In slow pitch jigging, what is the word “pitch” actually means literally?

Yea, right. It’s a kind of question that people may hesitate to ask by now.

Sato Sensei named it, but he doesn’t speak English. I doubt if he specifically means something by “pitch”. But I know that he doesn’t like it when people call it “slow jigging” Because Slow Pitch Jigging is not about slow reeling or slow rod lifting.

What I think he was trying to describe is:

Slow pitch lets the rod kick back and pitch (throw) the jig. He designed Slow Jerker to bend deep, and kick back slowly and strongly. The pitch is slow. The kick back rod action slowly accelerates the jig and throws it in curve to hang free in the water. That is the heart of slow pitch jigging.

The other way to look at it is the “tone”. Jigging is a series of action, one up and one down. In slow pitch jigging, the tone of the action is low (slow). In high pitch, it’s high (fast)

He doesn’t want it to be called “slow jigging”, because reeling is not necessarily slow. Jerking is not necessarily slow. But there’s always a suspension between your every actions and this is when the rod kicks back slowly to “pitch” the jig. So the tone is slow.

There was no such suspension in conventional jigging. Now we call it hi-speed jigging. Remember how we did it? If we do it in slow speed, would it be “slow pitch jigging”? … No. It wouldn’t be. That is why he doesn’t want it to be called “slow jigging”.

Hope it helps you understand more.