Ebbtide
Gold Member
- Joined
- Aug 20, 1999
- Messages
- 7,954
From the back of the reel cabinet, for your viewing pleasure, I present:
The Shimano Brush Buster
"Designed exclusively for Flipping"
Back in the BC days, when LMB fishing was making technological leaps and bounds.
Methods and techniques that are old and mundane now were new and ground breaking then.
Flipping hit the scene and set the bass world on fire.
Short range fishing in the heaviest cover opened up an entire new realm of untouched water.
The Jig n' Pig rose to fame.
The Flipping technique allowed the angler to precisely place his JnP in the tiniest of openings with nary a ripple.
Start by pointing your rod up in the air and letting your lure down so it is even with the reel.
Then strip out enough line so that the lure is in the same spot but your reel hand, holding the line, is fully extended to the side.
Pendulum the lure forward, letting go of the line as the lure gently lands on the water.
The reel spool never spun unless the water was very deep.
Engage the reel and wait for the bite.
No bite?
Grab the line, extend your arm out and lift the rod tip.
Place the lure in the next spot.
A fast and efficient way to fish.
Just cruising along, dipping the jig in spot after spot... 2 or 3 hops to a spot.
One could cover a ton of water that way.
A good deal when fishing for money.
Bass pros were using longer and longer rods for more distance... with longer handles, for more leverage, as well.
A huge step up from the standard 5'6" pistol grip rod of choice.
Along with the long rods they were using heavier and heavier line... 40lb mono!
Which meant larger reels like the Abus.
In order to yank the bass out of heavy cover they'd use vice grips to screw down the drag on their Abus.
So sets the stage for the Brush Buster.
The Brush Buster was a unique reel.
When you pressed the thumb bar you could strip line off.
When you released the bar the reel went directly back in gear.
No spin of the reel handle necessary.
The line stripped off under tension so the spool didn't overrun or backlash.
The spool was small and v shaped.
The v shape made the limited amount of line used self centering.
Therefore no level wind was needed.
It was a given that your mono would get nicked up and changed nightly.
The small spool sped up that process too.
The drag functioned like a regular star drag.
BUT!
There is more!
The Brush Buster had the Locking Lever which locked the gear train in place, "disconnecting" the drag completely.
Lock that sucker up and lift that fish out of the heaviest cover!
Then somebody, IIRC, Denny Brauer, came up with pitching.
So instead of being limited by your rod and arm length you could pitch (underhanded cast) up to 30 or 40'.
Pretty much pounding the bank the same way, but with the distance option.
So ended the Flipping craze.
The only thing left is the name of the rod.
Flipping rods are still sold, but every one pitches with them even if they call it flipping lol
Hope you enjoyed my little walk down memory lane.
The Shimano Brush Buster
"Designed exclusively for Flipping"
Back in the BC days, when LMB fishing was making technological leaps and bounds.
Methods and techniques that are old and mundane now were new and ground breaking then.
Flipping hit the scene and set the bass world on fire.
Short range fishing in the heaviest cover opened up an entire new realm of untouched water.
The Jig n' Pig rose to fame.
The Flipping technique allowed the angler to precisely place his JnP in the tiniest of openings with nary a ripple.
Start by pointing your rod up in the air and letting your lure down so it is even with the reel.
Then strip out enough line so that the lure is in the same spot but your reel hand, holding the line, is fully extended to the side.
Pendulum the lure forward, letting go of the line as the lure gently lands on the water.
The reel spool never spun unless the water was very deep.
Engage the reel and wait for the bite.
No bite?
Grab the line, extend your arm out and lift the rod tip.
Place the lure in the next spot.
A fast and efficient way to fish.
Just cruising along, dipping the jig in spot after spot... 2 or 3 hops to a spot.
One could cover a ton of water that way.
A good deal when fishing for money.
Bass pros were using longer and longer rods for more distance... with longer handles, for more leverage, as well.
A huge step up from the standard 5'6" pistol grip rod of choice.
Along with the long rods they were using heavier and heavier line... 40lb mono!
Which meant larger reels like the Abus.
In order to yank the bass out of heavy cover they'd use vice grips to screw down the drag on their Abus.
So sets the stage for the Brush Buster.
The Brush Buster was a unique reel.
When you pressed the thumb bar you could strip line off.
When you released the bar the reel went directly back in gear.
No spin of the reel handle necessary.
The line stripped off under tension so the spool didn't overrun or backlash.
The spool was small and v shaped.
The v shape made the limited amount of line used self centering.
Therefore no level wind was needed.
It was a given that your mono would get nicked up and changed nightly.
The small spool sped up that process too.
The drag functioned like a regular star drag.
BUT!
There is more!
The Brush Buster had the Locking Lever which locked the gear train in place, "disconnecting" the drag completely.
Lock that sucker up and lift that fish out of the heaviest cover!
Then somebody, IIRC, Denny Brauer, came up with pitching.
So instead of being limited by your rod and arm length you could pitch (underhanded cast) up to 30 or 40'.
Pretty much pounding the bank the same way, but with the distance option.
So ended the Flipping craze.
The only thing left is the name of the rod.
Flipping rods are still sold, but every one pitches with them even if they call it flipping lol
Hope you enjoyed my little walk down memory lane.
