The Pitch Cast
A few years ago I wrote an article about the Flip Cast, which Adam K had taught me when I visited him in Colorado. Since then, I have come to believe that the pitch cast is more 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
continuously fight the current, 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 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 the 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. 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 pretty 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 essentially identical to what Frank Nale teaches in his seminars. The specific method that they used to released the line was different, 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 or flip casts.
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. 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, 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 then 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.
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 lure towards your target, using your rod rather than just your arm.
It will help to use a slightly heavier lure when starting out. I will be easier to feel the point of the swing when you need to release the line. A 4.5 gram Palms Alexandra sinking minnow, or perhaps a 5 gram Shimano Slim Swimmer spoon would be about right.
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.