BassB8Caster

Wow that's awesome! Congrats!

I'm not in the market yet but have started research and I read many boat topics on here to learn. I have heard this suggestion as well. A few questions that come to mind are; where do you find these boats? Am I wrong to assume these boats are top of the line boats (aka expensive)? No disrespect to anyone, being subjective here, but would a free boat receive the best care vs a brand new one with a warranty?

Good job. Way to stay persistent. Nothing like success on a frog. I have been experiencing the same thing you were in that fish are not committing, just hitting it and that's it. So no hook ups. It's caused me to use the frog less and less. I need to give it more chances. When it's on, froggin is hard to beat.

Congrats! Love me some smallie fishing. Between the fight and the topwater performance, cant beat it. Its quite a double edge sword with bass (largemouth and smallmouth) for in that seeing them come to the surface and jump, thrash, and tailwalk is both awesome and scary. Love to see it, but dont want the lure shook free. Man seeing a big largemouth surface with its mouth open wide, gills showing really gets the heart pumping. Did someone say this bass fishing thing can be addicting?

Congrats! That's a tank.

I know that lots of times its my fault for getting too excited on a blow up and yank too fast. But I have lots of times where I don't do anything and frog pops back up to surface. Line never goes tight. Perhaps there is something with my frog that they pick up on right when they hit it that tells them it's not real and they spit it right away? Braid would give me a good hook set. I fish a booyah pad crasher popper frog. I did shorten the legs a bit.

I personally do not use trailer hooks. From what I've experienced, the bass inhale these baits when they see them. Even when I may burn or fish one over thick vegetation, they eat the bait. Adding a trailer hook defeats my purpose of Texas rigging them. I want to be weed less so I can fish any where. In more open water a trailer hook is an option. Some people use them all the time. Some do occasionally and some never. I have a few in my tackle box, but I never use them. I should try them on slow days, in case I am missing strikes.

I went to 30lb braid on one of my 2 baitcasters this year. The confidence I have with the braid anywhere I fish it is tremendous. Most times I wish I had braid on both. It is interesting the opinions we get regarding frogs, between which people prefer to how to use them. Ish Monroe is considered the frog guy by many. Yet I haven't seen anyone mention liking his frog. No mention of not liking it easier. I've watched a couple videos of him frogging and it's quite interesting.

Before today I felt the same way. I fish small ponds 200 acres and less in a kayak. I have 2 rat I traps, one perch design and one red craw. I've tried them several times in the past with very little luck. Tried all types of retrieval, shallow, deep, in grass over grass, etc. Today was windy on a new pond with grassy bottom. Decide to try the red craw trap and I hammered them. Nothing big, biggest 2 lbs. But consistently caught them. No idea what was so special with this pond, but they wanted the red craw trap. If it weren't for someone suggesting the trap in another shallow pond thread, I may have skipped the trap and went to a spinner or chatterbait. Something I'm more comfortable with. Just goes to show you never know. I have not tried any other brand rat l trap though. Heard good things about chrome too.

I have had this happen alot to me lately. Very frustrating. Great blow ups but they don't take it. Line never gets tight to set the hook. I've gotten to where I rarely use a frog any more. I'm now hooked on Texas rigged soft plastics, whether it be a craw, swimbait, tubes, worm, lizard etc. I fish top, middle bottom with them and hook ups are awesome. Very efficient.

I agree. Nothing like successfully figuring get them out. There are so many different ways to attack a piece of water. I try my best to assess a pond or even a specific sections. When that fails I will stop and think about similar situations I read about on here and suggestions or others successes and try them out. I also had a little success story today. I've tried lipless cranks off and on with little success in the past. I fished a small pond today with grass on the bottom. This topic was discussed on here and a few suggested lipless cranks. Not having success I'm hesitant, but decided to try. It was windy so it pushed me even more. I was able to cover water quickly and was hammering bass with a red craw rat l trap. Nothing big, but caught a lot of them. Biggest 2lbs. It was awesome. No idea why this bait all of a sudden worked this time. Now another weapon at my disposal on those slow days all due to help and suggestions from these kind of threads. People helping people. Got to love it. Congrats on your success OP.

Thats awesome. I look forward to sharing those moments with my children. We have our first on the way (due any day now) and i cannot wait to introduce her to fishing with daddy. I have several fishing items already from the wife and other family members. Those moments are what life is about.

I just hit up DSG for their soft plastics sales for havoc line. Grabbed grass pig, beat shad and jerk disco shad swimbaits. 5 for $10 with free shipping. My local walmart also had a bunch of zoom fluke and 6" lizards for $1 per package.

