ToadTorcher

Gaining confidence in a jig took a long while for me. Stuck with it and now it's one of my favorite lures to fish by far!

I've had a buddy break 3 Vendetta spinning rods so far... each was replaced and mailed off to him within the week! Brother also broke a Vendetta and got a it replaced right quick! I actually can't wait for mine to break so I can get the new model, lol! Great customer service!

I find that walking a frog a definitely a little more tricky than walking something like a spook. You need to have allot more slack in your line... The idea is to basically snap the slack in the line and you should get her to walk. I started using them Booyah frogs this year and really like em. I actually find they walk extremely well so it's a good frog to learn on! To me the ideal place fish a frog is around matter grass with pads mixed in. On my local lakes you can sling the coontail mats all day but until you find some pads mixed into them you wont get onto them real good! If I had to give a reason for this I would say it's because the blue gills are by the pads. Why are blue gills by the pads? I think that little flowers on the pads attract little insects that the blue gills eat. Pads = Insects, Insects = Blue gills, Blue gill = Bass. Cast your frog past the pads and walk it into them. I'll usually pause right at the far end of the mats, any holes in them, and at the near edge of them.

When frog fishing it's crucial to find the cadence that they're keying in on that particular day. I usually fish with a buddy and we'll both use apposing retrieves till we find what they're onto. Sometimes they'll want a quick retrieve with a 1 - 2 second pause. Other times you'll have to wait 10 seconds or longer. We'll also use different colors to see which works best any particular day. Keep changing the cadence till you find what they're honing in on and you'll be nailing them in no time!

This summer I've really gained confidence in any kind of creature bait! I'll texas rig em and fish them around weed beds, and laydown logs. Seems like they'll get bit any time I'm on the water. Frogging is also a favorite of mine when the conditions are right.

Just fish them like you would any other bottom contact bait -- worm, jig, creature, etc. Hook color is all personal preference IMO, use whatever you're confidant in.

My personal best came out of a small pond in Florida... fished weighed just over 12 pounds. No leader, straight 40lb pound power pro on a texas rigged zoom lizard. Granted this was a small pound, so it didn't receive quite the fish pressure a lake like Clear Lake would, but I definitely wasn't the only one who fished it.

Sounds like fishin to me! What were the bites like? Small little taps for good defined thumps? Chances are if they were just little taps is that were bream. After I miss a hit I've made a habit out of inspecting my lure. Looks for tooth marks and scratches in the bait. A few days ago I was fishing a mann's jelly worm and set and missed a few fish. I looked at the worm and it was scratched up the hook. They just weren't getting the whole bait in their mouth by the time I set the hook. I let em take it a bit longer and low-and-behold started sticking 'em. If I ever get a little taps and set the hook I'd inspect the bait and see it would have little tooth marks that didn't go much further than the first half inch of the end of the worm. Doing this will also give you a better sense of how the fish are reacting to your lure and can often give you signs that say it's time to down size or change colors.

This past weekend we received two solid days of rain. Temps were in the mid 50's to low 60's. Today fishing the bank with a friend and jumped in the water to get a lure I snapped off the water temp seems to have dropped a good 10 maybe 15 degrees from what it was earlier last week. Without having a depth finder I can't say for sure what the water temp is but if I had to venture a guess I'd say it's dropped down into the mid 60's. The frog bite had been hot but with a falling water temp I have a feeling they won't be a willing to surface through the weeds to get a frog. The lake I fish is a small, 200 acre flowage. The main forage is bluegills and is classified as a euphoric lake. You can find a topographic map here. http://dnr.wi.gov/lakes/maps/DNR/0329900a.pdf So how would you go about fishing given the circumstances? I was thinking fishing the steep shorelines adjacent to the weed flats pitching a jig would be a good bet. Not sure if they'd be willing to go after reaction baits just yet with the water temp having dropped so suddenly. Weather this week is scheduled to be in and around the 70's, so expect the temps to raise some. Thanks for any help!

Tubes are very versatile baits! They can be dynamite finesse lures when fished with light line and tube heads, yet can be pitched, flipped, and punched around heavy cover, or even fished as a you would a texas rig worm. Always use the biggest hook you can get away with with a tube. They're very thick baits and a normal offset worm hook doesn't have the gap in needs in order to slide down the shaft of the hook and penetrate through the fishes mouth. Because they are bulky they tend to have a slower fall than you're brush hogs do, so you may want to up your weight a little bit to a 3/16 or heavier depending on the depth of the water you're fishing.

