Pat Brown

It seems like you started the thread asking people to help you with the frog - it seems like mostly you’re struggling to “have fun” tossing it - which makes sense. With no success or real frame of reference - it’s really hard to know confidently if we are giving a frog a fair shake or if we need to make one of a million adjustments so I’ll clear the air with advice that can at least make throwing it less of a chore and more of a part of a “healthy rotation” of baits. I think the advice to go slow with a frog is very discouraging early on because we picture these super long arduous retrieves where one Cast takes up half our day and we don’t catch anything. That’s not necessary or exciting or efficient with any bait category until you’re on a lot of fish that are eating it well so don’t punish yourself! Instead of overdosing on boring - micro dose the frog in nice areas for it throughout the day and I challenge you to work it slower and more methodically but in a very small area and then quickly retrieve and make another cast. When probing with a frog I’m generally not spending 15 minutes slowly fishing it in a corner - I’m casting it at a log or a stump or under some shade - twitching it gently or popping it a few times and making it walk in place a bit and maybe moving it 3 feet out from the cover or so and then if I don’t see any action or get bit - I reel it in and make a different cast and do the same quick and efficient little thing maybe popping more or walking more / varying things subtly - but not spending more than a few seconds on a cast - and then if it ain’t happening - I don’t get my feelings hurt - I pick up a different rod and try something else. Eventually you’ll find the frog fish that you’re looking for when you’re more methodical and intentional and efficient and less trying to force it and making it a painful chore. Just something to consider because it is fun and I know the rewards will probably be well worth the minimal effort (once you get this little “microdose the frog in good areas” deal rolling) I’m of the opinion that locking a frog rod in your hand for a whole day is actually a horrible way to learn a frog because I fish a frog enough to know that just isn’t going to be efficient or very successful even. Sometimes I find the fish with a worm or jig and catch the biggest fish with a quick cast back to the cover with a frog before leaving - not necessarily making the frog “my focus “ It’s better to think of the frog as like a jig on the surface like fish a small area you expect to get a bite for a few seconds and then reel in and fish another target. Don’t try to catch fish on frogs “on the retrieve” - that can be effective but accounts for very very few of my frog bites. I’d say 90% of my frog fish bite on the first twitch next to a great target. Not really a slow technique once you kinda grasp that (which comes from success) Picking it up is just like a couple seconds of target casting and then you can put it back down. This is all just if you want to maybe make it more fun and keep trying it - if you are resolved to putting it down - do that. I mean life is long - I just try to stay open to everything because it doesn’t take much hammering fish with anything to make them stop biting it around here and it’s usually only a matter of time until my favorite bait this week is something they are conditioned to. I like frogs and worms and jigs and stuff like that because once you get pretty good at fishing them - they are pretty close to fishing pressure proof.

Some super glue and a Bobby garland minnow and a 1/16 oz jig head has resulted in 50 fish in an hour! Super glue is a very economically sound tool to keep in the kit when you’re fishing! Soft plastic and jig manufacturers shudder in their boots when people mention super glue because you’ll go through 1/10 of the plastics catching 10x as many fish and you’ll get more bites because your bait doesn’t foul up when it lands in the water which may be the single most important thing glue is doing for us! Mend it is the same but for soft plastics and well worth the purchase.

Worm, jig, frog, buzzbait! Easy peasy lemon squeeze! Maybe a crankbait or bladed jig or spinnerbait if I’m feeling extremely saucy but mostly worm, jig, frog or buzzbait! And mostly black or white. Let the fish tell me which one.

Yeah they spawn a lot of the year most places we just don’t always see it. Enjoy! Bass around their nests tend to be the bigger ones that we can catch. It’s not even a snagging fish off beds thing or anything remotely like that. It’s just the one thing that fires females up enough to bite artificials - thankfully they don’t do it once or all at once or we probably wouldn’t catch a lot of big female bass on artificial lures.

Congrats! Epic day!!!

Horny toad is just a buzzbait though. I am talking a day where they won’t hit a buzz toad or buzzbait at all happen plenty and often those are good frog days. Or areas where a buzzbait gets a good bite and then they won’t touch it again - that’s when I fish the frog in place very slowly. It’s like a jig or worm - not a spook. I think the issue is like your other thread - you are struggling to slow down period! I understand and relate but it’s good to develop your confidence in slow and methodical fishing because it tends to catch the big ones 90% of the time.

