Pitching, Flip'in and Punching

[Wayne Ek]

With the recent posts on rods and pitching (and not wanting to steal someone elses post) I thought it would be interesting to get some other points of view on how they set-up their sticks.

I have 4-sticks for just pitching and punching. I just don't flip... at all, as in never. For punching I use two identical rods & reels. The rods are 7'2" extra heavy with a fast tip (Okuma). The reels are Serrano SR-200W (Okuma) reels. Both are short spooled with 30-yards of 65-pound Power Pro. One is set-up with a pegged T-rig and the other with a Pig/jig. Both see service when punching floating mats, milfoil, cattails, wood or heavy pads.

I then have two rods set-up for lighter pitching,like docks and deep weed lines. One rod is a custom rod, made by my partner Mike Daloia. It's one of the blue St. Croix blanks, 6'6" and an extremely fast tip. I have a Quantum TE-1170PT on this one, which is also short spooled, but with 30-pound Power Pro. This rod get's used almost exclusively on docks and lay downs. The next one is a 7'0" Quantum Tour Edition (PTC706FA). The reel is another TE-1170PT, but spooled full with Bass Pro(XPS) 17-pound fluorocarbon. This does most of my deep weedline work and any clear water pencil reeds or such.

Balance: It drives Mike Daloia nuts when he picks up one of my sticks as I want all my sticks to be butt heavy, so I use rod balancers on just about every tourny stick I have in the boat. The exception is my topwater rod, which is a 6-foot pistol grip.

[RK]

Hiya -

Very interesting stuff. Really interesting that you like short a short (6'6") rod for docks. Guess it makes sense to me.

I think I know, but explain what you mean by "short spooled" if you would? Curious to hear your reasoning.

I actually flip about 2x a year...usually up in the cane on the Boy River chain.

I have two rods that I would say are mainly pitching sticks. One is a 7'3" X-fast Mag Heavy Powell Max 'Frog rod.' I match it with a 7.1:1 Pflueger Patriarch and 50# Cortland MasterBraid. I use it for thick rushes, cane, rice - basically heavy cover stuff. It's a really powerful rod. One of my fishing partners calls it "the extractor."

The other is a 7'6" Mag-Med Fast (which power-wise is basically a med-heavy flipping stick). I pair it with a Curado E7 and 20# Toray Superhard Upgrade fluoro, which is the same diameter as most US 17# fluorocarbon. I use this for clear water pitching around rushes, weedlines, etc. Basically, anywhere I think I can get away with it vs. the heavier braid.

This might sound goofy, but I pitch crankbaits a lot. Like squarebills or wakebaits around docks or in the rushes and along inside weed edges... For that I use a 6'9" MF Heavy Powell and a Patriarch with 17# mono. Dock fish see a lot of plastics and jigs, but not that many crankbaits I don't think. I use mono because it absorbs shock better. You see most of the fish hit, and I tend to get a little carried away on the hookset

Cheers,

RK

[Aaron Carrell]

This might sound goofy, but I pitch crankbaits a lot. Like squarebills or wakebaits around docks or in the rushes and along inside weed edges... For that I use a 6'9" MF Heavy Powell and a Patriarch with 17# mono. Dock fish see a lot of plastics and jigs, but not that many crankbaits I don't think. I use mono because it absorbs shock better. You see most of the fish hit, and I tend to get a little carried away on the hookset

Cheers,

RK

Hah, funny you should say that. When I first moved here and started fishing the lakes in 2005, I ended up doing exactly this ALOT on Prior Lake and I did quite well for that matter. You can't get away with it much anymore the way the weeds have taken over the shorelines, but back then it was almost too easy if you got cranks under docks on that lake.

[Cecil]

For punching heavy cover I have 2 identical Shimano Crucial 7-6" MH fast rods, with 7:1 Curado 200's and they get 65# power pro.

In not as heavy cover I have a 7-5 loomis GLX BCR893 with the same curado and 20# berkley 100% flourocarbon. If throwing a baitcaster on docks, this is what I use.

Also buying a BCFR894 GLX for jigs this year. Will be matched with a Chronarch 200E7 and 20-25# flouro.

[Wayne Ek]

RK, I use a shorter stick for docks as I don't need the additional lenght and working in and around lifts I break fewer rod tips with a shorter rod. But, Deitz would say I use shorter rods because I am shorter... that's just ignoble on his part.

