FrogFreak

If I didn't go out when there was a chance of T-storms, I'd miss a ton of fishing up North. But it is important to plan. Just last Sunday the morning started beautiful and then some clouds rolled in. My wife and I were in a small lake in our yaks. I told her to start moving towards the launch when we heard thunder. I then tossed out one more cast and a large lightning bolt struck about a mile away. I promise I have never paddled that hard in my life! Since we were prepared it only took about 60 seconds to get off the water. Point is, don't be silly but don't let the weather forecast stop you either.

I don't care what you say, when I feel that fish, my reaction is to set the hook like a gorilla!

From time to time I fish with my buddy on a pretty busy lake and he loves to hit the docks. Well, we went by this one dock and an elderly gal comes out and stomps down to the end of the dock and stomps back to the house. My buddy says she does it every time and the only thing he can figure is she's trying to scatter the fish so we don't catch any. I guess she never says anything to him and she doesn't have any signs or chicken wire installed. Next time I see her, I'm going to tell her about the motion activated sprinkler idea. Like a lot of others here, I just try and be respectful of other peoples stuff. If you don't want me to fish your dock, I won't. I can find em somewhere else. I fish to relax and I've never had a confrontation that left me feeling relaxed.

I suppose your post doesn't give me enough information to help. If craws aren't a forage base in the lake, you may have a challenge there. I will tell you that the Rage products have been very productive for me but each lure has it's time and place.

Thanks for all the advice. Buzzed bait, this trip is just about fishing. Tom, I think I saw Cooch on a YouTube video the other day. The Informative Fisherman had him on I believe. Thanks for the recommendation! While I would love to catch a DD bass, the trip is really about going somewhere warm and fishing. The winters are brutal up here and most folks try to get away for their sanity.

Catt,, thanks I'll hit up Steve. What's his member name?.

I appreciate the list of lakes but I'm looking for a package or a guide that someone can recommend. Possibly a place to stay, eat, fish etc.

Lately I've been running top waters in the am until that bit dies and going directly to the DS in known fish holding areas. I also use the Zoom trick worm in several colors. This is my third year with the DS and I love it in the summer when the bite gets tough. I'm going to experiment with heavier weights, a t-rigged craw and throw this in some nasty stuff as well (short leader say 3-6 inches). Tom, Good point, I'm going go wacky rig it next weekend for sure!

I'm looking to book a bass fishing vacation for my wife and I for the Feb/March time frame. I'm looking for recommendations. Here's my wishlist. Reasonably priced package that includes: Boat rental Lodging Meals Close to a major airport would be nice. A guide isn't needed but would be ok. I suppose the budget here is 2-3K total (include airfare) and I'd like at least 2-3 days of fishing. The destination should be within the US and warmer than North Dakota If any of you have some real life experience with this I would greatly appreciate it.

Report from up North. I've been fishing in the Park Rapids area since opener. The weed growth is finally getting there and the bass are relating to it again. I've had some good mornings with top waters (sexy dawg in bluegill and numerous poppers). I don't trust my scale so I'll just say I've had some very nice sized catches so far. Lot's of dinks as well. I think the summer frog bite is just starting up here so I'm looking forward to that for sure! Good luck to all you MN anglers! Tight lines!!

Way to go! I prefer Koppers Live Target frogs but pad crashers are good as well.

I find that I have to be cautious when taking advice from articles because I fish pretty far North. Sometimes I just ignore the old "summer time" bass articles. I find Bass "shallow" throughout the summer up here and honestly, they have been killing top water lures lately. I've actually slowed down when I didn't need to at times this year. It seems the LMBs stay pretty active throughout the day because it never gets super hot. They do react to storms and post front days but not as much to the traditional southern state seasonal patterns.

Congrats! I love PB threads.

Man, that was a very well made video! I've tried fly fishing for trout in the past but never for Bass.....oh no the bait monkey is calling!

