29 minutes ago, RoLo said:

 

I've gotta say, your Beetle Spin has been a force to reckon with   

 

Roger

 

 

Some people think they are just for kids and catch nothing but dinks . They flat out get bit . Fish them where big fish are and big fish will bite .

25 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Some people think they are just for kids and catch nothing but dinks . They flat out get bit . Fish them where big fish are and big fish will bite .

 

I'm just a big kid, so that's right up my alley.

Anyone who believes a Beetle Spin is too small, has never met the Ned Rig.

 

Roger

1 hour ago, NorthernBasser said:

Love all the pics/stories! Keep them coming.

@A-Jay How have you fared on your rats this year??

 

Nice one.

We are about to find out tomorrow morning.

A-Jay 

 

 

9 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Nice one.

We are about to find out tomorrow morning.

A-Jay 

 

 

He wasn't real long but he sure was chunky. Good luck tomorrow! 

The bite is CRAZY good right now. SOOOO looking forward to the fall for football season(not the sport). New PB of 2lb 12oz out of a 50ft wide creek. The walleye was quite a surprise wading a larger river. It weighed in at 5lb 8oz which is big enough to call it a trophy so I'll take it. 

 

 

Got this one before work on a baby brush hog...

Horny Toads are my new favorite thing. I tore up two packs before I figured I’d take a picture of a fish. 

took the grandkids for a little fishing off the dock this morning. good times.

 

On 8/8/2020 at 6:21 AM, TnRiver46 said:

Caught a couple with @Bluebasser86 bladed jig in what I think is milfoil 

 

That's coontail, bruh.

The bass were showing a little love for my antennae modified craws today 

 

 

 

On 8/11/2020 at 9:14 AM, spaghetti_bassin said:

Horny Toads are my new favorite thing. I tore up two packs before I figured I’d take a picture of a fish. 

Hows your hook up rate though? Mine wasn’t too good when I used them.

This morning’s bite seemed a little bit off. I wasn’t sure if the cause was the bottom of the tide, the projected triple digit heat or my not putting the right bait in front of the right fish. Fortunately, I did manage to connect with this 5.2lb crankbait fish...

nice touch ?

Just got back from about three hours of near nonstop smallmouth action. We fished a couple islands on a small lake that have a couple big underwater points off them. It was pretty much a fish on every single cast with a drop shot and a weighted wacky worm, and once it calmed down we started getting them on poppers. No giants, but sure was fun. 

4 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

Hows your hook up rate though? Mine wasn’t too good when I used them.

At first, probably 1 out of every 4 or 5 strikes. I was able to stick some more after spending a couple days fishing horny toads d**n near exclusively. 

 

Some adjustments I’ve made:

 

- When rigging weightless, let the toad sit on a slack line for 2-3 seconds to let the bait right itself with the hook point up. Eventually, I’ll switch to a nice thicc hook for weightless rigging. 

- Set the hook HARD. I was using too light of a hookset at first, the fish would take the toad under and load the rod up but would end up throwing the bait. 

- Fish the toad with different retrieves. I do get great results from a steady retrieve but I’ve also had success killing the bait over pockets, holes, against standing timber, or at the edge of weed lines and letting the bait sink. Set the hook as if you were fishing any other weightless creature. 

- I lost a lot of fish when they would jump. I think better a better hook set helped and I started anticipating the jump, bring the rod tip down when I felt the fish rushing me or about to jump. 

 

Toads are just super effective in the shallow, weedy fisheries near me. I’ll take a few missed strikes for a whole day’s  worth of blow ups. 

Have you ever fished zoom z- hogs? They are a similar bait, but softer, so the hookup rate is much better. I dont get as much on the retrieve with them though, but great for dead sticking.

6 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

Have you ever fished zoom z- hogs? They are a similar bait, but softer, so the hookup rate is much better. I dont get as much on the retrieve with them though, but great for dead sticking.

I have not used that particular bait. What got me starting on toads was burning a havoc pit boss over the same areas I now fish the toad.  

 

Something about the profile of the horny toad and the curly feet activate the bass on my home water like no other bait I’ve used. Another thing I should have mentioned in my previous post is to be ready to throw out a follow-up for those missed blow-ups. The toad is a great search bait, let’s you get a visual on active, aggressive fish. I throw a weightless plastic or a 4” ned right into the ripples after a missed strike, they usually can’t resist. 

They bite the horny toads well on my home lake too, but usually with a moderate speed retrieve. And they are usually a better average sized fish also. My son had a hawg to the boat and it threw the hook , and I lost another in the same size class ( 7-9 pounds) when it slammed the toad and I momentarily hooked the fish. I fish them weightless also. What hook do you do best with?

.

Lots of schooling action on top water. Saw a football field full of white bass going bananas on top but couldn’t get there in time 

 

 

 

18 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

They bite the horny toads well on my home lake too, but usually with a moderate speed retrieve. And they are usually a better average sized fish also. My son had a hawg to the boat and it threw the hook , and I lost another in the same size class ( 7-9 pounds) when it slammed the toad and I momentarily hooked the fish. I fish them weightless also. What hook do you do best with?

.

The really light VMC drop dead hooks usually do pretty good for me. I just picked up some Owner 5/0 screw lock superline hooks and 4 packs of toads for the weekend, I’m hoping the bigger hooks will stick some more fish. 

On 8/9/2020 at 10:29 PM, TnRiver46 said:

We had some friends hiking the smokies from the highest point in TN down to Fontana lake in NC. They needed a boat ride across the lake, said they would be at a certain spot at 4:30 (no cell service). Luckily the coordinates were spot on and we found the spot by maybe 2 pm and sure enough they emerged from the woods 26 miles and 2 days from where they started at 4:27. I also found a nice smallmouth or meanmouth, I dropped it in the lake while attempting weight and measurement. Seemed like a 19” fish. The water was super clear, my fiancé snorkeled around and spotted all kinds of fish 

 

Whoa!! You found a mermaid!!

Slow, slow, slow! on the pond today. Caught one dink from sunrise til noon on a 5” Senko. It’s 97° right now so maybe a factor? 
 

Decided to toss the Senko a couple times after I beached the boat. First cast was a stick. Second cast was this. In maybe 2’ of water. 21-1/2”. 
 

 

Got this one on a trick worm...