Pat Brown

Nothing too wild and crazy. Couple really good ones in there. But plenty of fun size ones right now! Even getting a few on the frog and buzzbait which is always a treat!

We have pickerel, mudfish, catfish, carp and lots of random perch and panfish species. They're all fun to catch but nothing beats my green grass queens.

Rage jambalaya and Rage etouffee!

Super bright days often make the fish group up in more predictable areas. Wind current or inflowing water generated current and heavy cover that provide shade and often where these intersect with key structure = great places to start in the summer. I like worms and frogs a lot this time of year.

It's always select colors etc! They're colors that bass bite for me - aka - color doesn't really matter for frogs. 😉😉😉 They got plenty of useable belly colors and that's basically what fish see and mostly under a mat or shade they feel it and hit it moreso than examine it. 6.99$ for a king daddy is silly good deal. Those pop 70 frogs are also really good.

I don't even turn them on a lot of the time. I really only use them during transitions or winter. When bass are shallow what's the point eh?

It's probably my most productive topwater technique every year on very small super pressured fisheries that see tons of top water lures every year. In my opinion, the key is identifying conditions and areas that can produce a good buzz bait bite and then throwing it. I like to throw it around cover like lily pads or stumps or lay downs or brush or rip-rap or under docks or overhanging trees or around bluegill beds and I like the water to be a little more off colored and I really like a good ripple on the water. Beyond that, I've never thrown a buzz bait that didn't catch me fish and they catch giants all the time for me. They also catch lots of littler fish. The key is learning to modify them etc. But basically once you start to dial in the nuance of the technique, it's like anything, they work really well.

https://www.spro.com/collections/frog-season-sale 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

Hydrilla is fun because it's clean. I like to punch down into it or fish over it most of the time. For penetration nothin beats a punch rig. For over the top I like weightless worms and frogs.

I used to be super big on jig head shape and bite gap but now I pretty much just think about the hook, the jig weight and profile. I use some jigs for a compact profile with a smaller weight and I try to have a variety of weights. Some jigs I use for a bigger profile and I try to also have a variety of weights for those as well. The hook is important because a smaller hook will allow for smaller plastics and are better for compact profiles. A bigger hook will accommodate bigger soft plastics and will work great for a bigger profile. Lighter weights are better for working higher in the water column and fishing slower in shallow water. There are times when a lighter jig head is essential to get a slow rate of fall when fish prefer that - dirty water, low light, suspending fish. Heavy weights are better for working through heavy cover and working the bottom. They are also much better in clearer water situations and are better for getting reaction strikes from weary fish who have seen a lot of 3/8 and 1/2 oz jigs. Rate of fall is impacted by the jig weight, skirt bulk and the trailer so you have to experiment to find some stuff you like. I don't worry too much about color or action in general. Green pumpkin skirts pair well with everything and seem to work in all water clarities. I think it's more about rate of fall and profile if you are fishing it at shallow targets. If you are swimming it - rate of fall and action and profile matter more. I tend to use swimbaits the majority of the time when retrieving a jig. If I'm casting a jig at a target and letting it fall - I'm more apt to use something with flappy arms. Jigs are fun! For the most part these days I could get by with the sniper and grass jigs from Siebert. They cover most of my bases. The grass jig comes in some great heavy weights that have caught me some huge fish. 3/4, 1 oz, 1 1/2 oz all have unique applications and are especially good for triggering reactions on the fall in very clear water.

I know it seems obvious but tried and true stuff catches bass - 1/2 oz Texas rig 10" ribbon tail worm. 1/4 oz shaky head trick worm. 3/4 oz jig with craw or swim bait trailer sloooooow rolled and grinding the bottom around the fish down there or even dead sticked. Carolina rig + lizard. There's certain stuff that just works for bass. No need to get fancy or reinvent the wheel at all in my humble opinion and the summer is THE time for these bread and butter deep structure power house techniques.

The way that the trophy sits butt down is pretty awesome for the mats and it's soft enough that when they grab it, they're going to get it. Definitely a great frog and it's got a nifty head bobbing walk to it. Love Scum Frogs.

King Daddy!

