FCPhil

With muddy water I would first really try to dial in your topwater fishing, even during the day. A whopper plopper 110 and Teckel Sprinker frog would be great for covering water both when the surface is clear or has debris. Then poppers, walkers, propbaits and frogs are great around the bank and cover. I think a lot of people write off topwater too soon during the day or think just because one isn’t working they all won’t. After that I would pitch jigs and weightless plastics around the isolated cover you have. Then crankbaits that run over the tops of the grass and lipless cranks ripped out of the grass.

Tatula CT. $30 is worth how good of a reel it is in my opinion. Edit: look on ebay for a good deal on it.

What kind of reel/line are you using?

The Mustads are pretty cost effective in the 11 packs and I think they are high quality. They are what I buy in general. One drawback I have seen with owner hooks is they have such a small barb it is easier for fish to shake free in my opinion. I like to use owner ST-41s for light lures that are hard for bass to shake. With larger, heavier hardbaits I go with the Mustad short shank EWG hooks.

I fish a lot of heavily pressured ponds with clear water and lots of submerged vegitation. I’m planning on trying to fish down in the roots of the vegetation with jigs and Texas rigs. My question is would you recommend starting off with jigs/worms with rattles or without rattles? Normally I think of rattles being more for muddy water but I’m curious if it will help the fish find the lure down in the grass. Where would you start?

How heavy is the mono? I think the power of your rod is less of an issue than the stretch of mono, especially on longer casts. I’d go with a pretty heavy mono if you could. I frog fished all the time with a MH rod but I was using braid and didn’t have many issues. All that being said I would look for finesse frogs that use premium hooks. I have not used it but I’m sure the Kaera frog uses top notch hooks. I’d also look at Teckel frogs, the ones I have seen use owner cutting point hooks.

If they are starting to spawn I’d fish real shallow with jigs and weightless plastics.

Sounds tricky to secure in a wood bait...maybe put the swivel on the end of a cotter pin and countersink the swivel.

I got a cotton Cordell lipless and was not that impressed. I feel like in general, you get what you pay for but there are definitely some cheap gems and some overpriced stuff. I feel like cheap soft plastics you can get away with but a lot of the cheap hardbaits have bad hardware so you end up swapping out hooks anyway.

Weightless stick worm Whopper plopper Jerkbait

Snaps works great. Get a pack of the smallest eagle claw ones from Walmart for 89¢, give it a shot. It’s what I always use from the bank.

Just a standard Plano from Walmart. The foam sheet is good for holding swimbaits in place. I drill holes to get some airflow going in certain sections.

One thing to think about...often people think topwater is only for mornings or evenings (or frog fishing over dense cover midday). In my experience that is true more or less with clear water. As the water gets more and more muddy, bass are more willing to hit the surface midday, especially if there is cover nearby. A pond I fish is clear in the spring and early summer. Once it’s daytime and sunny the topwater bite is gone. Later in the summer though it gets real muddy. I fished subsurface lures all the time during the day and didn’t catch much of anything. Then when I switched to topwater I got all my bites.

The woes of bank fishermen... Once I spent a half hour crawling across a rotten, half submerged, spider infested log to get a Pop-r that I snagged on the the end. I would splash water on the log to wash off the spiders just to watch them swim back to me from all directions. I did get the pop-r back though...probably should have just spent $3.50 for a new one... Also waded through knee deep black mud to retrieve a jig head...used that jig head twice since in three years...no fish on it...

I was hoping I would find an unresolvable argument when I logged on this evening...bingo!

This might be a really ghetto solution but I have drilled holes through the top and bottom of sections that only see hard baits. As long as the holes are not too big nothing gets through...

I wish lures like that were hanging around the ponds I fish. All I find are nasty old senkos and tangled bobbers! (I did find a pad crasher once though...)

I think “finesse” is more about the size of the skirt and trailer, along with the hook and weed guard. Unless your talking really heavy jigs for punching, the weight seems more about the depth it’s designed to fish, rather than the size of the presentation to the fish. Just my oppinion.

As long as your knots are good and your line isn’t getting frayed, 15lb braid should be plenty strong for any presentation you would fish on spinning gear. IMO any presentation in which you could be breaking 15lb braid should be done with a baitcaster. If you’re snapping off mid cast that is a problem with your cast or reel.

The unpredictable reward for sure makes it addicting. But I think it is more than that. It is a mixture of random chance and skill, the combo is so potent. If something is pure chance, there is no challenge to master it. But, on the other hand, the random chance involved makes it difficult to master and more addictive.

Braid has very little stretch, so when you jerk it tight without the flex of a rod the forces get very high for split second. It’s very possible that a quick jerk with pliers is exceeding 15lbs of force on the line. It would be better to test it with a steady application of force to find it’s breaking point. What kind of presentations are you planning on using it for?

Although it takes some work, walking baits are my favorite to fish because you have so much control over their action, it gives you something to do while waiting in between strikes.

I have very little experience with blades jigs but this is the one I picked up. Has quality components and swims with a hard thump. I can’t hear any sound from above the surface but I don’t know if I should be able to. Paired with a ZMan razor Shad looks really nice in the water. Looking forward to fishing it this summer. BTW, should I be able to hear it chattering in the water?

Look online and buy a pack of Boss jig heads and Boss replacement skirts. In the long run you get great jigs for a low cost.

Walking lures are great at triggering strikes over shallow flats. A lot of people fishing them with a fast, steady cadence to cover water. I think a whopper plopper is better for that. I like to fish them with individual jerks with a pause in between or sets of 2-3 quick jerks with a pause in between, like a jerkbait. I have found this to be great for triggering strikes when the bass are reluctant to strike. In my mind poppers are the finesse lure of topwater, ideal for tougher conditions and for targeting very specific spots around cover. If you like a buzzbait, get a Teckel Sprinker frog. It’s all the upsides of a whopper plopper but even more weedless than a buzzbait.