Bass have a simple solution for times when they feel pressured. You'll often find them buried deeply in heavy cover, usually in shallow water. These conditions make conventional casting either impossible or at best impractical. Dense brush piles, overhanging limbs, thick weeds or flooded timber make it far too difficult to conventional methods. These situations present a serious downside for bass: a false sense of security. Deep in their lair they feel relatively secure, so they can be fished from very close proximity, using a delicate presentation that won't spook them.

Working tight cover or deadfalls calls for the flippin' technique.

Flipping (or Flippin' in the vernacular) is a specialized technique for targeting bass in heavy cover and it produces both quantity and quality. This method is done exclusively with baitcasting reels and is very simple, especially if you use a reel that has a flippin' button. Instead of the traditional overhand cast, with the flippin' technique, you use an underhanded approach that is more easily controlled for precise placement.

Ease your boat up into the heavy cover you want to fish, estimate the distance and release the length of line necessary to reach the spot you want to target. As a general rule, you won't be working with more that a foot or two more line than the length of your rod. Hold the line in your non-casting hand, extended off to the side a little (to avoid getting it tangled in the handle when released), and the flipping button engaged. Lower your rod tip then raise it and release the line in your hand at the same time to create a slow arch. As the lure reaches its destination, lower it gently to the water surface, allowing it to sink to the bottom. You'll be looking for and targeting holes in the cover. Work each hole by letting the lure sink to the bottom, hopping it a few times and moving on to the next hole. The flipping button will not allow the spool to turn, which ensure a solid hook-up and quick extraction.

Flippin' Rods
When flipping, you'll be working with very short lengths of line and often fighting very large fish, so the first step to successful flipping is having the right gear. Flipping rods are specially designed with long handles and heavy actions to handle the stress of jerking a big bass when it becomes tangled in weeds, or wrapped around a stout limb.

Line
Use heavy line is the first rule. The bare minimum would be 17-pound-test, and going with 30- to 40-pound test would not be excessive. Once you set the hook, there's no opportunity to play a fish and tire it out before boating it. Set the hook immediately when you get a strike. Heavy line and a stiff rod often produce dramatic results on the hookset. It is not uncommon to jerk a bass straight out of the water and into the boat in one motion of the rod.

Flippin' Reels
Reels with flipping buttons are preferable, and since you're working with short lengths of line, line capacity isn't an issue. You want a reel that's sturdy enough to withstand a lot of shock and not come apart in your hand or break off the mount.

Lures
Flippin' lures are, first and foremost, weedless. The standard fare is soft plastics, and worms are one of the most used styles, but some anglers prefer rubber-skirted jigs, tube baits or a jig and a pig. Soft plastic trailers are also very effective. Some anglers feel the bait is not as critical as getting it in the bass' face where a reaction strike is most likely to happen, still every angler has a particular bait that they feel most confident using.

When fishing soft plastics, use bullet weights inline, above the lure. Insert the tip of your hook into the body of the plastic bait to minimize snags. Bullet weights that are free to slip on your line can increase your chances of becoming snagged. They readily drop over a limb, falling on the opposite side from your lure, which is a recipe for spending more time tying fresh lures instead of horsing in big fish. Try this simple technique to solve the sliding bullet problem. Secure the bullet weight to the line so that it doesn't move by inserting the tip of a wooden toothpick into the hole and wedging the line tightly. Once you've got the line snugged down, break off the toothpick flush with the hole so that the frayed end of the toothpick doesn't snag on weeds. Now you're ready to go flippin'.