The Pitch Cast
Writing about what I call a pitch cast raises a problem with terminology. In this article, I spend a fair bit of time describing the cast that Frank Nale teaches in his seminars. He calls his cast an "underhand flip cast." Unfortunately, it is really quite a bit different than the flip cast (also underhand) that Adam K taught me a few years ago when I visited him in Colorado. I find Frank's cast conceptually similar to the pitch casts used by bass fishermen, so I will call it a pitch cast to differentiate it from what Adam had taught me.
I have come to believe that the pitch cast is very important for trout anglers, at least for those who fish medium sized to smaller streams. Pitching for trout is at least as important as pitching for bass, yet almost all references to pitching are about bass fishing.
The pitch cast is the ideal presentation when casting for accuracy rather than for distance. When fishing a large river, where you cannot reach the far bank and there are no rocks large enough to cause visible changes to the flow, by all means, just cast away and hope your lure interests a fish as you real it in.
On a smaller stream, though, casting accuracy is far more important than casting distance. Anglers learn (or at least should learn) early on that trout in a stream
need three things: food, shelter and rest (sounds a lot like most
fishermen I know). They will be in spots where they don't have to fight the current all the time, where there is a place to hide from
birds (and fishermen) and where the current brings food to them.
Given that undercut banks, logs, bank eddies and large rocks provide all three of those requirements, it is more than a little surprising that a lot of the fishing videos you see on YouTube show some guy casting straight up or down the middle of the stream. They catch enough fish to believe that what they are doing is working. I don't think they realize how much better it could be. (It could be a lot better if they routinely used the pitch cast.)
Years ago, I attended a seminar put on by Frank Nale, a spin fisherman who lives and fishes in Pennsylvania. He is a retired accountant who has meticulously cataloged all his catches - probably from when he first started fishing with spinners in 1979. His record is phenomenal - to the point that his annual report posted on Facebook always draws vocal doubters. I've met the man (and I've met enough accountants) so I do not doubt his record - at all.
One of the things he stresses in his seminars is that if you expect to catch fish, you have to cast to where the fish are, or rather past where the fish are so that your lure doesn't scare them when it lands and on your retrieve goes right past them. I am sure he does not just cast up the middle of the stream, hoping his spinner will attract a trout. He casts to a specific spot so that his retrieve brings his lure right past a specific spot.
This isn't golf. You don't want to drive it right down the middle.
He casts for accuracy, not distance. It is truly unfortunate that he does not have a YouTube channel so people could see how he fishes. However, I recently came across a YouTube video that immediately reminded me of Frank Nale's seminar and what he taught about casting.
In this particular video, the angler was fishing small streams and his casting was somewhat similar to what Frank Nale teaches in his seminars. It wasn't exactly the same but that is a minor detail and not the point. The point is that both of them used a pitch cast rather than doing overhead or side-arm casts or the very quick flip cast that Adam showed me.
The flip casts that Angler Saito does in Japan with his baitcaster are truly impressive. However, it must have taken him thousands of hours to become that proficient. The pitch cast is just as accurate, just as capable of getting under tree branches and just as capable of producing a soft entry so that the lure doesn't scare the fish you are trying to catch.
The best thing about the pitch cast, other than its effectiveness, is that it is much more intuitive than the flip cast. You don't need a rod that has just the right degree of flexibility and although your timing does have to be good it doesn't have to be as good as is required for the flip cast.
You've probably already done it without seriously thinking about it (though more like the guy in the video than like Frank Nale). Writing this article reminded me of a couple fish I caught in a small stream in Montana. I have caught fish under low branches often enough that whenever presented with the opportunity I will give it a try. Seeing the low branches in the photo below, without really thinking "Oh, I need to do a pitch cast" that's exactly what I did.
Fish under branchesA pitch to location 1 above (although not quite as deep under the branches) yielded a trout that chased my spoon for at least 10 feet before he caught it. A minute or two later, a soft pitch into location 2, from no more than about 8 feet away yielded a second trout. The second trout, however, slammed the spoon as soon as I started to reel.
What surprised me then, and surprised me again watching the video, was how short my cast was and how short some of his casts were in the video. It certainly seems that trout who are tight to cover must feel safe feeding even with a fisherman not too far away. Fish that are more exposed out in the stream seem to be much easier to spook. Not needing an exceedingly long cast certainly increases your accuracy.