To peg or not to peg, that is a very interesting debate. It seems the more you search the more divided it is. For example, i watched videos of glen may and he says to peg. Then i watched Shaw Grigsby say that you will catch more fish not pegging. Very interesting.

I struggle as well with rat l traps. I fish small lakes and ponds less than 200 acres. One one I did ok: a few small largemouth, couple perch and pickerel. Nothing with any size. I have also tried to use it (both one in perch pattern and red craw) as a search bait in new water trying anywhere from 7 to 20 feet. Looking for bass just off the shallow shelf. No dice. Will watch this thread for tips.

beautiful!

I love fishing the weeds as well. This weekend i did pretty well in the weeds first thing in the morning. Biggest were 3.4 and 3.7. I like throwing texas rigged craw or pit boss, 6" lizard, and swimbait.

Yep. Been there done that. I've had my fair share of setting the hook too early and pulling it out of their mouth (no matter how much I tell myself to be patient I still yank too early....working on that). I've also had mornings where bass were blowing up on it but not taking it. Just hit it, and it would be sitting on the surface. For a while I would keep thinking its me messing it up (usually it is). But now I take it as they are telling me they don't want it. They are reacting to it (being active and aggressive) but don't want to eat the frog. So change up to a swimbait, worm etc and you should start hooking up.

good to know. I use the state of maine pdf of any lake or pond i fish for depth info and species info. Most of them are out dated and inaccurate. Keoka Lake for example is listed as only having smallmouth. I caught 3 largemouth there. Im starting to assume many many ponds and lakes have both smallmouth and largemouth, mostly due to people introducing them if they were not originally in that body of water.

I agree. While I would love to have a boat, being able to hit small unpressured ponds with the kayak is great. I'm in western maine and really at most I may see 2 or 3 other boats on the more popular ponds/lakes. Having said that, I did go out on kezar lake once and it was crazy busy. Being in a kayak around alot of boat traffic is not fun. Off subject, are you seeing bass up there in northern maine?

Nice! That thing must have been quite the fight.

This weekend I fished a small pond for the first time this year. I fished it 7 or so times last summer. This year the water level was up probably 3 to 4 feet. Last summer there were a lot of lilies. This year (at least right now) there are not many lilies but 10 to 20 feet of reeds at the shore line. They are very thick and tough to get a bait through effectively. If I sat still and watched the reeds I could see a fish moving through. You could see the reeds move as the fish went through. I used this to my advantage. I rigged a tube weed less and tossed it ahead of the moving reeds. Moving the tube just a little to get its attention. I landed one this way (3.48 lbs) and lost another that looked to be the same size. There were not a lot of fish in them, but obviously were decent fish. Every time I hit a new body of water I'm hoping to find a bunch of lily pads. I love fishing them. And I do need some work on my hook ups with the frog. I get too excited on a blow up.

There is just something about nature, whether it be fishing hunting etc that brings out some inexplicable things. I'm a believer in things happen for a reason. Having said that, the reason for me losing these big fish escapes me. Why oh why? Maybe a bigger one is on the way? Let's hope. I can think back to the first topwater day this year. It was with a super spook jr. I just bought it this year. That day I was like 7 for 8. Only missed one hook up. Did I learn patience over the off season? Had it finally sunk in? Nah. Lucky. I've come back to Earth. Last night I was 2 for 5. Too antsy. Had nice blow ups on the spook but yanked too early. I did catch a decent one where I got it to bite twice. First bite it hit the lure and knocked it up in the air. Judging by that I never thought it would hit again. I have had my line snap once. Just exploded on a hook set. 12 lb mono. Lost a chatterbait. Next cast tied on a square bill, hooked up with a monster. Got her close to shore, she turned to go out deep and she was gone. Just like that. Like she knew what she was doing. Of all the fish I wish I could have back. It's that one. She was beeeg. That's what keeps us going, never know what the next cast will bring.

Good work! Sounds like you are learning fast. You definitely want to rig weedless. When fishing the frog, work it slowly over the pads, pausing periodically at holes and edges. Holding the rod tip up helps keep the frog on top and from going under pads. On a windy day it may be tough where the wind can mess with the line, blowing it under pads causing the bait the get under the pads and caught up. Rig weed less baits that day. I agree, that's a nice fish but not sure on the 8lbs.

Its been a decent spring for me. Lost a few great fish, but thats fishing. The last few times out have been a little slow. I am finding largemouth in with the grasses and lilies. Having problems finding any smallmouth. I have been trying to find them just off shore on points and off spawning grounds. No luck though. Granted, here in Maine its been very windy the last few times out. I do look forward to this summer.