Lottabass

I've spent most of my life fishing, the rest I just wasted.

It drives me nuts when I get into a frog bite and have to spend time putting the hooks and weight back in the frog after a lunker has done her best to destroy my rubber bait. My hands shake so bad and I'm in a hurry to get back in the action so I have a heckofatime putting the frog back together. The Spro Flappin Frog will hook stick me every time. So I used a large needle and braid to sew the nose to the line tie. A drop of super glue on the knot. A bunch of fish wacked the Flappin frog yesterday and it held up for most of the day.

I'm with you, they are ALL good! I make a list too and then forget the list!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll get a clicker.

If I'm anal or have OCD it comes from my Mother. When I was a young boy she used to iron my underwear!

I reflect on the day in the evening and think I caught 50, but sometimes I wonder if my brain thinks 50 but in reality I only caught 38 or maybe 62....? I'm happy with 5 or 50, every day on the water is good, but it would be nice to have a check on my memory, I think.

You folks that keeo track of your catches, what method do you use? If I catch one over 5, I weigh it and write it down on a note pad but never have recorded the total number of fish in a day. Yesterday I caught a wad of 'em, no bigs, but a great day! @Swamp Girl Katie, how do you keep track? I don't have the brain power to remember numbers but it would be nice to know how many instead of just a guesstimate.

I use many brands. This is a Rapala DT4 that broke on a hard strike from a fish. Never had one break like that. Any sqarebill in my box gets used hard, Always trying to hit something!

Katie, I've never had the kind of numbers you catch but I understand what you are saying. It feels good to be worn out, don't it?

Iowa: March (or whenever is ice-out) is the best big bass fishing. April is when numbers pick up. May-June-July is great. Aug-Sept can be tough. Oct is great. Nov to ice-up is fantastic! Anytime the water is below 50 degrees is my favorite time to fish. I have started in Feb and fished until Christmas some years (not often enough). @Swamp Girl Katie, I heard that in Maine you take your Longjohns off on the 3rd of July and put 'em back on, on the 5th. Is that true? 😁

@Swamp Girl Katie, old mags, old dogs, old books, old anglers...I love 'em all! So glad you are back on the water!

Love it! Many "bass fishermen" around here won't tow their metalflake rockets anywhere near a dusty road.

Any place that is hard to get to is usually worth the effort! No place fer sissies!

When I push my pond prowler off the bank and the rope slips out of my hand!!!!

Made a different double frog rig out of a cannilblized A rig. I call this one "Thunder 'n Lightning". Yesterday I had caught several bass with it and then I gotta double! Well kinda...a good bass slurped one of the frogs off the duckweed, when I set the hook it cracked like Hank Aaron hitting Number 715! The braid was making music as I got the bass out of the weedbed. Then the circus started when the reel popped off the rod! Sometimes I think I'm the Don Knotts of bass fishing! So the bass is swimming around the boat as I'm fumbling trying to get the reel back on the rod! Finaly get things under control and work the fish to the net and there's two! So I caught the first one and that bass trolled up the second one! So I caught a double...kinda!

I agree with you. Your logic is exactly why I haven't got a pistol with me now. There is a fine line between when to pull it and when to use it or not. It would be easy to use the gun instead of de-escalation in a situation of fear and stress. I hope that I, or anyone, never gets in a situation like this. Thank you for your reply.

Last year I was fishing a lake with a golf course next to it. A guy came by the shoreline in a cart and stopped and hollered; "Are you catching or just fishing?" I replied; "Are you golfing or just hitting?" It was meant to be funny but he got MAD instantly and started cussing me. I pulled away but later when I headed for the ramp he was there waiting on me and wanted to fight. I'm 75 and this guy was a young, very large man. I don't back down from a fight but I eventually talked him out of fighting because I knew I was gonna take a beating. Since then I have thought about packing a pocket pistol. Haven't done it but it could be a deterrent when my talking skill doesn't work. Sad!

@Red Beard post about fishing drainage ditches reminded me of what happened many years ago when I lived in Moore, OK. We lived there for a couple years and my son and I would fish on weekends at any pond we could find. There were none closer than 10 miles away. One day he was waiting for me in the driveway when I got home from work. He had a coffee can with a bunch of crawdads in it! Since there was no water within miles I was astonished! We had what I called Concrete Cricks, that carried rain runoff but were otherwise dry. He was using a length of string with a crappie hook and a piece of corn and lowering it down into the expansion seams in the concrete and crawdads would latch onto the corn! Two points: One can find life in the strangest places and never discount the creativity of a 10 year old who wants to catch something!

Last few years I have had great frog fishing on top of duckweed. Finding groups of bass 3,4.5, sometimes more in one small area of the duckweed. This year not so much. i'm pretty sure there are bass under there but they won't come up for the frog so I catch 1 or 2. What I've been doing is using a weighted frog, either with weight inserted into the frog or a bullet sinker and a bobber stop and fishing it in the open area between the duckweed and the bottom. The Zoo Wake from Snagproof has been the best. No, you don't get those explosions on top but they pound it pretty good. Find 'em on top, catch a couple, then nothing, switch to the weighted frog and catch a bunch from the area I just flogged with the topwater frog. I love a hand grenade frog bite too but I'll take 'em however I can so this is not the answer to your desire for the topwater explosion. Duckweed is perfect for this due to the open water between the floating duckweed mat and the bottom of the lake.

Katie, not only do we love your photos but how you describe your trips puts us right there in the canoe with you! !957 Outdoor Life cover.....I LOVE IT! A great angler and a great writer you are!

Katie, you are gonna be amazed at the difference! Always wishing you the best!

Flappin Frog gets chewed! This frog was new when I started this morning!

I think you have outstanding fishing. Five pounders are not common in Iowa either, 2019 was a year I will never forget and I hope I have enough fishing time to see a repeat!

Great post, Katie! I fish 5 watershed lakes and several public lakes. My favorite is "Secret Lake". It has no access and little to no fishing pressure. You have to drive across 1/2 mile of pasture to get to it. No boat ramp. Dirty water, lots of duckweed, lots of standing timber and brush. About 200 acres. Lots of wildlife which I prefer to lots of people! I rate it a 5 star lake although the fishing fluctuates from year to year, which is normal natural progression. In 2019 I caught 52 over 5#. This year I have only caught 8 over 5#, but I'm happier than a woodpecker in a lumberyard!

2 fish on 2 rods at the same time!!! I'd like to watch that circus!!! 🤣

@Swamp Girl The advantage of trolling!!!