Insider Advice on Flippin’ Techniques
Move over Mono—Braid and Fluorocarbons Win the Flip
Kim Bain-Moore
My first flipping fish, a massive 8-pounder caught on the California Delta while fishing with Norval Pimental of California, made me a believer in that shortline technique and the tackle I’d used to boat it. That lunker (actually the first largemouth I’d ever caught in America) was so big I had no trouble feeling it strike with the monofilament we’d spooled. That success kept me using mono for some time.
But I subsequently found myself struggling to feel bites when using mono in flipping scenarios. Back in my homeland of Australia, mono had gone out of favor years before, replaced by braid in most applications, except for line class disciplines. So I’d been familiar with the “bite telegraphing” properties of no-stretch braid.
Braid’s Benefits
Braid also has that wonderful grass-cutting characteristic, slicing through weeds and thick mats with ease, a big advantage over mono when you hook fish in the thick stuff. Further, due to its thin diameter, you can spool far more heavy braid on a reel than monofilament. So while I’d begun pitching and flipping with mono, I became a braid devotee after Pimental organized another visit, including an outing with flipping legend Dee Thomas, plus a few tournaments as a co-angler on the California Delta.
“Mr. Flipping,” Dee Thomas, opts for 30- to 50-pound Spiderwire Stealth braid for its slickness as it comes off the spool. “Braid is awesome,” he says. “Its sensitivity is incredible and that’s a huge benefit for anglers without great strength or reaction time—I’ve lost mine with age, others might be smaller-framed [like the author]. With braid, you can be slower on the trigger and still get the fish stuck and to the boat. With braid, you can really drive that hook home with even a wrist snap because there’s no stretch. I miss fewer fish on braid than I missed with mono,” Thomas concludes.
From two-time Beaver Lake FLW tournament champion, Andre Moore (now my husband), I learned to ink the last few rod lengths of my braided line with a jumbo black marker pen. Andre feels that black blends with the shadows always present around cover. Braids wear in thick cover and some become pale with use. In some conditions, that may cost you bites if you don’t dye the line.
In general, the murkier the water, the heavier the line you can get away with. Some anglers like Thomas always tie their braid straight to the lure or hook. If bass get finicky, he uses a thinner braid. My dirty water or heavy cover combo is pretty obvious when it lies on the deck: 65- to 80-pound braid with a Hematoma-colored Sweet Beaver.
In moderately stained water, or clear water on the outside edge of tules or grass lines, I use lighter breaking strain braid, often 30-pound test, and a medium-heavy rod. But when I’m getting deep in the danger zone with thick grass and hyacinth mats, my tungsten sinker weighs 1.5 ounces and out comes the reel with 65-pound braid and the stiffest rod I own.
If bass are holed up but finicky (indicated by perhaps a few tentative bites that I’ve missed), I’ll run 5 or 6 feet of 20-pound-test fluorocarbon leader. Andre and I generally employ Albright variations or a blood knot for connecting mainline and leader, but any favorite connecting knots work.
Make sure your leader is short enough so when the lure is in your hand (to pitch), or swinging from the rod tip (to flip), the joining knot between braid and fluorocarbon is beyond the guides so that it doesn’t catch on the guide rings or their frames during the cast. If the knot catches on a guide, distance and accuracy are limited. Moreover, the constant banging against the rod guides weakens your knot. I set up my rod for both pitching and flipping, since I often alternate between the two approaches—using the same rod, when powering along a bank with my trolling motor and fishing any available cover.
Note that use of a short leader isn’t universally agreed upon. Some broad-shouldered, powerful anglers fear that their hook-set is too much for a knotted system. To safeguard against such mishaps, I drop a dab of superglue on my knot immediately after tying it. If you use glue, one way of drying it quickly without mess is to roll the knot along a piece of ­cardboard. When the glue contacts the cardboard, it dries faster, and any excess glue is absorbed away from your line. Doing so avoids either messing the guides or gluing line and rod together, which can happen to hasty anglers.
When to Wind On
When fishing around bark-covered trees, submerged timber, and spindly buck brush, I find that braid catches on the bark, ruining the presentation. In this situation, my advice is to topshot your flipping reel with at least 30 yards of 20- to 25-pound-test fluorocarbon, since fluorocarbon (and mono) lines are less likely to catch in bark and rough timber. This is even more important on windy days when your line gets blown and is more likely to rub against something with the properties of ­Velcro.