I lost a Pflueger combo over the side. I was in my yak pulling my older boy (21 yrs old) back to shore, he was in a float tube. I caught the end of his rod with the paddle and it was gone. The boy wasn't paying attention at all because he was cold so when I yelled at him to grab it, he just looked at me like, 'grab what?" Same day I dropped my Oakleys in the water. Then we went to another spot and the boy lost his other road fishing from a pier. It was early in the year and the water wasn't very warm so he didn't want to jump in. Well, his younger brother (19 yrs old) had seen enough and he jumped in and dove down 10 feet and got the rod and reel after 2 attempts.

I don't drink when I fish as a rule. Some of my friends still don't believe me because I do drink when I'm not fishing. But I want others to have the choice to do so in moderation if they would like to. When their freedom infringes on my freedom, that's when I call bullsh*t. I think I would have been surprised if my fishing buddy pulled out a 40 on the way to the lake. I'm thinking I would have told him that either I drive or we are going to have a problem, same thing with the boat. I've been around some people who are complete idiots after one beer. Sure, he may have been OK but I'm not taking that chance. This is my life and I want to fish tomorrow. Airborne, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you are a bad person for not confronting him, just that I would have.

I love helping out people that are new to bass fishing. I get asked on occasion to help out a young person who wants to learn to bass fish. I don't give out "secrets" but tell them some popular techniques for the situation and time of year. I don't fish tournaments so that isn't a worry. However, there are a couple places I fish that I don't like to advertise with too many folks. I will take friends and relatives along but that's about it.

I don't care for wacky rigs but they do work when other things don't.

I carry a smaller tackle bag with 2-3 3600 boxes and any plastics I may use in one of the outside pockets.. It can be a challenge figuring out what rods and tackle to take. I usually carry 3 rods. A MH St. Croix Triumph paired with a PQ BC filled w/ 10 lb Mono is my all around rod, my dedicated frog/flipping rod is a Veritas MH/Abu Premier combo with 50lb braid, and finally a Daiwa Lexa 100 on a M rod for poppers/cranks/plastics. Oh, and I bring a drink and poptarts in case I get hungry. I've thought about a net but it stays in the boat for now. I also have a small tupperware tray that I've attached to the deck with velcro that I use to keep any loose items in. Very handy.

I have a Wavewalk kayak. Just to throw it into the mix. It's about 60 lbs and is easy to car top. I can stand up in it quite easily. The upside is it is very stable. The downside is that it takes a bit of practice to turn it on a dime. It does track very well without a rudder and it has ample storage room. You would think that not having a seat would be a bad thing but the way you sit in it, your back just doesn't hurt after a day of fishing. It is about $1200 so it's not cheap but so far I've been very happy with it. Just another option to consider if you're thinking about that price point.

What I don't like about getting skunked is when I start thinking about why I got skunked and I realize I was in a rut on the water and didn't change. I have a bad habit of staying with the same technique for too long. I will throw top water too long after that bite is done for example. it was happening a couple weekends ago when I said out loud, come on you know what you need to do to catch em. I switched over to a t-rigged plastic, threw it in some deep lily pockets and started hammering them.

Mine is the lake that I stay at in MN. It has some large bass but they are very few and far between. I can go to other lakes in the area and have 20-40 bass mornings (2 lb average) but I can fish all day on this lake and catch very few if any keepers. I've been skunked several times this year already and even on the "good" days I may scrape out 2-3 keepers. It's very frustrating. I think I just need to spend a ton of time driving around and graphing the lake so I can find out where they're hiding. OH, and yes the MN DNR says this lake has an "abundant" population of LMBs.

Awesome Idea!! I'm in! Dam0007, can you bump your own thread?

It makes me feel better that I'm not the only one in this situation. I hear you on slowing down. I find that I spend more time in productive areas. I have an RV at a lake about 2.5 hours from my home. My boat and yak stay there. So, if I want to fish any other lake I have to drive my gas guzzling truck to the lake on the weekend. The lake we stay at isn't the best bass lake so I would rather hit some other more productive lakes in the area. I can just toss the yak on my wife's Subaru and head out.

I usually start at the top of the water column and work my way down. I also start out fast in each area of the water column and then slow down as needed. Top Poppers, Buzzbaits, Hollow frogs, walking baits Medium depth: Swim Jigs, Spinners, Cranks, Swim baits Deep: Drop shot, cranks, Spinners, plastics, jigs