Pat Brown

I'd love to fish the California Delta back in the day with a frog for sure! I think if I could go back in time - I'd even skip the hunt for the world record bass for that bite I reckon! Teeners on frogs back before everyone fished frogs all the time? - get outta town. That's FUN!

I think it takes a lot of experience to know when to set the hook and there are times when you're doing everything right and you just miss them and learning to accept those is part of the deal with frog fishing for sure. I find that if the fish are hitting my bait and not committing to it, it has more to do with my retrieve than anything else. I think that when you get that cadence dialed in they choke it every time. Cadence is action, frequency and inertia. There are times when you want it to boil. Like a little insect and barely move but be pretty frequent and there are times when you want it to boil. Like a little insect and barely move and be very infrequent. There are times when you want it to sway from side to side very rhythmically but at a slow pace and there are times when you want it to sway from side to side at a manic pace. There are times when I need to pop my line to make the Frog spit water from side to side as it walks and there are times when it needs to swish and glide across the surface with no spitting at all. It's really interesting when you get it dialed in because it seems like when you get it dialed in for that day for that pond or lake - you can have some insane times. I still rank casting accuracy and ability to be quiet with entry over cadence every time but cadence is the next most important aspect of frog fishing. As a little addendum to this all - A piece of juice that has caught me many big fish over the years that I figured out is you can cast your frog up onto the bank and then slowly walk it into the water and it's the quietest most natural presentation you can possibly achieve with any lure!!! 😉😉😉😉

I will also emphasize the importance of *ACCURATE* and *QUIET* presentation when trying to tempt the big girls. When you make the cast correctly - you don't even need to move it an inch many times. The big ones will eat it the instant it lands if you do it just right a lot of times or on that very first twitch.

Hey! Congratulations! Frogs are my favorite way to catch a bass - you'll find that cadence is very important when working areas. Sometimes I'll go my usual fastish mid tempo walk for hours without a bite and I'll consciously slow my cadence a lot and start catching them everywhere I wasn't on my first pass through an area. Almost like a jig or jerkbait sometimes must be given some substantial pauses during a retrieve. I kind of learned this over the summer in very clear water where I could see big bass follow my frog and sit with their nose up to it underneath it and they would only bite it if I let it sit for a really long time! I catch frogs pretty good on mats for sure, but my favorite place to catch frogs and in my opinion the place where you're going to usually catch the biggest ones is shade pockets/ overhanging trees on points and channel swing banks this time of year the bigger ones seem to be on the channel swing banks outside of the coves and the smaller ones tend to be inside of the coves/more in the vegetation - at least until the flip and then it seems like everybody's in the cove - at least right now it seems like that! Most of my fish that have been over 4 lb that I caught on a frog this summer were throwing my frog to the bank underneath a bunch of stuff that creates shade in super shallow water that's near deep water and a cove/creek LOL. I also feel like if you can get to the very back of a cove to where it's ~ 1 ft. or less you can catch really big ones in the vegetation!

@Swamp Girl - you'd love fishing NC - the Piedmont is just a nice word we made up for THE SWAMP!

Special places in my heart for Lake Michie - the lake I tossed my first zebco into with my dad. Probably still at least a couple I tossed in the lake that are down there at the bottom to this day - settled into the ancient silt. Guaranteed the lake I caught my first fish out of back before I was even forming memories! Lake Huron - where I got bit by the bass bug for the first time chasing smallies in knee deep water on Rocky flats at sunset with my dad and brothers while visiting my mom's family in Michigan during summers up North. Santee Cooper - You have to see this place to believe this place but it's unreal and it's like fishing in Jurassic Park. Easily the most beautiful and mysterious and even frightening place I've caught largemouth bass. If you want to know what fishing in the Cretaceous period may have been like - fish Santee Cooper at night in the summer. 😮 Lake Brandt - the lake I taught my son to fish on. It's the lake that has my heart and has captured my imagination and it has produced the most excitement and motivation and also heartbreak of any lake I've fished. I'm in awe of the bass that swim and eat and do what bass do in my humble home lake. I'm deeply grateful for the lessons they have taught me about fishing and about life over the years chasing them. The largemouth bass in my lake are truly majestic and beautiful creatures.

I think the times we must be the most cunning are times when there is little to no current of any sort for a prolonged period - hot or cold/night or day. I feel as though current activates fish and dictates bite windows probably the most of anything. My favorite source of current in small ponds are gentle rains and 5-10 mph sustained winds. If you see on your weather app that clouds roll in at 11 pm or the wind picks up at 1:30 am etc - be there or be square 😉

We select our baits primarily for the depth and speed and cover we will be targeting. The food that bass eat at night don't suddenly change - neither should our baits or even locations. Usually at night there are feeding windows and they feed shallow and deep on structure and cover and primarily stay bait oriented even in the darkest and coldest nights. Topwater works excellent in October - night and day. Probably better at night.

I shake a jig a lot and sometimes I'll quiver a frog which is similar.

Nah - the colder the water the bigger your top water fish are gonna be, seems like.

Color blind people still see contrast - I imagine bass perceive and react to the contrast a chartreuse or blue creates even if they don't see the color as a vivid hue. Sometimes contrasting colors are the deal. Sometimes blending in is the deal. Color usually is very low on my list when trying to dial in fish but if I'm on a good bite I may play with color to see if it affects my size or catch rates.

Yeah a white jig is a big fish bait to me for sure. Caught a 9.1 out of public pressured small water in early February - super cold water. I feel like white is shooting for 8+ in general and the bluegill jigs get a lot more 4-7 lb bites.

Spinnerbaits - nah - mono for me. Buzzbaits - always 40 lb braid.

