the reel ess

Use heavy braid and a stiff BC combo with the drag tightened down, wait 2 full seconds after the bite (LunkerLure says count to 4), cross the fish's eyes. Make sure your hooks are sharp. Watch some YouTube videos about increasing your hookups. Talk to others who use frogs with success. Look on the mfg's site for tips. Interestingly, Dean Rojas says to set the hook when you see the bite. No one else I know of says this. And you'll still miss some. It just happens with frogs. Good thing is you'll get a lot of bites when they're on it. They seem to me to hold the bait better when it's overcast. Try several to see what's the easiest to use. Let me know which you like best so I can try it.

Well, I got one bite on the Johnson Silver Minnow. The T-rigged Zoom Speed Craw saved the day. This is becoming one of my pond favs.

I'll eat bass from 2 ponds I fish. And they taste great. My family likes them too. But they're getting tired of eating them. I'll have to freeze them for a while. I don't from anywhere else unless I find another good pond. Another pond I fish had a parasite called yellow grub in the meat when I tried to clean them. So I won't keep them anymore. But I'll still catch 'em. I simply won't eat from the local lake anymore. It's 4th in a long line of developed hydroelectric lakes. Too many people and boats. Too many sewage spills upstream. Leeches, etc. Big cats are the most polluted fish in there besides maybe carp.

Any topwater I can get bites on. Because the topwater bite is not something you can count on. It's a gift.

My top 3 are...drum roll... Trick Worm (floating worm-limetreuse or bubble gum) Rat-L-Trap (gold) Rapala Floating Minnow (gold) But I'm still experimenting. Some honorable mentions: Pop R, Frog, Senko-type worm, T-rigged anything, Spinnerbait, Craw pattern cranks Tomorrow I intend to try a Johnson Silver Minnow spoon in gold with a grub trailer. They really like gold in this place. I'm also going to try a big tube.

I'd say 300 size.

I think you're right. I would have serious doubts about the existence of bass in a pond that was overrun with frogs. Because I have a hard time retrieving one without a bite sometimes. And I don't think I've ever seen a bass eat a real frog.

I;m sure it varies greatly. That's just what I've noticed at at least 4 ponds I've fished.

Black/blue is not a natural color. But it's the one that's on almost everyone's list. Last time out I caught a couple on a black/blue Speed Craw. I've never seen a black craw except on the tackle aisle.

I don't find shad imitators to be as good in ponds unless the fish are so turned on they just don't care. Craws and bream are the thing though. Pond fish seem a little hungrier in general. They never seem to have a fat gut unless they're spawning. They'll fall for a little more than lake bass because the food supply is a little more limited. I also don't see them "schooling" in ponds as they do in lakes. I simply don't see them stacked up. You might catch them doing the same thing in the same area. But usually it's only a couple. Big ones are usually alone. I fish a rather large pond. Actually one of two town reservoirs as well as several smaller ones. . The big one's kind of lake-like except fr the lack of shad.

Man, wake up early and ply the points and shallows with a topwater like Pop R, buzzbait or Spook. Make really long casts. Get a wacky Senko and work those docks. Then go back with a T-Rig and comb the bottom at the docks. Then go drag all the points with a crankbait. If you catch a few on the crankbait, work the area with T-rig or C-rig worms. Don't skip any piece of visible cover, rock or wood.

My buddy does it. he doesn't use any other line for bass. 15# Berkley Big Game is all he has. I have it on two BC combos. I have to say he out-fishes me a lot.

I had the same issues when I started froggin'. To some extent, I still do at times. Use heavy braid...20# or more. As previously mentioned use at least a MH/fast rod. Tighten down the drag. Those are some thick hooks. With mono, you can stretch several feet if you have too much line out. Add to that your medium rod and you may not take up enough line to sink that hook. Wait two whole seconds before setting the hook-almost no one can make themselves do this. If it's a hollow bodied frog, they'll hold on and close that mouth. While you count 2 Mississippi's, reel down until all the slack is gone. Cross his eyes with the hookset. And you'll still miss some. If you miss and don't yank the frog all the way to the boat, let it rest 5 seconds then start twitching, like it's stunned. Then resume the retrieve. Rig that Medium combo with something like a wacky Senko. If the fish blows up and you can't hook up, lob the Senko back to the spot. They'll bite it about half the time. I'm not even sure that's the same fish or just one competing for food.

6.5# on a snag proof frog. It was about 10 years ago too. I love the frog, it seems to discourage dinks. I've caught several bass in that range, but none bigger. But I fish a place now that has bigger bass in it. So a PB is always my goal.

Yeah, I can see why you'd hate them.

Have you had this problem at other times? If anything I'd say it's causing me to catch more fish due an improved hookup rate.

Guess I'm getting old. After a day of steady cranking and casting I can feel it in the shoulder.

I cleaned and tightened it. I tried it and it was better, but still did the same. So I exchanged the same part with an ABU 5000C. I'll give it another try.

Your arms, the line and what's left of the rod's backbone after it loads up.

I LIKE catching fish. If that's what they want, that's what I want to do. But I admit I love the "tick-tick" you feel when they take that bait and start moving away with it.

If you're using a soft hollow body frog, you can let the bass hold the lure for two full seconds before you set the hook-this is difficult to make yourself do. You want the fish to close his mouth before you set. You'll still lose some, but fewer. Last time out I caught three good fish on one. I missed as many. But when you miss, don't get frustrated and reel up fast. Let it sit still like it's stunned then start twitching and resume the retrieve. I've had a fish swipe at one the entire retrieve. Also, use heavy braid. Cross that fish's eyes and keep cranking when you set the hook or it won't penetrate. If you get a miss and you've already reeled in, toss a worm back to that spot and let it sink. This works for all topwater lures. I like the wacky rig for that.

I want to be good on a jig/craw combo, but I'm not. usually by the time I feel the bite, they feel the weight and are off before I can set a hook. I am good with T-rigged plastics. I have all the confidence in the world that I can get a bite and land a fish on a worm, craw, fluke, tube or anything else you can T-rig. Any color you want as long as it's dark. So I usually go to them first when a reaction bite just can't be bought and I know there are fish there. In a pond there are always fish there. My biggest bass ever came on a Snag Proof frog. I have a ton of confidence in this lure for warm weather pond fish and usually good size. You can see small bass creep up to it an turn away. But the big girls...HOLD ON! I saw a Lunker Lure frog in Academy and didn't buy it. Been kicking myself since. I like the ones with realistic legs better than the ones with skirt legs.

I got a few bites on that last time out in a mossy and grassy pond. If you can get to other areas, chances are there's an area that doesn't have that moss. Look for where the bream spawn and a bank that drops off deep right at the edge. You can fish those places with a T-Rig or jig as well as that Senko. Something else we've been doing is "slow-cranking" a lipless crankbait in the deepest part. It's been getting the biggest fish. Big bass are sitting down right on that mossy bottom and only feeding on easy prey that passes by.

I don't know...I've caught bass where there were carp splashing around. But it was a pond. The bass are captive and have to eat.

That looks like a plastic swimbait/fluke hook that came with a package deal I bought years ago. I think they're designed so that the hook is texposed on the back of the bait so when the fish chomps down the point is exposed. You don't bury the point in the bait. I just look up the correct hook for each lure and size. Then I go get the Gamakatsu hook for that application. I have a lot of faith in them. One of the most effective changes I've ever made in my fishing was to start using quality hooks. The next was using braid on spinning.