jomatty

dont pay too much attention to those that say these frogs are no good. everyone has their favorites (mine is the ribbit) and there are very few that i do not think are good for certain things. i like hooks that are the style of the zoom hooks with the keeper. i find the owner version to be a much sharper, higher quality hook than the zoom ones however. they will work fine on just a 4/0 or 5/0 hook but the keeper style hooks with allow you to get a lot more use out of every frog. if you use a traditional ewg hook i would strongly suggest getting some super glue to help prolong the use of frogs and keep them from sliding down the hook frog fishing is one application that i think one type of line is vastly superior tot he others. braid is key imho. go ahead and use heavy braid, 50lbs or more and a stout rod. to be specific a rod with a fast tip that is heavy action with a lot of backbone is best but any flipping stick wil get the job done well enough. here is how i fish them: i keep the rod tip high and usually fish them as slow as i can that the legs are kicking good and the frog is staying up on top of the water. this varies as sometimes a fast retrieve is more effective (not nec. because the fish hit it more but because you can cover so much more water). i always use a steady retrieve with soft plastic frogs and if i want to stop and pause usually fish a bronzeye. when a fish blows up on the bait i immediately reel down quickly while lowering my rod tip. as soon as i actually feel the resistance of the fish i let him have it with a hard hook set. there is no kind of fishing i enjoy more than frogging when the bite is on. ive caught a lot of fish on the manns frogs and hope you do as well. matt

i recently posted in the general forum with a similar question and got some good replies. far and away my most succesful lure is a weightless senko with other weightless soft plastics coming in second. if the fish are feeding on topwater ribbits or horny toads can be deadly on these sorts of water. matt

i usually fish flukes just like a jerkbait. sometimes however ill use a more rhythmic under water walk the dog retrieve, and sometimes i will walk them right on the surface (i use the 3x fluke for that)

recently i have switched to using 3x worms for most of my carolina rigging and also as a shaky head. im wondering if anyone has experience with trying to use the floating bubbles that are sold to make floating worms and lizards, and maybe even chunks. i like the idea of floating chunks as well but i like to put so much salt and scent into my chunks that i doubt i could offset that. from what i understand those bubbles will not make a bait as bouyant as 3x but i would still be interested if anyone could share their experiences.

ive always thought braid a poor choice for sharp rocks or zebra muscles. i prefer a floro as heavy as i can get away with, although nothing is foolproof when dealing with zebra muscles. matt

ive caught the same fish on back to back casts on a number of occasions, often on the exact same lure and presentations.

i totally agree with the sentiment about small ponds functioning as labrotories. ive gained the confidence to use many lures at small ponds and then applied that confidence to larger bodies of water. i agree that anything can work well in a small pond but also agree with skillet that i stay away from things like cranks as it is just too frustrating to have to break off expensive lures without even really trying to get em back. sometimes if i see some cheap cranks on sale ill pick some up especially for pond fishing. only took me one lucky craft flat cb to realize that i could not throw these baits in most small ponds. although anything can work i still think there are certain things that are very well suited to the often slimy, mucky conditions that are prevalent in small ponds. top on this list is senko or fat ika and another really good option is something like a ribbit or horny toad, especially if there is grass. matt

yeah i thought suspending jerkbait too. its a mile hike or so to get there (which is why i have high hopes as it lowers the pressure) so i only had a small amount of tackle with me. i tied on the only jerkbait i brought, made one cast and it was running funny. i went to tune the bill slightly and broke the bill off of the xrap (least it wasnt a pointer) so that was that for trying the jerkbait. i saw a guy up there who caught 7-8 monster crappie in about an hour and i may take my 4 year old out after them tomorrow. should give me a chance to try a jerkbait again. matt

day in and day out nothing beats a senko in small waters (at least for me). they consistently catch fish and stay out of the soft mucky bottoms that are so common in these bodies of water. many baits are effective but just too much trouble when there is a lot of algae and much and what not.

i dont have any set criteria but when i was working a stretch of laydowns and someone zipped right in and cut 15 ft in front of me and proceeded to fish right in front of me it took all my strength not to say something. should have used the egg sinker attack method

dont know whats wrong with me i meant to type the owner twistlock hooks. im not that old but learned long ago that tru turn did not make the cut, but apparently somewhere in my sub concious they are lingering and appearing in my posts. matt

im in va so not up north but the water is very clear considering the bottom composition and also the rainfall we had. it is a drinking water reservoir so i suppose that is why it is clear. produces truly beautiful patterned fish with amazing color. im guessing as the spring moves on a little the spinnerbait is gonna be good here. matt

i went fishing yesterday at a reservoir that has a very leafy and soft bottom. it has a fairly wide range of depths and a good mix of deep and shallow. there is a ton of wood, and laydowns, alhthough hardly any rocks or rocky area. the only thing i ever has success with in these situation is weightless soft plastics. everything else seems to fail for me. i tried a spinnerbait in the laydowns some yesterday with no luck but once the water warms a little more that may change. how do you guys handle these sort of situations. info on this time of year is appreciated but general info is great as well. matt

anybody using these yet and have any feedback. they look like they would be awesome senko hooks and a good compromise between ewg and straight shank.