Check your local DNR. The Wisconsin DNR is a great resource for finding lakes around the area. It has lakes listed per county and includes topographic maps, bottom composition percentages, fish specie present and more. It also includes whether or not there are public access points, so you don't have to wonder about that until you get there! Check it out, you may be surprised what you find!

Awesome thanks for the tips guys! Makes sense to fish the fallow riffles... we've been fishing the deeper pools thinking that they'd be seeking at the deeper water since the over all water level is falling.

Tidy the boat a little, check the electrical and do what ever tackle organizing I need to do from the previous fishing trip, then go! I just boat my boat this summer and the first time we took it out the electrical wouldn't work and we were stuck out on the lake. Ever since checking the trolling motor is a ritual before even hook the boat up!

I personally don't have a terribly impressive line up, but it gets me buy! 1) Quantum Energy + Cabela's XLM 7' MH. Spooled with what ever flavor of the week copolymer or fluorocarbon: I use it as my bottom contact bait rod. 2) Daiwa Advantage + 6'6" Abu Garcia Vendetta. Spooled with 14lb Sufix Seige: Top waters, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits. 3) Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris Limited Edition Gold + old 7'6" H Cabelas Fisheagle w/ telescopic blank. Spooled with 65lb briad: Froggin, flippin, and punchin... this rod is a beast!! 4) Abu Garcia Cardinal + 7' M St. Croix Premier. Spooled with 10lb Power Pro: Finesse fishing + River Smallies. Looking to add a jigging/pitching/heavy bottom contact baits rod to the mix. I'm thinking a 7' 3" Ducket White Ice with an STX but we'll see.

My dad and brother recently bought Lew's Tournament MG reels and they feel real nice! Extremely smooth but the casting didn't impress me much at all. My brother runs 30lb Power Pro Super 8 on his and my Quantum Energy (with 12lb p-line) throws much better. It could be the line that made the difference, but I wasn't impressed all that much. That reel is crazy smooth, but I'll personally sacrifice fluidity for better casting. The knobs are also starting to peel on both of them which is a shame cause the fit in the hand nicely. I was also playing around at Cabela's today with an STX and Tournament Pro, I think I liked the feel of the STX better. I was considering the Tournament Pro but am leaning to the STX after fiddling with em both a bit.

If I'm not mistaking the saltwater energy spool should fit it! I swapped my deep spool in Energy PTs for the shallow spool of the Energy PT burner. Fits like glove and I think it should work throughout Quantum's reel line up. E-mail or call Quantum to be sure though!

My dad and I always argue about this! He'll almost never fish straight braid unless he's throwing a frog, I on the other hand never use a leader with the exception of very clear water. I've got a buddy who runs lime green braid on almost all his reels and it doesn't seem like I catch anymore or less fish than him on a regular basis. I also recently spooled my wormin rod with p-line CX in the clear fluorescent color... Doesn't seem like I'm catching any less fish either! So with the exception of crystal clear water I don't think it maters much at all.

I use a FujiFilm XP... runs about 150 depending where you buy it from. Takes a good photo and a fine video. Part I like most about it is that it's water proof, shock proof, dust, and freeze proof. You can make a hat mount with almost any camera as well.

How many people on here fish river smallmouth? I'm not talking Mississippi type water ways, but more along the lines of small, wade-able rivers. I recently moved to Wisconsin after living in Florida for the majority of my life, so I'm somewhat new to it, but have been at it for a solid three years now and really enjoy it! Three or so weeks ago, me and buddy went on a smallie fishing spree and over the course of two days caught close to 150 fish: Close to 15 of which being in the 17 - 20 inch range. However, since then we've been lucky to get 10 in a 4 hour trip and really haven't been able to get back on them. We're still throwing the 'ol reliable 3" tube and 4" senko and fishing the same holes that were so productive through those two days. So why do you think the fishing has slowed down so substantially? The water level has dropped a foot from then but has been steady for a couple days and the fishing still hasn't been great. Did we just fish the place out or do you think we need to change something up perhaps? Wucha think, and what do you do when facing with similar circumstances?