influenced the creation of the MEAT Craw
and TW CrawFrog and the MEAT TW Bubba.
The latter two products are sold exclusively
through Tackle Warehouse.
Lintner offers these seven tips to get deadly
effective with the jig and pig.
Tip #1: Enter the darkness – Docks, sunken
boathouses, fallen trees…Such cover casts
discernible shadows that beg your attention.
“The far corner of that boathouse where the
water is really dark…that is going to be your
money cast!” says Lintner. “Put your bait
anywhere there’s a transition from light to
dark. Bass don’t want to sit where they can
be seen. They want to sit in ambush. Always
remember ‘the deepest, darkest spot’ when
you are flipping and pitching a jig!”
Tip #2: Let it fall! – The cardinal sin of errant
flippers is failure to follow up an accurate cast
with a vertical fall. “A lot of guys engage the
reel and start working the bait the second it
hits the water. Don’t do that!” warns Lintner.
“Let the lure fall on a slack line, and a lot of
times you will get a reaction bite as bass
grab it on the fall. But if you tighten that line
immediately, the bait starts coming to you
right away. That’s not natural.” And you will
miss the fish!
Tip #5: Dare to get in there – Pitching to
heavy cover is no game for the timid! Many
anglers avoid the nasty cover where big bass
lie in ambush. Big mistake! “That cast on the
front edge of the dock is doing nothing. But
skip that bait under the dock, and now you
are in her house!” says Lintner. “You have
increased your odds of getting a big bass by
more than one-half by getting that bait two
feet under the dock rather than just dropping
it on the edge.”
Tip #6: Corner them! – Dock corners, cross
beams, the intersection of a boat’s stern with
a dock face…corners create multiple shadows
and outstanding ambush points. Complex
dock layouts create more prime locations as
well. Look for ladders, too.
Tip #7: Practice – Growing up, Lintner
emulated masters of flipping and pitching
technique like Denny Brauer and Tommy
Biffle. He copied their practice habits, too,
setting up coffee cans in his parents’ backyard
and flipping and pitching to these tough
targets daily. “You can’t just get the right rod
and reel and right pork trailer and thin