i think i did ok with the blank. ive been out a few times with the rod and i like it much more now than i did before. actually it was not a rod i was using at all and now is in the game day rotation. im still very uncomforatable about doing it to a more expensive rod but who knows.

a lot of people seem to like white but i usually just use the same color i would be fishing with if i were not bed fishing, which usually means a lot of green pumpkins. they are slightly harder to see on the bed but i think i get more hits. # 1 bed fishing bait is the fat ika

i know what you mean about a fast fall with aggressive fish but sometimes it also seems like the only way to get really inactive fish to bite is to blow something by their face at a high rate of speed so they react to it. they seem to not be hungry and will not eat for that reason, they seem to need to hit it out of instinct. so i guess i kinda do it the opposite of you. never any easy answers in bass fishing. interesting, matt

you might not be any reason that you must use a mono backing with braid but there is a very good reason to use a mono backing on every single reel you own. it saves an incredibly amount of money if you change your line regularly and also makes is so much easier to change the line. think of all the line you dont have to strip off every time you change your line. some folks may just spool up and fish all the way until they dont have enough line left to make a cast but i dont want any old line on my reel and i also dont want my reel not fully filled so that i get the full gear ratio for my reel. i use a cheap mono backign on every one of my reels and have never had a problem. i change my line a lot and have never not had enough new line to be a problem. matt

it may be too much to ask of custormer service for them to be knowledgable about the industry but not too much for them to be knowledgeable about their department. i dont mean knowing how to use everything, but knowing what they have and where it is. i dont want advice at dicks but i also do not want to have to search for a bait or something for 2 hours every time i go there. it would be nice to be able to ask "do you have baitx" and either get advice or trust that they dont have it. at my Dicks you get a "no" and then often find it anyways or the guy sometimes helps you look, even though he doesnt know what he is looking for. matt

the dicks in charlottesville is absolutely awful. there is nothing that could make me ask any of their employees anything, as you will never get the right answer in this store. the fishing department is so disorganized that you cant ever find anything. the hooks are absolutely disorganized and trying to find out how much anything costs is a nightmare because they are all on different hooks and stuff. i try to patronize my local tackle store as much as possible even if it is a little more expensive than dicks and walmart just because the guys there know what they are talking about (for the most part) and i like to support small businesses. its a shame that these sort of stores are becoming harder and harder to find. matt

what criteria do you guys use to decide if the fish want a slow fall or a fast fall with things like jigs and soft plastics when pitching and fishing. usually i go as light as i can that will allow me to keep contact with the bottom or to get down through the slop. usually it seems the slower fall is better and more natural. sometimes however it seems that the fish will not bite unless you blow it by them at a million miles an hour to get a reaction bite. is this just a trial and error thing and a if one dosent work try the other, or is there some weather conditions or something else that favors a fast vs. slow fall. matt

Black and bluc, pb&j, and green pumpkin will cover the vast majority of situations for me. green pumpkin in fairly clear water, pb&j as it is getting a littly murky, and Black and blue when the visibility is low. if the water is real mud then ill go to a black and chartreuse. matt

thanks that was exactly the information i was looking for. not sure if i compromised the blank on the one ive done or not. i dont have a heat gun and just cut and scraped away, so i very well may have ruined this rod, which is no big deal as it is very cheap and was meant as an experiment. i dont think im quite ready to start splitting the grips on more expensive rods yet as i am worried i will ruin them. on the one ive done i dont see any knicks but when i was scraping the excess cork off a small strip of the blank peeled off. i imagine this is going to ruin the rod, although it feels strong as i bang it on the ground for some tests. is what i did different then knicking the blank or is this rod shot? thx matt

i snap directly down in front of me. this wears me out less. i try not to move the bait with my reel, only to pick up the slack and concentrate hard on the length of the pauses trying to determine what the fish want. matt

i posted recently on split grip rods and what applications people prefered them for. someone chimed in that existing grips could be split. i couldnt find the link they provided and if anyone knows where instructions on how to do this are i would appreciate it. i experimented some on a cheap rod and was generally satisfied with how it came out. i simply cut it off as much as i could and then used solvent to clean the blank. it dosent look perfect but better than i expected. im considering trying it on a better rod but would be interested in some feed back first. has anyone tried this and is there any reason that it is not a good idea. i was worried that i was going to damage the blank but i think it worked out fine. i would be a lot more nervous with a more expensive rod though and would appreciate anyone elses experience or advice on this. matt