Fish under treesDifferent trip, different river, same concept. Cast under the branches. Fish hold there because they are protected from ospreys and it is harder for fishermen to cast to them. The photo above shows a perfect spot, tight to the bank in a bit of an eddy. And yes, the fish was home. And with a pitch cast, you can cast to them - under the trees, tight to the bank, no problem.
OK, enough of the where. Now to the how. Unlike the flip cast that Adam taught me, for which the precise wrist movement is hard to describe (and harder to execute) and for which absolutely precise timing is absolutely critical, the pitch cast is conceptually simple and the necessary rod motion is really pretty easy to learn. You will still need to practice to get the release timing right, but getting an effective pitch cast is much, much easier than getting an effective flip.
Conceptually, the pitch cast is like a pendulum combined with an underhand toss. If you have a few feet of line beyond your rod tip, you can gently swing it out and back, just like a pendulum. If on one of the "out" movements, you start by dipping the rod tip and then extending your arm out a bit and raising the rod tip a bit, you can speed up the swing. If you release the line just as the lure starts swinging up from the bottom of the swing, it will continue on that trajectory. Because it starts low (near the bottom of the swing) it will stay low - unless you release too late.
Frank Nale's cast is a bit different, in that it is primarily wrist action rather than arm extension. However, to have a full range of wrist movement, Frank's spinning reel is mounted almost at the rod butt, so the butt of the rod does not hit his arm as he flexes his wrist down to start the cast. His entire cast is very nearly just a flick of the wrist.
You pretty much need a Tennessee grip (straight cork with sliding rings that allow placing the reel anywhere on the grip) to cast just like Frank does. The length of the grip behind the reel seat on the Rayz RZ4102S-UL and the Rayz Integral RZI484S-UL is short enough to not hit your arm when flexing your wrist, but only if you gripped the rod with three or even four fingers behind the reel, rather than the standard two in front and two behind. Of course, then you'd need to use your other hand to stop or slow the lure's flight. Frank holds and releases the line with the index finger of his other hand rather than his rod hand when making a cast, so using the other hand stop the flight of the lure would not be awkward or cumbersome. (Frank's reel is positioned further back than on the Rayz or the Integral, so that he can reach the spool to slow or stop the lure's flight with the index finger of his rod hand.)
I don't want to belabor the specific details of Frank's rod and reel, when the important part is being able to cast accurately so that your retrieve goes right past where you can expect a fish to be (remember rest, shelter and food), and to land your lure softly so it doesn't scare the fish you want to catch.
The whole action is slower and more controlled than what is required for a flip cast. Thus, is much easier to get a sense of the correct timing for the release. Because the rod is pointed straight at your target, and you can see the direction of the pendulum swing, you should be pretty close from a left or right standpoint. You will need to practice to get the distance right but you can slow or stop the line with the index finger or middle finger of your casting hand by gently touching the edge of the reel spool as the line is going out.
Without much practice, you should be able to control the direction of your pitch. With a bit more practice, you should be able to time your release so that the trajectory is at least close enough. If you release too soon, your lure will not get all the way to where you expect the fish to be, so you won't spook it. If you release a little too late you can slow or stop the cast by gently touching the spool. Remember to cast past the fish. You don't want to drop a lure right on its head.
The whole action is so close to gently tossing a ball, which we've all done since we were kids, that it doesn't take the hours and hours of practice that it takes to learn a flip cast. With the flip cast, you have to load the rod going up, then load the rod going down then perform a split second release. With the pitch cast, you just toss your lure towards your target, using your rod rather than your arm.
It will help to use a slightly heavier lure, as it will be easier to feel the point of the swing when you need to release the line. The 4 gram Smith Niakis spinner would be about right and is about the same weight as Frank's home-made spinners. The 4.5g Palms Alexandra sinking minnow would work well, also.
Header photo: Tenryu Rayz RZ4102B-UL, Shimano Calcutta Conquest BFSHG ('17)
Warning:
The hooks are sharp.
The coffee's hot.
The fish are slippery when wet.
Whatever you do, do it with finesse!