Depth and speed and location and timing and type of cover - that's about all that matters YMMV

@Swamp Girl - One thing I don't often see mentioned in these threads about stealth is actually making quiet casts - this is an area that I think that baitcasters beat spinning rods every time. I am able to consciously slow the bait down as it's entering the water with my thumb and the tip of the rod and essentially eliminate all noise and splash from presentations that are close by. Oftentimes I get bigger fish making short pitches and flips and close range casts to targets that basically don't make any noise when they enter the water. Sometimes distance is the deal but sometimes gentle presentations nearby work just as well or even better and oftentimes. You'll catch more big fish out of an area if you pick the area apart with little quiet casts because you'll catch each big fish that would have been scared by the one at the end of the long cast as you fought the fish in. There are times of year where a quiet and close to zero splash presentation 15 or 20 ft from my boat or where I'm standing is the most important thing and I feel like the splash of the bait regardless of how far I'm making the cast is more what alerts them. I'm not saying that this cannot be achieved with a spinning rod. I'm just saying that I can be much more accurate and consistent with a baitcaster when I'm doing this kind of fishing.

Yesterday I got about an hour before sunset of casting (no catching 🥹🥹🥹) and I love it! I could cast my frog almost across the 5 acre pond I fish 😂😂😂 - no WAY I'd EVER actually fish a frog that far from me in real fishing applications and it did this with ease and minimal break adjustments and a full spool of 65 lb braid. The more efficient nature of the wider spool definitely was noticeable on long casts and I could also appreciate a more steady gradient of IPT from the end of a cast to nearby - basically nerdy words for - it's nice and fun to fish a frog with! It's definitely a heavy reel but I'm 6'4 and have large hands and arms - it suits me and the way I fish a frog just fine.

I've learned that the wisest bass in the clearest water will always hit a frog once in a while. 🐸🐸🐸🐸 But basically - everything you say - I completely agree with. Distance and not making any shadow or noise or vibrations is huge. In the stillness of the morning I have even yawned and seen big fish swim away just from the sound of me exhaling. People don't get how quiet and still you gotta actually be if you want a big one.

I have fished places where there's lots of small fish but only big ones bite and places with lots of big fish where only small ones bite and there will be times of day/week/month/season/year where it switches and you catch some big fish in the pond where small ones bite and vice versa. Fall is definitely a time where I find it's either a lot of small fish or a lot of big fish biting in a day. On my lakes it almost seems like the small fish use optimum structure during less optimum feeding conditions and the big fish bide their time and optimize the structure during peak conditions only and during those windows they're the only bass eating in those key structure areas. This of course can make it especially exciting/anxiety inducing in the fall when you lose a big one in the first couple minutes of the trip. Every bite for the rest of the day carries with it a lot of expectations! This isn't the case all year at all - but during the fall it really seems like a LOT of fish group up by size and move around. As far as overpopulation - most bodies of water in the US are overpopulated and under culled. Feel free to cull small fish and help your fisheries be their best.

You can catch frog fish in water below 50° but I like over 50° and under 70° for a frog or really hot water also is fine. Something about water that's 70-80 makes topwater not quite as good as when it dips below 70 or gets above 80. Don't know why. Generally speaking, this is the best time of year to throw topwater of any kind - tournaments this time of year are typically won on a topwater, even in the era of forward facing sonar. Frog is my favorite way to catch bass - buzzing style baits are my other favorite. I like buzzbaits more than toads but toads work better to get bites overall more of the time. Usually if they aren't chasing buzzers - the frog works and usually if the slow froggin doesn't work - buzzing something will.

Wow interesting about the ability to change the gear ratio, didn't know one could do that and I appreciate that information - the 7 speed is more than adequate - I actually had fun fishing a frog for a week on my Tatula 200 with a 6:3:1 - part of the reason I went for the Tatula 200 with a 7:3:1. Just a little more efficient when picking apart an area perhaps but I fish frogs slowly on a tight line - so the speed of retrieval turns out to be less important. Also anything that slows my reaction time just a hair probably mean a few more fish in the boat 😂😉. The high capacity spool is so I don't cast my entire spool of super heavy braid out - it works for that! As for the braking system? Uh....I will be okay. I don't actually use braking systems much and I cast frogs about 50 yards max - usually much more gentle close range pitches and roll cases to targets - and that 50 yard cast would be a really silly long cast even for me most days and the brakes on the 6:3:1 Tatula 200 make it so I can cast a tiny little popping frog further than I need without backlashing or throwing my shoulder out so I'm guessing the 7:3:1 will be okay and suit my needs. I do appreciate the concern - fishing is different for everyone! 😎😉

For most things I like my line to stretch. Better than my line snapping!

It's here. Oiled and greased it up and stuffed it with 65 lb braid and it's on my Fred's Magic Stick just waiting for me to be done with work so I can toss this grey ghost Bobby's Perfect Frog on it 😎😎😎😏😏😏🎣🎣🎣🐸🐸🐸

Just put rig the worm on the hook before tying to add some weight - a trick I learned here that works great! Cosign on everything everyone is saying. Retying fairly often is a good move. I am a big fan of the regular San Diego Jam on a knot I know I'll be retying often - it's incredibly strong and uses less line than the double version. Caught my PB on a t rig with a single SDJ and 15 lb line - it is a really good knot when you don't want to tie the double version (IMO retying more often is probably more important than knot strength - YMMV)

Never really felt the need for scent but I'd use pure anise oil or fish oil.

I need another hobby/time sink like I need a hole in the head but it looks like it could be fairly easy / fun. I'm pretty handy with tools and building stuff etc. I'll start by taking it by the local shop and compare the rate of having it done to the rate of trying to do it myself and I'll probably just end up getting them to do it 😂