MassYak85

Stump Pond, aka A1, aka George H. Nichols Reservoir if you need to look it up on Google Maps.

Me and my dad hit Webster at 5:30pm today, boat traffic was crazy. We were lucky we even got a spot at the south ramp. There was a good amount of wind, and we hit one of the spots we had success last time there. 2nd cast I had a blowup on the 130 whopper plopper but the fish completely missed it. About 20 minutes go by and there is a lone patch of lily pads that is on a shallow flat with nearby access to 20+ feet of water, seems like a good spot to me. I cast parallel to it and right as the whopper plopper gets next to the pads, SLAM! Got her to the boat, and she weighed in at 4.5#. Can you guys tell I like this lure yet? It still amazes me that literally every fish is hooked on the front treble hook. She managed to bend it up a little more than it already was so I decided to borrow the beefier hooks on my other whopper plopper and put them on that one. A few casts later I got another fish probably just over a pound. We move around for a while and finally my dad gets a nice one just outside one of the marinas on a chartreuse spinnerbait, got a rough weight on that one at a little over 3 and a half pounds (it did NOT want to stay still). We move around a bit more without too much luck. We ended up staying until after dark and I wasn't getting any more action on the whopper plopper so I switched to a big 1oz spinnerbait that has a rattle and a single big colorado blade. A few casts with that and I hooked up with another good one, fought harder than the 4.5 from earlier so I was thinking I had a 5 lber on but I could tell it wasn't even close when it got near the boat, it was still a nice fish at 3.5 though. We ended up leaving around 9:30. All in all the numbers were not there but the quality fish seemed to be biting.

Same hear, it definitely fades but I never have issues with it bleeding.

I think the best overall would be 30lb braid, it's still thin enough to fish stuff like cranks but has the power to fish a frog through the thick stuff. Plus you can add mono or fluoro leaders of your desired length if you need them (like mono as a shock leader for example).

I use a 7'6" vendetta and you are right, Abu's do run stiff, that thing is a broomstick, but I still like it. A MH will be fine.

I seriously doubt that there is any significant increase in mortality between 75 degrees and water that just pushes 80. Simply because warm water holds less oxygen than cold water does not mean there is not enough of it for the fish. Summer is a time where some places will experience extreme weed and algae growth, which oxygenates the water. At one pond I fish at you have to go so deep back into the lily pads you can hardly paddle to find actively feeding fish sometimes, they like the tight quarters with easy ambush spots smack dab in the middle of the pads. Targeting the pockets can produce over anything on hot days. No doubt in my mind that water has pushed 85 degrees at some point, being so shallow and with so much vegetation, feels like bath water. If the fish were in danger of dying they wouldn't be back there. Treat the fish well, release ASAP and they should be fine. Hooking a fish in any temperature water is risking it harm, I don't think there is any magic temperature that fish will start to die.

Do you mind elaborating a little, I have a conc. A and would just like to know for future reference

I use an 8.1:1. Now if I could afford to have a rod JUST for chatterbaits/swimjigs/spinnerbaits, then I would probably want a 6 speed reel. I find myself reeling too fast sometime,s especially with the swimjig. But the setup is also used for jigs/t-rigs and buzzbaits so I wanted the faster reel. It works fine.

There are certain coves that have weeds, but there aren't many deeper weedlines like there used to be. Fishing has seemed harder in the past couple seasons up until my great day with the whopper plopper. We actually did get a spot at the south launch that day around 6am. Was about half full at the time. In the past though it was either show up at sunrise or pay the 40 bucks to launch at the memorial beach ramp, which aint happening, so if we can't get a spot there we usually just go to another lake.

Thanks man, is there any trick to doing the skirt legs? I remember I tried to do that on a normal size frog once and it was a serious PITA.

I'm in central mass, not exactly smallie country either. Heck I haven't caught a smallmouth at my "home lake" in a few years, and then out of no where this big girl comes up and smokes my whopper plopper, I was pretty shocked when I saw it jump and saw that it wasn't a largemouth. Same thing at webster, I knew it had a decent smallie population but never caught many there really.

Huh, the pickerel around here fight pretty hard. A 3lber will give you a better fight than a 3lb bass by far.

I have been using the perch, but bone should work just fine too. Both are a shade of white viewed from the bottom. I have the black too but reserve that one for night time. Just try varying your retrieves, I've also struck out with it a few times, some days just aren't top water days. I was casting near shallow cover so I like to start off a little slower and leave it in the strike zone longer, other days they are in the mood to chase it and a steady retrieve is the best. My best day with it on Webster was just straight retrieve. When I got to the place I fish from shore today though I was seeing tons of ripples from baitfish on the surface so I knew I had a good chance with it. I am going to be upgrading the hooks on the perch one soon though. The front treble hook is starting to look like hell, I have the drag backed off a little bit now to avoid making it any worse, but even that 2.7 who didn't fight that hard my drag was getting pulled off more than I would like. Hopefully upgrading means I can at least go 1/3 on big smallies this year. Last two big ones has gotten off in embarrassing and disappointing fashion. Both would have been my PB smallies by far. That is also another thing I have noticed. This lure has gotten me more smallmouth action this year than I probably have ever had on anything else in the past.