When fishing clearer water, flipping and pitching a Sweet Beaver in California #420, I incorporate what’s called a wind-on leader in saltwater circles to my flipping reels, spooling 20- to 25-pound fluorocarbon to reduce visibility to the fish. But you must strike with more muscle when using fluorocarbon, compared to braid.
Don’t think you should rush out to the tackle shed and discard all your monofilaments, however. Many pros still prefer mono for topwater fishing and a few other applications because it floats, whereas fluorocarbon sinks; but that’s another story. In the last decade, line selection has become considerably more ­specialized. In ­flippin’ and pitchin’ circles, braid or fluorocarbon or a combination of the two get the nod from most tournament pros.
Rod Selection
I use the same rod for flipping with braid as I do with fluorocarbon. I started with the stiffest and longest of the traditional flipping sticks from G. Loomis when I began using mono. I’ve stuck with the same rod as I progressed to braid, then fluorocarbon. I’ve tried many blanks; long and stiff is still my preference. These days it’s either the G. Loomis BCFR894 (7 foot 5 inches) or the 7-foot 11-inch model, the BCFR954.
Hooks
I’ve tried a variety of hooks as they’ve evolved. My favorite is the BMF hook from Reaction Innovations. This hook features a welded eye, which prevents braided line from getting in the gap that’s found in some heavy-gauge hooks. This gap can easily slice braid, resulting in breakoffs. The BMF also has a large, round gap and straight shank for secure hook-sets. When using the original Sweet Beaver I also incorporate the plastic “heat shrink” keeper BMF barb, which helps the Beaver lie flat and saves a few baits. In fact I’ve caught a full 5-fish tournament limit on the same bait because of this barb.
Wherever I’ve traveled, it’s clear that in most cases, largemouth bass love the thickest and gnarliest cover they can find. That’s where flipping and pitching prevail. Balance your tackle components and match the cover conditions, and you’ll enjoy this toe-to-toe action and catch more than your share.
Kim Bain-Moore, Alabaster, Alabama, is an outdoor writer and professional angler, and the first woman to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic. Her husband, Andre Moore, founded Reaction Innovations Lures.
Move over Mono—Braid and Fluorocarbons Win the Flip
Kim Bain-Moore
My first flipping fish, a massive 8-pounder caught on the California Delta while fishing with Norval Pimental of California, made me a believer in that shortline technique and the tackle I’d used to boat it. That lunker (actually the first largemouth I’d ever caught in America) was so big I had no trouble feeling it strike with the monofilament we’d spooled. That success kept me using mono for some time.
But I subsequently found myself struggling to feel bites when using mono in flipping scenarios. Back in my homeland of Australia, mono had gone out of favor years before, replaced by braid in most applications, except for line class disciplines. So I’d been familiar with the “bite telegraphing” properties of no-stretch braid.
Braid’s Benefits
Braid also has that wonderful grass-cutting characteristic, slicing through weeds and thick mats with ease, a big advantage over mono when you hook fish in the thick stuff. Further, due to its thin diameter, you can spool far more heavy braid on a reel than monofilament. So while I’d begun pitching and flipping with mono, I became a braid devotee after Pimental organized another visit, including an outing with flipping legend Dee Thomas, plus a few tournaments as a co-angler on the California Delta.
“Mr. Flipping,” Dee Thomas, opts for 30- to 50-pound Spiderwire Stealth braid for its slickness as it comes off the spool. “Braid is awesome,” he says. “Its sensitivity is incredible and that’s a huge benefit for anglers without great strength or reaction time—I’ve lost mine with age, others might be smaller-framed [like the author]. With braid, you can be slower on the trigger and still get the fish stuck and to the boat. With braid, you can really drive that hook home with even a wrist snap because there’s no stretch. I miss fewer fish on braid than I missed with mono,” Thomas concludes.
From two-time Beaver Lake FLW tournament champion, Andre Moore (now my husband), I learned to ink the last few rod lengths of my braided line with a jumbo black marker pen. Andre feels that black blends with the shadows always present around cover. Braids wear in thick cover and some become pale with use. In some conditions, that may cost you bites if you don’t dye the line.