Some days they just don't bite where you're fishing for em. For what it's worth - I feel like regardless of season - 90% of the water on my lakes is a waste of time and that 90% changes weekly. It's not that there aren't fish everywhere - there are - but the places they're biting seem to fire for bits of time and then shut down and then other areas will fire. Being around lots of fish doesn't always mean lots of bites for sure. Sometimes those shallow ghost towns have some big fish hiding in there. You just can't see em all - they're good at hiding! I think also sometimes it'll be one little thing like rate of fall or speed of retrieve or profile - you can be doing all the right things in the right spots and not getting bit and then make a small change and suddenly the flood gates open. There was one day this summer where we were fishing for hours and everything looked good. We kept getting nips and nibbles or nothing and then my son made the switch from the big ribbon tail to the lizard and then he caught a 20 lb bag in about 2 hours. I figured maybe it was timing or something but we took that ribbon tail to places we had already fished and gotten bit and started catching those fish too afterwards. But like usually if there are fish and they're not biting, I'm going to keep moving and fast. I'm more likely to come back to a fish that's not biting then keep trying to make it bite with lots of different lures. But that's just something I've learned to do from sight fishing (similar to what forward facing sonar shows you). You're almost always most likely to catch the fish if you let them rest and try something different after a while instead of cycle baits on their face repeatedly and then leave and not come back to them. I don't know very much about how you approached it or what you did, but these are just some things that come to mind. Summer is definitely a tough time of year because the fish have seen a lot of stuff and you have to be pretty strategic about your approach to areas you think have fish. Because even if you're doing the right thing in the right place, the fish are pretty much over people by this point in the year.

Yeah pretty much when folks say 'now that we're in the post spawn' my eyes glaze over and the hamster on the tread mill inside my brain takes a nap. It's pretty much silly.

That's when I say to myself maybe they're biting up shallow and go flip some laydowns.

Westin - they were included in mystery tackle boxes for a while and my son got that exact color. It caught us a few bass. Haven't used it in years.

It's different for every individual fish is probably the easiest way to answer all these complicated questions. Some fish are very stubborn and others are more free spirits. Some fish learn and some fish seem to fall for the same stuff year after year. I don't think there is any answer that can apply to all fish in all situations so basically - just gotta observe and feel it out one year at a time. You might see some return - you might discover that fish use different areas depending on the conditions for the year etc. Lots of possibilities and probably to some degree - everything that's possible happens somewhere with some fish.

Summer time is just like any season - a puzzle to solve with many rewards! I used to hate it but it's kinda when I seem to shine and I've just given up and decided I love it. Summer time seems to be all about slow and wormy stuff near wood for me. Maybe your fish operate differently - but those big girls seem to find the wood and sit in it.

Oh it'll be even better in September. That's when they REALLY eat topwater around here. 🥹🥹🥹♥️♥️♥️

This has by and large been my observation as well. When the current is rolling and the water is burgeoning and flowing out rapidly, find concentrations where the current is flowing rapidly and the fish are usually stacked up there but they won't be there when it stops. Low water is definitely easier to find concentrations of fish and big ones!

He'd whoop my @$$ 🤣🤣🤣🤣 But I'm very flattered. That's very kind of you. I'm just a blind squirrel surrounded by acorns here. I probably got nothing on any body of water besides the ones I'm good at LOL

Thank you kindly! We are having a blast right now - summer is always very good to me in NC. Growth rate. 😉😉😉 I believe the efficient bass around here with the right genetic make up are growing 2-3 lbs per year without trying. I catch 6 lbers that are 3 years old a lot.

Well I found one giant bass and I found it with a buzzbait yesterday which is always extremely enjoyable. She stripped drag and wallowed and did everything that makes me a bass fishing addict and she was absolutely gorgeous. One of the small head football body phenotypes I catch every so often with darker green and gold coloration - probably a little more Northern genetics in them when they look like this - absolutely awesome bass. Caught another really nice one on a nail weighted trick worm rigged weedless in bubblegum. Spawned out but a heck of a frame and a big mouth. More Florida for sure! More typical this time of year for us. Another drag stripper that pulled me into a tree but came out and made it to the boat. Found one really pretty fish willing to eat my Spro back behind a shady pocket of brush. And then we caught a few ranging from nice to tiny with one bullhead catfish, an unpictured long ear sunfish and Jake's 'mini milliken' bass - a 10" bass with a 20" bass frame lol Absolutely smashing good time.

Yeah I catch bass good on trick worms and stick baits but I did buy some poop baits and they worked about the same but more expensive. Nail weight a stick bait and you're pretty close to 99% of poop baiting.