Fenwick makes a good rod, you should be fine.

I had a part break on my Lews LFS earlier this year. It was completely my fault, and happened when I was cleaning it, I tried forcing a piece back in a way it wasn't meant to. I called them up, told them what part broke, and they sent not only the part but the entire assembly around it, free of charge, priority mail, no questions asked. Didn't even ask me how the part broke. I didn't ask them to do that and was fully prepared to pay for the part and the shipping when I called. Very happy with their service.

For jigs I use a 7' 2" HF Tatula, for Frogs I have a 7' 6" HF Vendetta, although the Vendetta I would say is much stiffer than the Tatula, it just varies by brand, and I actually like the extra stiffness for frogs. If you have to get one rod to do both I would say some type of Heavy, I know there are some guys who like mod-fast actions for both of those techniques, I like fast. Some guys also like MH's for both of those techniques, there is a certain level of preference and no one can really tell you what is best for you here. I would highly advise against a medium though. As for the reel, most guys fish these two techniques on a baitcaster, it doesn't mean you have to. Get something with decent drag though, you'll be giving it a workout with these techniques.

Fished from shore for about an hour this afternoon. First cast, got one on the whopper plopper, weighed in at 2.7. About half an hour later got another probably around 2, didn't weigh that one. The key seemed to be LONG pauses. The first fish I let it land and it probably sat a good 30 seconds, then the instant it started to move the bass came up and got it. Second one I let it land, about a 15 second pause, about 10 feet of retrieve, another long pause, then again, the bass hit it when it started up again. Somewhat subtle bites as far as topwater goes, no explosions.

d**n dude sounds like I need to give this a shot. What frogs would you recommend, I don't have any under 3/8 ounces I don't think. And are you throwing these on casting gear? I was thinking of using a MH spinning rod I have spooled up with some 20lb braid.

That stinks dogbone, I hope you are able to find it though. When I was a little kid my dad chucked his entire baitcaster setup into Chauncy on a cast, slipped clean out of his hand and that was the last we saw of that. Funny story about that actually. That probably happened 10 years ago, but a few seasons ago while Ice Fishing we were talking to some guys next to us, exchanging stories, and they're telling us how one time their buddy managed to pull a bait casting setup out of the ice. I was thinking in my head "there's no way it could be...." right as my dad asks them "what lake was that on?"....as luck would have it, Chauncy. Same color rod (green), and the guy pulled it up in the same area my dad lost his. No guarantee it was the same one but I like to think it was. I also found 3 spinning setups bungied together off of that Island on A1 a couple years back, in probably only 3 feet of water. All three were toast and must have fallen off some guy's boat deck. Not sure why they didn't just get them they were so shallow.

Confidence to me is going the entire day without so much as a bite, but on that last cast of the day still saying to yourself "I am giving myself the best chance to catch a fish right now". That's a combination of conditions, lure selection, and gear.

Only online rod orders I have experience with is two through tackle warehouse. They use extremely thick and sturdy cardboard tubing. I did actually have one of those rod tubes come broken, which I cannot fathom how UPS managed that because it takes some serious smashing against a pine tree to get those tubes to break so I can fit it in the trash. Rod was fine though luckily.

Oh nice! I'm probably over an hour away from RI but thanks for the offer. I'm just dreaming of options for when I graduate college in a couple years and (hopefully) have a full time job. Until then I'll be sticking with my kayak.

To be honest I used to use EWG's all the time for wacky rigging and caught fish just fine, but what I use now are these

Check out KeepinItReelFishing on YouTube, he is from the northeast like you and me and has a great video series about his experience with swimbaits in the area. If I were you I would get one 68 special, ROF depends on how you want to fish it and the depth of the lakes/ponds you fish, and one 8" trout.

I have the king daddy and have had a few blowups but no hooked fish yet, granted I really haven't fished it a whole lot. I think the biggest advantage of larger frogs is not a bigger meal, but they provide more disturbance if you are fishing over very thick vegetation, which might make it easier for bass to key in on. I believe frogs are one forage where bigger does not necessarily attract bigger fish. A large bullfrog can put up a serious fight, which a big bass may not want to deal with. The large bullfrogs near me are not afraid of hopping around attracting attention to themselves, and are rather aggressive. I'm sure the occasional one gets slurped by a big 'Ol bass but I think in general they prefer the more snack size ones that they can just come up to and inhale, vs having to fight/stun a big guy.