January 04, 2021
By Florida Sportsman Editor
FLW pro Joe Holland pitches a crawfish bait and layered skirt to a laydown along a Lake Toho canal.
Pitching is an essential skill for effectively fishing shallow cover. The technique allows you to deliver a bait to a specific spot smoothly and accurately.
Pitching is done with a disengaged reel. As with flipping, pointing the rodtip low and then thrusting it forward establishes momentum and trajectory; except with pitching, the bait travels farther on the open reel.
Now, here’s where Elite Bassmaster pro Randall Tharp makes a key distinction. Pitching anglers often palm the bait while dipping the rodtip. A common misconception says that this grip is intended to lightly load the rod, but Tharp said that’s simply not the case.
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“The advantage of holding that bait in my hand is that it remains very still and I’m able to make a super accurate cast,” he said.
When fishing fast and covering water, Tharp shifts to a free-swinging pitch where he forgoes palming the bait and uses a sharp forward swing to propel the bait. He’s willing to sacrifice a certain degree of precision in exchange for a peppier pace.
TARGETS
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Throughout the year FLW Tour pro Joe Holland pitches to a variety of lake vegetation with dense weed mats and hyacinth rafts meriting particular attention. He’s also keen to give any laydown he finds a thorough pitch treatment.
WHAT TO THROW
Think jigs and Texas rigs (worms, lizards, creature baits). Weedless creature baits traverse just about any cover. In heavy cover, your best bet is a big weight (1 to 2 ounces) a stout 4/0 or 5/0 hook, a streamlined “beaver” style bait and a punch skirt.
In addition to helping baits slide through cover, punch skirts also add bulk to give your Texas rig more of a jig-like profile. Matching skirt and bait colors isn’t wrong, but don’t hesitate to add contrasting or complementary colors like a green pumpkin skirt atop a black/blue bait for a bass-temping bluegill ruse. When bites are tough, Holland often stacks two or three punch skirts for some next-level forage mimicry.
“I’ll leave the top skirt the longest and the one under it I’ll cut shorter,” Holland said. “If I use three skirts, I’ll cut the next one even shorter.”
When the bait falls, fish see the outer skirt color, which is usually more of a subdued natural tone like green pumpkin. When the bait hits bottom and flares, the more vivid under-skirting presents a flash of a color like a baitfish flaring its gills or a crawfish in defensive posture showing the undersides of its claws.
“If we’re in the bluegill spawn, I’ll use a blue skirt with a white and a chartreuse under skirt,” Holland said. “When that thing stops and flares, it really looks like a bluegill making a bed or eating.” FS