JR

Someone is going to have to help an old guy out. I am reading the types of setups being used for frog fishing. Why would a high speed high tech reel be needed for fishing the junk. There is only so much length to the diameter of the drive gears in a reel. To get more speed, you cut more teeth. The more teeth the thinner they are. The thinner they are the easier they strip. There will be people that jump up and so "oh that is not how you get the extra speed". Count the teeth and divide to get the gear ratio. More teeth more speed. This would seem to be the place for a more moderately priced reel, that when taken care of and kept tuned will chunk a frog farther than you want to try and get a hook set, even with super duper line. In the seventies and eighties it was the Moss Boss or Johnson Silver Minnow. Then came the Scum Frog and the Snag-Proof Baits. Today we have the "Frogs". Nothing new in fishing, just renamed. Except for the line, not much has changed. The line not only needs to be tough and strong but it needs to cut vegetation. I agree with the thought that any line will break. I would toss line as heavy as I could get away with. If I had a good heavy/ medium heavy rod, with fast action, I would load as heavy of line as I could cast. If you are going to try and use spinning tackle, in the medium action area, you won't be able to load up the real heavy stuff. However when someone asks the difference between spinning and bait casting tackle, you will be able to give them a good example. There are exceptions to this statement but that is a another story. Just think about using a good $80 or $90 dollar reel for "Frog" fishing. You will have an extra high speed reel that you can set up to throw rattle baits. Now Rip-Reeling a rattle bait all day will test the ole arms.

I bought two packs of the Trokars and was so disappointed. I rolled the points on the first two I tied on. I was flipping and the cover was thick but that is what I thought the Trokars were for. It is funny, I keep trying new hooks but I always go back to the ole Mustad 5/0 straight shank hook. Over the years, I think I have used enough of these to fill a bucket. I sharpen the points into a diamond shape, using using an old ignition file and emery boards. You want to sharpen them but not weaken the point by taking to much metal away. If you try this, be extra careful. Sticking your finger down in try full of these will teach you what sharp is.

I still use one of the "old time" baits. Gene Larew, was one of the first to offer smaller versions of the the craw patterns. In the late seventies and early eighties, not many fish had seen anything like the salt craws. It was great. His 2.75" salt craws were the standard for many years. I think they are still one of the best. http://www.genelarewlures.com/SaltCraws/25babycraw.html The small craws fished on six pound hybrid with a straight shank hook and an eighth ounce weight with clacker will still put fish in the boat. A little trick is to poke small holes in the claws and push bits of foam in them. The look of the little bait setting there with his little baby pinchers sticking up is more than most bass can stand.

If you haven't gotten this problem fixed yet, You may want to contact Motor Guide. There is a recall for new cables on their 82 pound motors. I just got my motor back from being repaired at a service center. JR

Hi, I have a 24 V motor and run two wires to the front. I have a 2 bank charger hooked up with a single bank to each 12 V battery. I do not remove the +/- jumper on my system and it works well. Make sure you have a circuit breaker, of the correct size, as near the battery as possible. Use the correct size wire and connectors, and everything should be fine. JR

First off, I would like to second that this site helps to keep you going while you are down. I went to the hospital for a femoral by pass surgery. About 4 days later I had a condition called compartment syndrome, something I had never heard of, and was taken back to the emergency room. At first they thought they would have to take my right leg off and then it was decided to try and save my leg with a new type of procedure. After two more surgeries and two weeks in the hospital they let me go home for complete bed rest for a month. After a month I started therapy and am still going 3 days a week. I thank God everyday for the people that saved my leg. In about a month I get to start fishing again. This site has filled in the emptiness for me. You don't know how much you can miss fishing until you can't do it. JR

Another cast that I think should be added is the bow and arrow cast. I use a 6'3 medium Rawhide spinning blank. Any spinning rod should work. Drop about half a rod length of line off the tip of the rod. Hold the bait in your off hand, be careful of the hook, and pull the bait back putting a bow in the rod. Bend over and point the rod at the target and release the lure. It will shoot out just like an arrow toward the target. If you hold the rod parallel to the water and low enough, you can shoot the bait clear under some long docks or overhangs. If you angle the rod down it will work well for skipping also. Any small plastic bait will work. I typically use tubes and small plastic worms.

The question here is the extreme active draw down. This may cause the fish to move to deeper water, no matter what time of year it happens. If the water continues to drop I feel the fish will back off. If it stabilizes and or starts to rise they will follow normal movements. Try backing out to the first major break and use suspending or neutral buoyant baits. A jig and trailer, quiet plastics, or slow rolled spinner bait are also a good bet in this scenario. A bass is a bass and will do the same things under the same conditions every time. The change in the suns angle and the length of the days will start the activity and you will need to adjust to find the fish but they will be trying to "do what comes naturally. If you know where the fish are and where they want to go, I would start looking between those two locations. I don't think the fish have all left, just waiting for things to stabilize and the water to quit dropping. I am partial to the suspending crank baits and slow falling quiet plastics for this type of application. As soon as the water stops falling or raises some, I would switch to suspending twitch baits, spinner baits, and jig and trailers. If you get 3 or 4 days of stable weather and little wind it is time for the rattle baits, floating worms, and faster moving crank baits. This is what makes fishing fun. JR