Choosing a Flippin' Weight

Since I moved to Florida I have been exposed to a whole new world of bass fishing. I still love the finesse techniques I relied on when I was living on the West Coast. Drop-shotting, shaky heads, and the wacky rig are great, but now I find myself fishing more with the "big stick". Flipping and pitching are great ways to catch bass anytime grass is around. I have learned more and more about it every time I go out, but one question I always ask is: "What weight should I be using?". They come in many styles, colors, and weights and all of them have a time and place. Due to the big size of these weights, tungsten is the only way to go in my opinion. Here are some of my favorites:

(L to R: 1oz Lake Fork Screw-in, 1.5oz Tru-Tungsten Flippin, 1.5oz Bitter's Flippin, 3/4 oz Tru-Tungsten, and 3/4 oz BPS)

I did a quick interview with Bobby Lane in July and he said it is important to mix up your weight sizes and colors when flipping. Sometimes the bass will react better to a shiny weight, and sometimes it will turn them off. That's why I like to use a mix of different colors. Another thing to vary is the size of the weights. Flipping is really just a reaction technique, a weight that falls too fast might not get bit, and too slow of a fall also might not work. Try different weight sizes until you find what the bass want.