but none the size of these two.
We fish south and east of the ten mile rigs and have done so for many years, even before the rigs were there. It has always been a good fishing spot as the bottom rises out of the Newport Canyon and up to the Southeast Bank. When I was a kid in the 1940¹s we used to watch the makos dismember many rock cod outfits to the surprise of the cod fishermen. It
was also a place and time of plentiful blue sharks. They were everywhere you looked.
Sometimes on the way back to port you could see literally hundreds of fins sticking up and parading across the ocean surface.
Slowly over the years their numbers dwindled and it has become somewhat difficult to find a fin all day long. Last year we never had more than 3 blues in the chum line and they didn¹t bother our hooked bait at all. We simply flylined the bait well back in the chum line while the blues spent most of the time up close chewing on our chum bucket. Sure we caught lots of blue sharks but nothing like the ones that sawed us up on this trip. They appeared minutes after our first chum line stop in the morning. They appeared by the droves from 15 inches to 6 feet long. We caught them in every direction from 100 yards behind the boat to 100 feet down under the boat. It was almost impossible to get bait out. When you did the bait had to plummet at least 200 feet deep on a 6-ounce sinker to escape the marauding
blues.
Why are they so abundant this year? Who knows? It is really difficult to keep bait in position. Veteran anglers have always said that if you use live mackerel a blue can¹t catch it and I tend to agree because in the past for me live mackerel never got bit by a blue shark. Not this time though. Every mackerel ended up in a blues mouth and soon we ran out of live ones. Luckily we took a half scoop of large sardines and did have bait to use when the
mackerel were gone.
I was fishing with Mike Lewis and his son Marcus Vincent on Mikes¹ 25 foot Erickson the "Tempesta". After 6 hours of drift the first mako charged through the chum line and the blues scattered in all directions, one wasn¹t fast enough though and the mako bit off the bottom portion of his tail. The mako grabbed a large chunk of albacore guts (our chum), swam off and disappeared straight down into the blue. Our lines were all sunk to 300 feet in that direction so we hoped that the mako would grab one of our sardines. Marcos got a pickup, a very large hard running pickup that tore off a run of 100 yards. Of course we thought he had the mako. It was the strongest and longest run of the day. What else could it be? As the fight ensued Marcos was taken to the front of the boat by the shark and I was left tending the chum line in the rear. When Marcos hooked his fish both Mike and I pulled in our baits to make room for the big battle. My rod was up against the rail with a dead sardine hanging limp in the breeze. The blue sharks exploded again and charging through the chum appeared the
200-pound mako. I threw my dead dried up sardine in front of his nose, he nosed it but before he could mouth it another mako cut in front of him and swallowed the bait. Darn it I really wanted that 200 pounder but I had to settle for the 80 pounder. While Marcos and I battled our fish two more makos appeared and cleaned up the rest of our chum. Poor Mike was sidelined with the gaff and tailrope and never even got bait in the water. Both makos vanished with the end of the chum and we didn¹t see them again. Unfortunately, Marcos¹ big mako turned out to be an 8-foot blue.
Who knows what caused the proliferation of the blue sharks and the appearance of "large¹ makos on the Southeast Bank. Let¹s hope it holds up in the days to come and this trip wasn¹t an exception to the rule.