Short spooling, I don't fill the reel to capacity. I only use 10-feet of mono backing and then just 30-yards of braid. Couple of reasons: 1.) You don't need much line when punching heavy cover. The farther you are from the boat when you hook a fish in heavy cover, the less chance you have of weighting that fish. 2.) You save money, as you can easily get 3-fills from one 100-yard spool of Power Pro. 3.) You can go with no magnetic or centrifugal braking control... total free spool. And with only 30-yards on the spool you never get an over-run pitching. Now if you get a little carried away and want to cast... OMG the mess you will have. Can you say scissor time

Like you I also use wake baits and small cranks around docks. Only I cast then with the same pistol grip rod I use for top-water. And I use 14 or 17-pound mono on that rod.

[RK]

Hiya -

Figured that's what you meant with the short spooling. I do a less extreme version on my braid pitching rod - I only fill the spool about 2/3 full. Still have enough line to cast if I feel like it, but helps pitching. Don't know if it's less mass or what but can really cut down on the backlashing, especially when your bait clips a rush stalk half way to the target.

[Larson15]

For heavy flipping (3/4- 1 1/2 oz) I have 2 BCFR 894 GLX's and 1 BCFR 904. 2 of them have 50-65lb braid and the other has 25lb Seaguar AbrazX.

For medium weight flipping (1/2-3/4oz) I use the following - 873c NRX, 874 GLX. All of them have 20lb Seaguar InvizX

For lighter flipping (3/8-1/2oz) I use the following - 854c NRX, 893c NRX, 844 GLX/IMX. All of them have 20lb InvizX.

Every year it seems like I want to go longer and longer with my rods. The only 6'6" rod I have anymore is a topwater rod!

[KickNBass]

The reels are Serrano SR-200W (Okuma) reels. Both are short spooled

Your reduced line take-up doesn't bother you? It would for me, sounds like a cool idea though, might have to try it.

Let's say you had a custom large diameter spool for this application, do you think that would defeat the purpose at all (i.e. the tendency to backlash)?

[slopmaster]

I have 3 rods that are used for pitching, punching, or flipping.

1) 7'3" HF for punching/flipping 3/4-1.5oz with 65lb PP. Paired w/ a Ardent F500 reel. Usually a pegged t-rig with a punch skirt on it and always tied with a modified snell knot. I will say I am now to the point where i wish this rod was 7'6" or 7'9", even though i'm shorter I love longer rods. heck anything under 7ft feels weird to me.

2) 7'3" mhf for pitching 3/8-5/8 t-rigs. Paired w/ a Abu Revo S. Spooled with 50lb PP on it. I use to have 15-20lb co-poly on it, but the hook up benefits I seen by tying a modified snell with braid made me switch.

3) 7'1" hf for pitching 1/4-1/2oz jigs. Paired w/ Abu Revo SX. Spooled with 20lb Sunline super fluoro. If i decide to use a t-rig on clear water docks/wood i'll tie them on this rod as well.

[Wayne Ek]

KickNBass, you don't even notice the reduce line retrieve per handle rotation,because I usually only have 12-15 feet of line out when punching.

[KickNBass]

I didn't mean just punching though, everything. I swear I notice it when my line is low, at least on the end of a cast but maybe that's just with small diameter spools...

[smalliehunter]

+1 on the ardent flip n pitch reel I have the denny brauer one and its awesome. It has allot of power to get fish out of some thick cover. I have it sitting on a 7 foot 6" mojo flippin stick. Its a heavy combo but I like it.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Fun post brother Wayners..

I have 5 that I use for Flip/Pitch/Punch.

Punching is mostly done with 2 rods.. 7'6"MH Shimano Crucial and a 7'6" MH Shimano V-Rod.. one rigged with 20lb Floro, the other 65 braid..

I then have 2 identical 7'2" MH Ex Fast Cumara again one rigged with Floro the other 65 braid for jigs

And then a 7'1" MH XF Cumulus Rigged with floro

[jalberg]

I'm hoping to be able to get a feel for the new Okuma rods at one of the shows coming up this spring. Helios and new Carbon Cone series. The 7'6" H & XH Helios specifically.