®
Fall 2026
F
lipping or pitching a piece of cover is one thing.
Deciding what to send into it is another. A Texas-
rigged soft plastic and a jig will both catch bass around stumps, laydowns, docks, boulders and vegetation,
but they aren’t always equal choices. So, when should you
reach for the Texas rig, and when should you tie on a jig?
Some anglers naturally favor one flipping presentation over the other. Their choice is often based on experience and the confidence they have built with either a jig or a Texas- rigged soft plastic. But preference and confidence doesn’t always equate to the best tool for all situations.
We caught up with some of the top touring pros to find out what makes them reach for a jig and they put that down in favor of a Texas-rig.
DREW GILL:
FALL RATE IS THE FACTOR
For Bass Pro Tour pro, Drew Gill, his decision is primarily
based on the rate of fall he wants to achieve from his bait.
“I’m generally going to try to use the weight
Gill’s Big Bite Baits
McMoney Jig
I select based on the
casting accuracy
required for what
I’m doing and the
cover I’m fishing,”
he said. “The
presence of the skirt
and weedguard on a jig creates immense drag, so if I need to use a bigger -weight, 3/8- or ½ ounce, to make the proper cast (when around cover like bushes or docks), I’ll choose a jig. If I desire a quicker fall, then I’ll use a Texas-rig.”
Gill noted that the quicker fall rate of the Texas-rig also bodes well for covering water, as the faster your bait gets through the cover and to the bottom, you’ll either get a bite, or you won’t. If you don’t get a bite, you reel up, make that next flip and keep looking for productive fish-holding cover.
His go-to jig is the ½-ounce Big Bite Baits McMoney Jig, as it’s a good jig for anything other than fishing in thick cover, like trash mats.
“It has a hand-tied skirt and a super-sticky lighter hook, which I love,” said Gill. “For my Texas-rig, I generally use a free-rig weight, but I don’t consider a Texas-rig and a free rig to be different. Functionally, they’re the exact same. But typically, I’m a 3/16-ounce weight to a 2/0 EWG hook with a four-inch Big Bite Baits Fighting Frog.”
Swindles’s Buckeye Lures G-Man Ballin’ Out Jig
When it comes to talking about flipping and pitching, you can’t
ignore the success
that NPFL pro, Andy
Morgan and Elite
Series pro Gerald
Swindle have
had over their
careers.
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