Florida pro Patrick Pierce has earned most of his winnings with a flipping stick. He’s an ace on the St. John’s River and Lake Seminole as well as other north Florida and south Georgia lakes. However, much of his flipping know-how is applicable from Okeechobee to Champlain. Here are his 5 favorite flipping baits.
1. Zoom Speed Craw
This compact bait is great for thick vegetation such as hyacinths and matted grass like hydrilla. “That is my go-to bait. It’s what I usually start with. If I’m punching mats, I like it year-round. It’s small and slides through thick grass easily. In the summer, I’ll use it to pitch into bushes and the like,” he said.
2. Zoom Baby Brush Hog
“I use this when I want to have little bit bigger profile on my hook. It’s also good when I need a kicker fish or if I think the fish are eating slightly larger forage,” he said. “In the fall, it’s good on Guntersville, Seminole and other places where there are bigger fish. Plus, this time of year the bluegill are getting bigger, so it’s a better match.”
3. Strike King Rodent
“I like this one more for flipping bushes. Again, it has a bigger profile, but it’s subtler than a Brush Hog. This is good all through the summer. It matches the size of a bream more than anything.”
4. Strike King Greg Hackney Hack Attack jig
“This bait has the biggest profile of any of the baits I flip or pitch. It’s great in the wintertime in deeper bushes down to 12 feet on a river channel. It’s got a good, slow fall because of its bulk, and can be altered based on the plastic trailer you put on it,” he said. “Typically, I’ll use plastics when I’m trying for a reaction bite and jigs when I want a slow fall that they’ll study a bit more. You can also swim it out from bushes; as you pull it out of the bush, a lot of times they’ll run out and grab it.”
5. Zoom Speed Worm
“This is my go-to bait in Florida. Admittedly, I don’t use it much outside of Florida but I’ll use it any time of year there. It gives fish under mats a different look and is great around bulrushes and cattails. It’s good around these places because the tail won’t get wrapped around stuff like a ribbontail will.”
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