What a fun and weird day this was. To catch everyone up, I have been pre-fishing different areas of the lake for four days and on Thursday I found two patterns and my best 5 were 106 inches, so for the first time in these national tournaments I was feeling confident. One item of note - I also entered the Native No Limits Big Bass Power Hour tournament along with my Bassmaster enter. The Native tournament pays out $1,000 each hour for biggest bass plus the winner for total length of fish caught over 12" (no 5 fish limit). But instead of one lake, this was a nationwide tournament with designated lakes and Santee Cooper was on the list. Since I had been catching big fish, I figured I'd enter at the last minute.

My AirBnB is in Cross, SC and I'm about a 6 minute ride from the Spier ramp. This isn't far from Rocks Landing and an area where the Elites were catching a lot of big ones a few weeks ago. I was launching from a different ramp almost an hour away. There are 214 anglers in this tournament, and as I hit the road at 4 am at least 40 of them passed my heading to either the south end of Marion or Lake Moultrie. I mean, a LOT of guys pulling kayaks were headed in the opposite direction. Did I make the right choice?

At the tournament check-in the night before there were a lot of anglers saying that they hadn't caught anything in practice. So I was hoping they were just headed to that area because a lot of Elites fished there and not that they had found fish. I was also hoping no other anglers would show up at my ramp. But when I got to my launch there were maybe ten other kayaks launching from that ramp.

We get to launch at 5:30 am and we have 30 minutes to get to our first waypoint before lines in at 6 am. It took me all of 4 minutes to get to my first waypoint while everyone else scattered far and wide. I did fire up Livescope to look around and I saw some bait but no bass. I shut down Livescope because I didn't need it for the patterns that I was fishing.

After twiddling my thumbs for almost 30 minutes it was finally time to fish. I was fishing my favorite small, Spro yellow bellied popping frog. On the third cast my little frog got blasted and I landed a 19.75" LMB. I was the leader on the board for at least a few minutes. But here's part of the weird for the day - it was a good hook set but the body of my frog was 3 feet up my v

braided line! Frickin' bass blasted my favorite topwater into multiple pieces.

Here's the other thing - the Native tournament requires their own Identifier Card (a card with a code that must be in the photo you submit for your catch). Bassmaster gives us a laminated card, but Native has a paper one. I also have a sleeve that holds the ID cards and attaches to my Ketch board. But because of the design of that sleeve and the Velcro backing I can't flip it with one ID on one side and another ID on the other side. I have to physically remove the Native ID card while holding the bass on the Ketch board so it doesn't flop into the water, and position the Native ID and grab my phone and take a second photo. Well, Native disqualified my fish because I held their ID over the body of the fish, That will stink if it ends up being big bass for that hour.

Anyway, I have a second dilemma - try and fix my Spro frog or tie on a white bellied popper? Lose my confidence bait and throw something else or take time from fishing to fix my bait. I tried to fix it and ended up cutting my thumb on the frog hook. Not only was my yellow bellied Spro my confidence bait, but I had also fine tuned the angle of the hooks to get better hook sets. I gave up and tied on a black popper, but when I tried to bend the hooks I snapped one of them. Dang!

So now I tied on a new, off white bellied popper and I left the hooks alone. I left that area to let it reset and hot some other waypoints with no luck. Since the tournament is still going on, I don't want to give up the structure I was fishing, but I had 4 areas that I kept looping for a while. Sure enough, I got another blow up and this was a BIG girl - easily 20+ inches. But as I got her close to the boat she jumped, dove, big head shake, and I lost the hookset. That stinks, but I new one of my patterns was working.

Not long after I was cruising another area and said "Good morning" to a couple sitting on their dock. Seconds later I hooked into one and she was another big girl. I landed this one and it measured at 22.75". Well, Native scored it that way. Bassmaster scored it as 22.5". Go figure. I won't know until the results are posted on Monday, but this one gives me a good shot at winning $1k in the Native tournament. And if it's the biggest of the day I also win a new Native Kayak.

Next up, I made a longer run to another area to test out pattern #2. There was a boat in the first stretch of that run, so I rounded the corner to another waypoint. This area called for a 1/2 oz, white spinnerbait with two big willow blades, one silver and one gold. I love this spinnerbait because even with a paddle tail trailer I can get it to land soft and quiet. First cast and I get a blow up, and when it breaches the water I can see it's a smaller one. I'm not even sure if it meets the 12" minimum. But I reel down and then there's nothing. The bass never hit the hook - it hit the skirt. Not only that, but it took the skirt with it! Another weird event. And of course, I don't have a spare white skirt. I do have another smaller white, silver double willow spinnerbait but the skirt isn't long enough for my other spinnerbait. I fish that for a while in that area. But there's no wind today and that area doesn't produce with a spinnerbait or bladed jig.

