Went for a couple hrs. yesterday, nada..too dang hot.

Not sure if I can make it out today.

Two quick questions:

Has anyone ever fished at the El Dorado golf course lake?

Does anyone know what is the deal with the lake south of the El Dorado Nature Center (next to Willow)?

Two quick questions:

Has anyone ever fished at the El Dorado golf course lake?

IIlegal

Does anyone know what is the deal with the lake south of the El Dorado Nature Center (next to Willow)?

No Fishing there..that's what I was told by one of the park rangers

Oh I see. So no one is ever allowed to fish from the golf course lake? Are there even fish in it or is it just a pool of water and golf balls?

Any idea what that southern lake is all about? It's just there because or is it connected to the nature center?

So it's been about a week since I got to hit up El Dorado. I am going to be in the South Bay area and was considering trying out Alondra Park. Anyone fish there before? I tried googling for some more info but couldn't find anyone who mentioned a specific place to try. I won't be out there until 6:30 pm so I won't have time to really thoroughly scout out the park. If anyone can give me a tip on a starting point it'd be greatly appreciated!

Hey Hammer, have you had a chance to hit up ElDo recently again? Any luck? I'd love to meet up and see how a real fisherman tackles El Dorado.

Was gonna go today, but woke up to late.. ;D

I'll try for tomorrow morning..starting in front of the old ranger station.

Hey Hammer, did you end up fishing at ElDo today? I was out there pretty early around 6:15 - 6:30 am.

Wow, I haven't been out there when it's been so foggy and I was amazed by how beautiful it was out there! As if the normal mornings weren't beautiful enough!

I started off at my usual spot (green piped semi-point) and tried some more frog fishing in the tully cove. I seriously do not know what I am doing wrong. The last 4-5 times I've been out there I have been totally skunked by those darn bass! It's probably been around 15 hrs of strictly frog fishing without any luck. I try to be as quiet as possible when I approach. I know they are there as I can see the occasional explosion as they feed, as well as the quivering of the reeds as they swim past.

I have 3 different frogs: 1 black Snagproof, 1 chartreuse Mann's Super Frog, and 1 brown/green striped Spro Bronzeye. None of which has sparked any interested from the fish.

If I had to guess what in particular was wrong, I think it might be the cast? I just got my first baitcasting setup and so maybe it's the sloppy casting? Often the frog will slap pretty hard on the water so maybe it's scaring them off? Your thoughts?

Anyhow, around 7:45, I was packing up to go to the Ranger station and I met another fisherman who told me he'd just caught a 6 - 7 lbr in that cove only a few days before.

I walked over to the tullies in front of the old ranger station and saw about 4 other guys fishing. I started casting my frog using a hop-hop-hop-pause retrieve. Is it better to have smaller rather than larger hops?

Around 9:30 I start to lose confidence and got discouraged. I switched back to my spinning rod and started tossing a little 1/8 chartreuse jig with a slug-go rainbow trout colored plastic connected to a jig spinner. I figured it would be nice to catch something and panfish are a whole lot easier to catch than bass. On my 3rd to last cast, I saw a shadow shoot out and take my lure. I figured it was a decent sized 'gill. Turns out that I caught a personal record... the smallest bass I've ever caught! Haha, it was a tiny little 7-8 inch guy. I thanked him for salvaging my day, casted a couple more times and headed off to work content enough... something is always better than nothing. :

Might have been Dan that caught the 6-7lb'r.

ranger lake, first cast, got a 5.5 lb'r..an hour or so later, switched to a spinnerbait and got a smaller bass.

I always start my day in front of the old ranger station.

I was there with a couple other guys..early. I was the old guy with the maroon sweatshirt, and green shorts.

Here's the bass.

And, the smaller bass.. ;D

Wow, nice pix! Man, your first cast? Jeez. Was it on a worm?

Is Dan a 50ish year old gentleman carrying about 5 premium looking rods?

I do remember seeing some other older guys, but I don't recall what they were wearing. Do you remember seeing an Asian guy with semi-long hair wearing a hat +  brown jacket + black backpack + rollerblades + not catching jacksh*t? If so that was me.

Yup, you walked right by me. I believe you said hi. I thought, jeez, what a pain to have to carry those blades..lol

Dan has many,many, many high dollar rigs. Shorter guy with a gray gotee..

Not a worm..was a paddletail swimbait.

I remember now! Yeah, I did say "Hi." Were you wearing earphones? I think I asked you if you had any luck and you didn't respond so I just kept walking.

Dan is great. He has been so helpful and taken a lot of time out of his fishing to give me advice.

Can I ask you what kind of swimbait it was and how you fished it? I bought several swimbaits in an attempt to imitate your success. ;D

What do you think of this? (It's kind of hard to tell, but it's Rainbow Trout colored)

Or this?