I’m the opposite. I leave the poppers and ploppers at home and bring only my frog and buzzbait. The buzzbait is what I use when the boat is moving. The frog is what I use when I’m picking an area apart. If you’re not catching fish with a frog - most of the time the issue is a combination of gear and hook set. I think most people fish a frog to fast. Work the bait too much. Set the hook too quickly and slack line pull the bait out of the fishes mouth. Use the wrong size frog. Poor slack line management (BIG one with a frog). If they are biting a frog, they can easily be caught on a frog once you get dialed in but it’s like any technique - you need success and practice to get consistency and that can take some work to get rolling. I don’t think you need to fish a frog to catch fish or enjoy fishing but I need to fish a frog to throw a top water where big fish live. It’s not really a choice. It’s the most consistent top water for producing fish over 6 lbs for me in NC by leaps and bounds and I love fishing poppers and catch lots of fish on them at ponds every year - but big fish see the treble hooks and leave it for the dinks 😂 The buzzbait is a good big fish bait also but seems to catch more numbers which really makes it a better search bait for covering water for me. Another thing I do is fish it a lot in open water. I don’t just look for heavy slop I like to use it like a popper I can skip under trees or something like that on ledges or points or cast way back into brush on a flat or work a big lily pad field. I think mats or grass is like 10% of my frog fishing.

I love em! All the Bomber stuff works great- just gotta keep the hooks sharp and occasionally tune the line tie! Big fan of the Cordell stuff also. I bank fish snaggy ponds a lot and I love casting crankbaits into precarious places and burning them through with reckless abandon - I can do this with zero fear or regret with the Bomber and Cordell stuff! Now when I’m on the lake I have a lot more confidence fishing my nicer baits with more reckless abandon from the confidence my inexpensive bank lures have given me.

I got an Irod gen 3 freds magic stick on a really good sale and it’s been rock solid going on two years now and I’m not gentle with my gear at all 😂😭

The drought in NC moved a LOT of the spawn about 50-100 ft off the bank in many flatter areas. That was wild blind casting spawning bass 150 ft from the shoreline in the middle of nothing in 7-8 feet of water in April.

I’m no scientist or engineer (that I’m aware of) - but I feel like a non slip rubber mat that covers storage and deck space would be sleek, long lasting, safe and stealthy. I’m going that route when I mod my Jon boat.

Just a pair of regular ole cricketys chirpin’ away on the pond! Makes me smile to see it. Yall have fun and catch a biggin!

Full moon was this past week. My biggest bass have all come between May and July. I catch plenty of 7-9 lbers in the spring and fall. But my double digits and the ones I nearly caught but lost or broke off - all between May and July. The late Doug Hannon claimed that the ones with Florida genetics actually want about 80 degree water to spawn and the closer to that - the more they spawn - meaning the TRULY giant bass don’t spawn first in the spring - they actually spawn last in the summer . With that in mind - I always plan to catch the biggest fish of the year for about the next 2-3 months and act accordingly with regards to my gear and my line and how much attention I’m paying. My hair is standing up straight every time I get bit in June!

This is a good point. At first I made big cannonball splashes when I switched to heavier weights but then I figured out that the heavier weight providing more resistance actually helps me slow the bait down to where it basically doesn’t make a sound entering AND I can do it accurately in any conditions and from much further distances AND the bait falls faster and gets more reaction bites and I MUCH more quickly and efficiently figured out the good areas to drag a bait from the bottom composition transferring through the heavier weights. I only use weights lighter than 3/8 of an oz when the fish are in a suuuuuuper weird mood and if that’s happening I’m probably struggling anyway! Hah!

I think sometimes I get excited in the boat and flub a cast - the key in bass fishing is to stay cool and do things more gentle and methodical - when I can remember that I usually make better casts.

It depends. The answer to this particular question is very much “let the fish tell you” and basically- that’s the only right way to fish any bait +/-. Any of the ways it can be fished can work - but only the fish know which one they will bite today.