So I head back to my first set of waypoints. I get another HUGE blowup on that popping frog and start wrestling her to the boat. She goes under the kayak, then darts back out. She puts on a great fight for a while, goes back under the kayak, shakes, and she's gone. It was another 20+ incher. While I'm a bit frustrated, I'm also excited because I'm still finding big bass. I fish those waypoints for a while more, find nothing, then set back off to the area for pattern #2. I go back and forth a few times. Pattern #2 doesn't seem to be holding any fish. I can sight fish and see fish at pattern #1, and despite throwing a few different baits I can't get them to bite. It should be noted that earlier in the day we had full overcast and spotty rain, but now it's patchy sun and almost no wind.

So after a bit of back and forth, I'm back at pattern #1 again with my frog popper and get blasted again. I should note that when I get one on, one of the first things I do after setting the hook is hitting my remote button to engage spot lock. But when I hit the button this time there's nothing - the motor dies and there's no beeps. So now I'm adrift, but I land the fish, take my photos, and then try to see what's going on.

It turns out that I drained my 100Ah LifePo trolling motor battery. Believe it or not, I plan for this. I run my electronics off of another 100Ah battery. So, while it's awkward to swap batteries on the water, I got it done. But that means I have no electronics. That's not a big deal today, because I'm only using it for mapping today.

I didn't catch anything else and ended up with three fish for 59.75 inches. I'm in 95th place out of 214. But it's disappointing that if I had landed those two other fish and they were only 20" each I'd be sitting in 7th place. If they were bigger I'd probably be in the top 4 or 5. Sure, that's a bit frustrating. But really I look at it as a pretty good day. With a few breaks or a few less headshakes I'd be in the running. But I know I can compete. Tomorrow's goal is 100" and a finish in the top 100. The weather will be different tomorrow, but pattern 2 should be in play.

1 hour ago, Kayak Koz said:

but this one gives me a good shot at winning $1k in the Native tournament. And if it's the biggest of the day I also win a new Native Kayak

You'll have to let us know if you win one or both of these. Good story tellin'

Unfortunately, Day 2 of the tournament was canceled due to the threat of high winds. Being such a shallow lake, that can mean big waves, especially on the main lake.

I was only 10 minutes from my ramp when they made the announcement, so I continued to the lake. Winds weren’t a problem in that area, so a bunch of went out and fished. I was out there for less than an hour and decided to head home. I had a five hour drive and I have to get back to work in the morning.

I’m still wishing I landed those two fish. It would have been interesting to see if they landed me in the top 10.

I wish I had found a bait with a better hookup ratio that they were hitting on. But that’s the nature of fishing with a frog.

Good story telling and unfortunate that you lost those good ones. A good fishing buddy of mine was there fishing and didn't fair so well. He also only managed 3 fish but had about 55" and ended up around 110th place and then had to drive back 15 hours without getting to fish a second day.

14 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Good story telling and unfortunate that you lost those good ones. A good fishing buddy of mine was there fishing and didn't fair so well. He also only managed 3 fish but had about 55" and ended up around 110th place and then had to drive back 15 hours without getting to fish a second day.

I feel bad with the people who made those long drives only to have the tournament cut short.

I did the math. If those two fish that I lost at the boat were 20” each I would have finished 7th. If they were 22’s or 23’s as I suspected I would have been second or third.

So today I’m kicking myself a little bit. But I felt I gave them good hook sets. They both fought a lot and breached. Fishing with frogs is fun, but those are the risks.

Dang, that is brutal. Hurts to lose big fish but losing them in a tourney is pain squared.

I have had serious issues with hooking frog fish this year. I suspect it's largely the size of the fish I've had biting, but I know I've had a couple bigger ones that I didn't connect with also. My productive baits that usually have high, hookup ratios are just not doing it lately.

1 hour ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I have had serious issues with hooking frog fish this year. I suspect it's largely the size of the fish I've had biting, but I know I've had a couple bigger ones that I didn't connect with also. My productive baits that usually have high, hookup ratios are just not doing it lately.

I actually think part of the reason is that the hooks have changed. I think they are more brittle than years before. For example, before I could easily bend the hooks a bit upward and that seemed to improve my hookup ratio.

But when I try to bend the Spro frog hooks they just snap. Maybe I'll look into changing the hooks to something I can bend and see if that helps.

OK - so here's the kicker to my "bad luck" weekend. As I mentioned, I lost two fish at the boat that would have easily put me in the top 5.

But I also had entered the Native No Limits tournament that pays $1,000 each hour for the biggest bass.

I caught the second biggest bass of the tournament, but the guy who caught the biggest of the tournament did it the same hour that I did so I got nothing.

That sucks

Frog fishing is a big gamble. I've heard pros say that 50% hookup rate is good so don't fret too much on missing those fish.