In general, the murkier the water, the heavier the line you can get away with. Some anglers like Thomas always tie their braid straight to the lure or hook. If bass get finicky, he uses a thinner braid. My dirty water or heavy cover combo is pretty obvious when it lies on the deck: 65- to 80-pound braid with a Hematoma-colored Sweet Beaver.
In moderately stained water, or clear water on the outside edge of tules or grass lines, I use lighter breaking strain braid, often 30-pound test, and a medium-heavy rod. But when I’m getting deep in the danger zone with thick grass and hyacinth mats, my tungsten sinker weighs 1.5 ounces and out comes the reel with 65-pound braid and the stiffest rod I own.
If bass are holed up but finicky (indicated by perhaps a few tentative bites that I’ve missed), I’ll run 5 or 6 feet of 20-pound-test fluorocarbon leader. Andre and I generally employ Albright variations or a blood knot for connecting mainline and leader, but any favorite connecting knots work.
Make sure your leader is short enough so when the lure is in your hand (to pitch), or swinging from the rod tip (to flip), the joining knot between braid and fluorocarbon is beyond the guides so that it doesn’t catch on the guide rings or their frames during the cast. If the knot catches on a guide, distance and accuracy are limited. Moreover, the constant banging against the rod guides weakens your knot. I set up my rod for both pitching and flipping, since I often alternate between the two approaches—using the same rod, when powering along a bank with my trolling motor and fishing any available cover.
Note that use of a short leader isn’t universally agreed upon. Some broad-shouldered, powerful anglers fear that their hook-set is too much for a knotted system. To safeguard against such mishaps, I drop a dab of superglue on my knot immediately after tying it. If you use glue, one way of drying it quickly without mess is to roll the knot along a piece of ­cardboard. When the glue contacts the cardboard, it dries faster, and any excess glue is absorbed away from your line. Doing so avoids either messing the guides or gluing line and rod together, which can happen to hasty anglers.
When to Wind On
When fishing around bark-covered trees, submerged timber, and spindly buck brush, I find that braid catches on the bark, ruining the presentation. In this situation, my advice is to topshot your flipping reel with at least 30 yards of 20- to 25-pound-test fluorocarbon, since fluorocarbon (and mono) lines are less likely to catch in bark and rough timber. This is even more important on windy days when your line gets blown and is more likely to rub against something with the properties of ­Velcro.
When fishing clearer water, flipping and pitching a Sweet Beaver in California #420, I incorporate what’s called a wind-on leader in saltwater circles to my flipping reels, spooling 20- to 25-pound fluorocarbon to reduce visibility to the fish. But you must strike with more muscle when using fluorocarbon, compared to braid.
Don’t think you should rush out to the tackle shed and discard all your monofilaments, however. Many pros still prefer mono for topwater fishing and a few other applications because it floats, whereas fluorocarbon sinks; but that’s another story. In the last decade, line selection has become considerably more ­specialized. In ­flippin’ and pitchin’ circles, braid or fluorocarbon or a combination of the two get the nod from most tournament pros.
Rod Selection
I use the same rod for flipping with braid as I do with fluorocarbon. I started with the stiffest and longest of the traditional flipping sticks from G. Loomis when I began using mono. I’ve stuck with the same rod as I progressed to braid, then fluorocarbon. I’ve tried many blanks; long and stiff is still my preference. These days it’s either the G. Loomis BCFR894 (7 foot 5 inches) or the 7-foot 11-inch model, the BCFR954.
Hooks
I’ve tried a variety of hooks as they’ve evolved. My favorite is the BMF hook from Reaction Innovations. This hook features a welded eye, which prevents braided line from getting in the gap that’s found in some heavy-gauge hooks. This gap can easily slice braid, resulting in breakoffs. The BMF also has a large, round gap and straight shank for secure hook-sets. When using the original Sweet Beaver I also incorporate the plastic “heat shrink” keeper BMF barb, which helps the Beaver lie flat and saves a few baits. In fact I’ve caught a full 5-fish tournament limit on the same bait because of this barb.
Wherever I’ve traveled, it’s clear that in most cases, largemouth bass love the thickest and gnarliest cover they can find. That’s where flipping and pitching prevail. Balance your tackle components and match the cover conditions, and you’ll enjoy this toe-to-toe action and catch more than your share.
Kim Bain-Moore, Alabaster, Alabama, is an outdoor writer and professional angler, and the first woman to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic. Her husband, Andre Moore, founded Reaction Innovations Lures.
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