Flippin is a town in Arkansas where this technique supposedly originated. Most of us did this as kids with cane poles or with cheap reels that didn't cast very well, so you might find you are already familiar with the cast.
You can use any rod, but as noted above longer rods give you more reach.
The bait hangs down one rod length, about even with the butt of the rod. Then you pull an arms length of line off the spool and hold it to the side. Freeze the spool with your thumb, and raise the rod tip toward the vertical, causing the bait to swing like a pendulum, back toward you, then away. Now lower the rod tip as the bait swings away from you. If you tug lightly on your handful of line as it swings away you will start it moving in the guides and you will get more line speed when you release it.
As the bait swings away, it should swing just above the water. You want to drop it on to the target area without making a splash. The line in your hand is fed through the guides as the bait reaches the end of it's swing to give you a little extra reach and to put slack in the line.
You should pull line off the reel and feed it through the guides as the bait settles, so that it drops straight down.
If you don't it will fall back toward you and away from the strike zone.
As noted in other posts this is a very short cast. No line is coming off the reel on a Flip! This is a rod length plus an arm length of line cast.
Pitching is similar but is a longer cast, typically about 30 feet.
As noted in other posts, this is where the smoothness and closer tolerances of a little better quality reel pays off.
First we have to set-up the bait casting reel. Start by turning off all your magnetic or centrifugal brakes. Then set the spool drag so that the line goes out easily but there's not a lot of run on. Now turn all of the magnetic or centrifugal brakes back on. I find most reels need them all on to keep the spool from grossly out accelerating the line as you release the line on this cast.
Hold the bait in one hand, the rod in the other, lower the raise the rod tip and let the bait fall toward the water. As it falls, you raise the rod tip to swing the bait low, just above the water, toward the target. As the bait reaches the end of its arch, release the thumb pressure on the spool and let the line follow the bait. The quicker you raise the rod tip, the faster the bait swings and the farther it goes. Again, after the bait enters the water, feed slack line to the bait as it sinks so that it falls straight down to, instead of away from, the target area.
This one takes practice, but is worth mastering.
If you know how to set-up a bait casting reel, I hope the instructions are clear...If you don't know how to set-up a bait casting reel you might not understand everything I said.
Garry2rs