I’m not sure that it really makes me get any more or less bites than a silicon skirt - but bass will bite a living rubber skirted jig. I think rate of fall and profile are much sneakier things to toy around with in pressured situations. Faster/slower fall rates and smaller/larger profiles tend to help a lot if the pressure is very high. Living rubber might get an extra bite or two maybe - but to me it just looks a lot like a silicon skirted jig but a little different. I don’t think I’ve ever had a day where a switch to living rubber turned them on. One cool thing about living rubber is it DOES dramatically slow down the rate of fall - like way more than flappy trailers and heavier line - so that’s something to keep in mind because I DO think rate of fall + profile is important and rubber can get you a slower rate of fall with a smaller profile and a heavier jig head - which has its benefits on a windy day where they want it falling slow but they want a smaller bait etc.

I have never noticed much of a post spawn funk - if anything fish have tons of food around and they’re so stuffed from feeding that they don’t bite artificial lures much until the food gets depleted somewhat in the areas they hunt etc. they tend to still bite - you just gotta finesse them for a week or two - floating worm and popper and fluke and shaky head etc Most of the fish on the lake are small once shad and crappie and perch and sunfish and carp and catfish and bass minnows are swimming around everywhere and the smallest they are gonna be all year - so normal size lures don’t appeal much for a few weeks is I think the big adjustment people don’t make.

You still gotta lean into em a bit but I think the big key is reeling into them with enough speed to drive the hook balanced with a rod that’s moderate enough for them to “get it” - it’s sort of the exact same hook set I use with a Bobby garland minnow - you just kinda reel faster and “lift” or “pull sideways” into the bite. It’s not really much of a Hookset but you still move the line and the rod. Just more torque supplied by the rod and speed more from the reel. It’s still a pretty swift sweep of the rod or lift! Sounds like we actually probably do the same thing maybe just different wording for it. It could be that your rod and braid are more compatible - I personally prefer a more moderate action rod and braid system with buzzbaits anyways - so if that works - I say stick with it.

The key with the buzzbait is not to set the hook IMHO - most of my biggest fish I just keep my cool and keep reeling and they load up nicely. Sharp hooks are a must. Most of the time when I set the hook I pull it away from the fish or kinda tear a big hole in their faces and with buzzbaits and crankbaits and swim jigs and chatterbaits I just keep reeling and lean on em - not really much of a hook set. Works with all line choices! With mono - I would want a medium heavy fast action rod and with braid I’d want a medium heavy moderate fast action rod. That’s kinda how you balance line choice to hook density and rod action in that scenario to me .

Frog Popper Buzzbait Jig Crankbait bladed jig Lipless Jerkbait Worm Spinnerbait Swimbait I like worms free rigged/on a jig head/t rigged/ c rigged/ drop shotted/weightless/neko. Jigs in the summer are usually a flappy craw or beaver trailer and some kind of bluegill color or a paddle tail and some kind of shad or baitfish color or a black and blue and I can go either way on the trailer with those.

Black marker on the first 2-3 ft of braid seems to get me more bites and bigger bites than the standard grey or green low vis braid colors without the black marker. It’s something I almost always do now when I’m fishing a frog. Doing it on high vis line makes a lot of sense - gonna have to try it one of these days.

Basically - it’s impossible for me or anyone to do anything with pictures (unless it’s a picture of a measuring tape or bump board or scale) but it’s a really nice fish and I think you’ve got a great appreciation for the experience! That’s all that counts!

I got a homemade floating A rig to try recently - the verdict is still out - but it has me intrigued. I’m honestly impressed you even tried it knowing what little I know about your situation. A small grassy bog where I’m catching 50 fish an hour on t rigs? I wouldn’t ever even dream of tying a chandelier on! To me - as someone who has utterly failed at making them work - they seem like a deeper bigger lake thing where there is less grass and more rock and it seems like they benefit a lot from using FFS with them - again - just my observation. I have one A rig and it might end up being an actual chandelier in my tackle room before long! 🤣

6/8/12/15/20 lb for mono and 50-65 lb braid. I fish everything from crappie jigs up to big swimbaits and I use the braid for top water. For weights, I am assuming you are referring to bottom contact baits like a jig or shaky head or Texas rig. I use everything from no weight at all up to 1.5 oz flipping jigs or punch weights. Just depends on the depth/cover/mood of the fish.