One of the techniques I get asked a lot about is how do you skip a bait? Whether it's a
jig or soft plastic up underneath boat docks and underneath willow trees. There's a lot
of more to it then people think. A lot of people are good using spinning equipment with
floating worms and can skip them a long way. You might be asking yourself that you can
do it very easily with my spinning equipment so why don't I just stick with that? You've
got your limitations though; you don't have nearly the power or the big heavy rod to get
the fish out of the cover, you don't have the cranking power of a casting reel. This
is a heavy duty rig, I'm geared up with 25 pound Tatsu where I can pull those fish out
of the cover. When you're going into those nasty places you have to use the baitcaster
to have the opportunity to get those fish out. If it's a scenario where you don't have
to deal with heavy cover, you can get by with your spinning equipment. But for heavy nasty
cover and big fish I recommend big rod, big line, and a reel to match.
When it comes to baitcasting equipment you've really got to start out by adjusting your
reel correctly. Every baitcaster has a tension knob and this happens to be my flippin' reel.
Hold your rod straight out and start adjusting this tension knob so your bait will pull the
line off but when your bait hits the floor or bottom of your boat the spool stops turning.
If you've got it set so loose that your spool keeps turning when that bait stops, you're
probably going to get a big backlash if you try to skip because that bait is slowing down
on each skip and spool is still running too fast. If I've got a 1/2 ounce bait on I'm
going to adjust it so that 1/2 ounce will barely pull the line out. If I go to a heavier
bait I'm going to have to tighten it a little more, if I go to a lighter bait I'm going
to have to back that tension off so that the weight of the lure will pull the line off.
This is the most important feature right here on anybody's baitcaster whether it's my signature
reel or just a regular baitcasting type reel. So it's very important to use that tension
knob and make the adjust so it just slowly pulls the line off the reel.
Now the other important part is how you run the angle of it. If you try to do this you're
going to bury that bait into the water. It's almost like a golf swing where you're coming
across and you see how it just skips across like that because of the angle that you're
actually hitting the water. It's all about the angle. You can get way up underneath something
by doing that particular angle. I'm using a flippin' stick here, but if you want to
do it with your baitcaster then you kind of do this technique right here. You're actually
skimming it across the water and it will skip up underneath there. But for the actual pitching
part it's kind of coming across just like that and getting that angle. Your keeping
the bait low to the water. The lower you start out, the easier it is to skip it. You can
skip it from one side of the dock and skip it out on the other side.
This is kind of a heavy bait I've got here for skipping. Lighter baits work a little
bit better for skipping and when it comes to jigs, a 1/4 or 3/8 is the perfect weight.
When you get to a 1/2 or 3/4 it's a little more difficult but you can still do it. All
about the angle on how you hit the water. A little practice and you can get really good
at it.