I've tried a bit with the swimbait, but all I catch is a ton of weeds.

My real goal now is to learn how to use a frog. I have dedicated the past 7 trips to El Dorado to just fishing with a hollow-bodied frog. That's a total of over 25 hrs of fishing without a single bite!

At least I have gotten much more proficient at using a baitcasting setup (I got a Berkley Tactix 7' MH rod + Pinnacle Vision Slyder baitcaster + 20 lb Berkley Fireline (crystal) just for frogging). I had a terrible time getting used to holding the rod in my left hand and winding with my right, but I am started to get it.

I would so appreciative of anyone who can give me some concrete techniques to get me my first bite. Thanks to some tips from Dan, I have learned to watch for movement in the tulles to home in on the bass, but even when I get a good cast to the spot, nothing happens.

I was out there for about 4 hrs today (from 3 - 7 pm). I spent almost the entire time at the cove pitchin' into the tulles. A couple of times, right as my frog landed I would see a rush towards the lure and I would tense up and prepare to control myself to not set the hook immediately, but then nothing would happen. Could it be the frog I'm using? Here's four frogs I have. I started with the black Snagproof for a couple of trips, then switched to the brown Spro, then the chartreuse Mann's, and the last couple of times I've been using the chartreuse Kurmit.

Which would you guys concentrate on using?

I have been reading every single article that I could Google. I have read at least 30 hrs worth of material the past 2 weeks, but nothing I read seems to help. Some say fish it fast. Some say fish it slow. Some say leave it for long periods. Others say jerk it all over.

You guys have helped me so much already to accomplish my goal of catching a bass on a plastic worm and I want to thank you for that. Now I would really appreciate any step by step instructions on how to successfully fish with a frog lure.

No headphones. Was wearing a tan visor, maroon sweatshirt, and green shorts.

Not to offend, but don't buy anymore of the storm stuff, waste of $$$. Plus they aren't weedless.

I'll PM you with the details of baits ect.

Try some top water poppers if they aren't hitting on the frog.

When do you guys go out to El Do?  I live about 15-20 min and usually go solo.

Greg,

Thanks for much for the tips! I took your advice and returned the Storms. I figured I don't want to distract myself from learning to frog anyway.

So another week passed and another week of no fish. I continue to dedicate myself to picking up one technique at a time. I was at a Sports Chalet today and came across some more frogs. Mostly they were Snag Proofs (Bobby's Perfect and T-Frogs although after throughly reading the back and asking the salesman I couldn't figure out the difference except for price and Gama vs Owner hooks). I also spotted a lone River2Sea Bully Wa frog (brown/yellow). Any comments on these? The R2S looked really well made and detailed so I bought it, but I hope that I wasn't made a victim again of companies catching fishermen and not fish  :-[

I had read that many people like to stick rattles into their frogs for added effect. What are you thoughts on that? I got some glass rattles, but should I stick in just one or would more be better? I am willing to stick so many rattles up my frogs that they'd be crapping glass for the rest of their lives if I have to ;D

Try some top water poppers if they aren't hitting on the frog.

When do you guys go out to El Do? I live about 15-20 min and usually go solo.

Hi LazyBASS,

I usually go whenever I can, which is usually 6 am - 11 am and 6 pm - ? As for the days, it's really scattered. Whenever I don't have work. I usually go at least one of the weekend days. I'd love to hit you up for some fishing. I have met several dudes over there that I see somewhat regularly.

Dan the Man, Brad, Devon, Steve.... I see some other regulars too but haven't had a chance to introduce myself. My name is Steve in case you say "Hi."

I also forgot to mention. When I said fishing with a frog, what I mean primarily is flipping in the deep cover of the tulles and on top of the snotty vegetation floating on the water.

The frogs you got are fine. Never used rattles, as the frog should create enough noise.

Re; the swimbaits, the ones I suggested have to ordered online. Again, any and all baits are not a guarantee that you'll catch fish, but they will give you a better chance at it.

I go to el d whenever I can, usually when the gates open, until about 11:00am..or a bit later if the bite is good..lol

Update: Sept 13th, 2010

Went out to El Dorado again yesterday. No luck. It's been about a month now that I've started my crusade to catch a fish on a frog. Not even a single bite.

I was out there about 6 hours. I finally got to see Brad again and fished with him for awhile. He was murdering them bass, pulling out 4 (a 2 lbr, a 1 lbr, and 2 thumb sized). Brad says he's a finesse fisher and uses either tiny 1" Bass Assassin shad lures or a 4" Yum Dinger (Junebug). He casts them and then just grabs his line and plays with it. He says he's sort of deadsticking it. He says he gets nibbles all the time.

