The other day a friend of mine showed me his flipping stick that he had custom made. Not sure what kind of blank it was but I dont think that it matters. The rod was made in 2 pieces. The handle about 22 inches long with the rest of the other piece telescoping from inside the handle portion. Never seen this before and was wondering what it is for. Any advantages to making a rod like this. I suppose that it is for transportion issuce because it goes down to around 5 feet before pulling the top part out. Thanks as always for any reply.

They are very popular with Bass anglers. Most rod companies also sell them as finished rods. The main reason (I think) is to enable them to fit in a standard Bass boat rod locker

Brad,

I just built one for myself, it's a StCroix IV Carolina Riggin rod. I made the two piece a one!, epoxyed everything inside and out. I like the rod style very much, the only bad thing I can say about the 1+1 blanks are the weight. They are much heavier than the 1 piece's.

DR

A FLIPPIN' STICK has its telescoping ferrule just a few inches in front of the most forward side of the foregrip. Putting a ferrule there, as compared to the rod blank’s mid-point, offers several advantages. A flippin’ stick in bass-fishing is pretty much used as a glorified cane pole and snatch rig. (No offense meant to the legions of avid bass fishermen – You guys have brought lots of great innovations to rod-building, and the flippin’ stick and the perfecting of the telescoping ferrule is definitely one of them.) As a pole, a flippin’ stick needs to be long enough to pendulum-swing a bait, sturdy enough to lift a fish into the boat, and stowable enough to be transportable. And a flippin’ stick can do all these things, and more.

When a flippin’ stick is used to fish bass in heavy vegetative cover, there is usually only about 8 – 12 feet of line out passed the rod tip. The heavy jig (~ 1.0 oz) punches the bait thru the top-water cover and basically drops the jig on the bass’s head. He attacks it out of aggravation. The hookset is swift & violent. If you are afraid that your hookset (you’re standing) will capsize a small boat; or that a small fish will be catapulted over your head; or that the jig will fly over your head, and catch you in the seat of your pants, you’re probably doing it right.

With that kind of sudden force and the weight of a stout 3 lb bass plus 5 lbs of weeds, you’d like to keep a mid-point ferrule failure out of the picture. So, the telescoping ferrule in a flippin’ stick moves the ferrule back to a section of the rod blank where the rod hardly bends; where there’s less stress directly on the ferrule; where the thicker blank walls make a stronger ferrule; and where the action of the rod is not interrupted by a sturdy ferrule. Well, now that the ferrule on a flippin’ stick is pretty much moved out of harms way, I really can’t think of any disadvantages to it right now. (Maybe that you can’t put too built-up a butt wrap on the blank, because it may not recess properly when the telescoping overlap is collapsed.) A good flippin’ stick is one tough little bulldog.

For lots of the same reasons, the right flippin’ stick rod blanks can make great rods for casting, jigging, live-bait fishing, cork poppin’ and even light bottom fishing. They can be very good choices for pitching small – medium size live baits to fish in saltwater situations. Like smaller cobia around navigation markers. Or medium-sized snook near bridge pilings and abutments. Or light diamond jigging for striped bass, bluefish or weakfish. Or sinker bouncing or jigging for fluke (northern flounder). Many flippin’ sticks have a great action for casting, and can easily serve either a boater or a wader as a great go-to stick, whether you need to cast a 0.5 – 2 oz weight a short flip or a full cast. And a flippin’ rod blank can be configured for a revolving-spool casting reel, or for a fixed-spool spinning reel**. After you’ve gotten to fish one, I think you’ll agree. One flippin’ stick, 7.5’ long, with a 12-25# line rating, and a 0.5 – 1.5 oz lure rating can pretty much cover any and all of these situations described above. And some others, I’m sure, which I am missing.

If you need a long sturdy rod in the 7 – 8 foot range, for 12-25# line and 0.5 – 2.0 lures, that can be transported in a 5 – 6 foot length, a good flippin’ stick is hard to beat, no matter what you’re fishing for, IMO. (Come to think of it, I’m surprised flippin’ sticks don’t get more open fanfare.)

-Cliff Hall, Gainesville, FL-USA+++

** Obviously, the first guide on a telescoping flippin’ blank has to be positioned far enough forward of the reel when the rod is fully extended to allow the butt guide to not smash into or get stuck in the ferrule when the rod is fully collapsed. That minimum distance is usually ~ 24 inches ahead of the reel spool. To find that position on the upper section of the rod blank, simply collapse the ferrule fully, and mark the blank with masking tape. It depends on: exactly where you position the reel seat; up-locking or down-locking; the amount of overlap in the ferrule (several inches); the length of the lower (butt-handle) section of the rod; the type & size of the reel; and the line guide you intend to use for the butt guide. Configuring the blank as a casting or a spinning rod, that has the rest of its line guide issues properly addressed (mainly line clearance of the blank and funneling during casting) may take some extra work, but it is a solvable set of design criteria. – CMH+++

Cliff about covered it all, if I had to fish for the rest of my life under varied conditions/species with just a few chosen rods, a flipping stick would probably be my first choice.

Cliff :
that is an excellent post!

I have been building / using flipping sticks for 18-20 years. Both with the telescoping handles and with out. I currently use both. The only two advantages to the telescoping type is
1-transportation.
2-If I break the rod, (which I have a couple of times). I simply have to remove the eyes and the but cap. slide the old blank out ,slide new blank in. Redo the eyes, and replace but cap. Saves time, labor, and expense.
The one disadvantage is the added weight of the blank. There is about 6-7" overlap in the furrel, plus the larger diameter of the butt section, along with wrapping the furrel,which increases the overall weight. Since I want my stick balanced to neutral or minus weight at the tip. It requires more weight in the but. Which makes the rod heaver all around.

Flipping' Sticks make nearly the ideal pike rod for lures in the 5/8th to 1.5 oz range. You can two hand cast them all day regardless of the slight extra weight. They are great for hauling big pike out of weeds.

Every rod arsenal should have a couple of Flipping' Sticks.

A long time ago I bought a Garcia Ambassadeur flipping stick (17-30 line, 3/4 - 2 oz casting weight). The rod has never seen a Largemouth but has caught countless bluefish, fluke, seabass, ling, porgies, dogfish, etc. I have used it extensively on piers and party boats on Long Island. It was capable of easily casting twice the rated weight a country mile. Eventually the reel seat (old varmac chrome plated brass trigger) became too pitted and so I stripped it down and converted it to a spiral with a graphite fuji trigger grip and a cord rear grip. This has been one of my most versatile rods and along with a Daiwa Regal Strike SK-16; these tow rods have caught over 3/4 of all my fish caught.