I was extremely tempted to switch to plastics too, but I am so determined to land something with my many many frogs.

I briefly saw Dan. He got skunked too. I also saw this other guy (I don't know his name) who is the only person I've ever seen catch anything on a frog. I immediately stopped fishing and walked over to watch him. I was really glad to see that his style looked a lot like mine and that he didn't get any action either.

I told him my story about not catching jackshit for a month and he sounded surprised. He said some of his friends were telling him how they were slaughtering bass out there at the tulle cove on hollow-bodied frogs. He only fished it for about 20 mins before heading off.

Overall, I'm feeling a little bit more confident that it's just been bad luck and not necessarily me that is the reason I haven't caught nuts.

@Greg

I think I went rattle crazy and stuck 2 -3 rattles in all my frogs. Do you think that rattles can be a bad thing? If you were me, would you pull them out? Thx.

Brad always fishes with small baits..lol I have given him some bigger plastic's to fish, not sure if he ever used them..

As for people telling you what they caught..take any fish info. with a grain of salt...as the info. isn't a;ways accurate. Believe me, I've heard stuff like that many times, only to find that instead of killin em on lure A, it was in fact lure C that got em.. ;D

I'd ditch the rattles, unless they give You more confidence..

Brad always fishes with small baits..lol I have given him some bigger plastic's to fish, not sure if he ever used them..

As for people telling you what they caught..take any fish info. with a grain of salt...as the info. isn't a;ways accurate. Believe me, I've heard stuff like that many times, only to find that instead of killin em on lure A, it was in fact lure C that got em.. ;D

I'd ditch the rattles, unless they give You more confidence..

Yeah, it's funny how Brad only really has one style of fishing, but he fishes it really well.

To be honest, I don't know what makes me more confident. At first, I thought the rattles would because I read a lot of people do that, but then you and that other guy said no so now I'm all confused :-/

My first success with a hollow-bodied frog!!!! Yay!!!!

LOL. Too bad it wasn't a bass... or even a fish for that matter! As usual, I was pitching a white+black fleck frog with green+black fleck skirt in the tulle cover out in the North Lake. Been pitching for about 3 hrs.

Then Devin shows up. I talk with him awhile, telling him how just minutes ago like 3-4 bass were jumping clear out of the water, deep in the tulles, trying to grab some dragonflies. He gets the idea of trying to flyline a Yum Dinger (Junebug) to imitate the dragonflies. After a few casts, he decides to switch it up to a black/blue frog. A few minutes later he calls me over and points out a nice bullfrog stalking his frog. First bullfrog I'd ever seen! Unfortunately, he loses the frog in the tulles and decides to go back to fishing plastics on the bank.

I, of course, stubborn as I am, remain at the tulle cove to pitch my frog. After a few retrieves, I notice a pair of dark mounds popping up a few feet behind my frog. I stopped hopping my frog to try to get a better look at it. I realize it's the bullfrog and continue to retrieve my lure. A hop later and I see a eyes disappear. Hmmm I think... is he going for my.... Next thing I know he popped other from under my frog and chomps it!!! I'm thinking... holy crap what do I do now?! I call over to Devin and he hooks me up with a pair of pliers. I struggle with the hook for a few minutes before freeing the bullfrog. He plops back in the water and swims off. I chuckle and make some comment about how he (the bullfrog) should give up cannibalism.

I cast out again and begin to worry that perhaps the hook hurt the frog and now he won't be able to hunt. Next thing you know I hear a small plop and wouldn't you know it the damned bullfrog is munching on my frog again! This time I totally stop and let the bullfrog chomp on my lure for a minute before letting go and hopping away.

Yeah, so that's my funny story of the day. No fish though, except for some bluegill when I got bored and fished with some mealworms.

Try some top water poppers if they aren't hitting on the frog.

When do you guys go out to El Do? I live about 15-20 min and usually go solo.

Hi LazyBASS,

I usually go whenever I can, which is usually 6 am - 11 am and 6 pm - ? As for the days, it's really scattered. Whenever I don't have work. I usually go at least one of the weekend days. I'd love to hit you up for some fishing. I have met several dudes over there that I see somewhat regularly.

Dan the Man, Brad, Devon, Steve.... I see some other regulars too but haven't had a chance to introduce myself. My name is Steve in case you say "Hi."

Maybe I'll see you one of these days,  if anything it will be Saturdays soon as the gates open.

I have a frog but have never succeeded with it at El Do hehe.  Sometimes you just have to change it up if they aren't hitting it.

Good luck!

There are other frogs, besides the floating frogs, such as the Ragetail, and Yum frogs. Although these are as weedless as the Spro, ect.

I was there today..Hardly anyone there, didn't see anyone catching anything, including small gills..The weather was nice though.. ;D