By George Fiorille
Late summer, early fall bass fishing can sure be tough. There are several reasons for it.
The bass have been pressured for several months and have seen all types of lures and presentations. Warm air and water temperatures send them to cooler depths during the day or into heavy, secluded cover. Many become strictly night feeders.
One of the best ways to catch late summer early fall bass is to find and effectively fish the sheltered thick vegetation. Areas of thick grass and lily pads are the places to find these evasive bass. Usually, the best way to fish these areas is with either of two different presentations. One is punching the heavy cover with a strong braided line including a heavy weight of 1-ounce or more on a jig or soft plastic. The second, and the most exciting way is to fish up on top with a soft plastic frog or swimming toad.
Soft Plastic Frogs
Surface fishing for bass has been around for several years. Many antique lures were different imitations of frogs. As many know today, the topwater strike from a bass on a frog is one of the most visual and exciting strikes in the sport. When the bass are aggressive, a frog strike may resemble someone throwing a cinder block into the water. Not all bass strikes on a frog are eruptive. When bass are in a semi active mood a slight slurp of the frog to take it underwater is possible. If an angler is not paying attention and watching the frog, he or she will miss the strike.
It’s just the nature of the technique, but the percentage of blowups to hookups is often not that high. I have had fish blow up a foot or more in front of the lure. I think they do that to get a visual on the lure in the thick cover.
Beginning and avid bass anglers alike often do the same technique that helps to miss strikes. A bass will blow up on the frog and the angler will automatically try to set the hook before the fish has the bait. You must train yourself not to strike until you feel the bass has the frog.
Soft plastic frogs come in several different colors. If you are just starting out with your frog collection you can usually get by with about 3 colors. Black, white, and green with yellow belly are the best colors preferred by most avid bass anglers. Sometimes if the frogs in your area are noted to have a special color such as brown, get a few of these to “match the hatch.”
Many beginning frog fishermen also make the mistake of using the wrong rod. While the basic setup is usually 30lb-65lb braided line, on a bait caster, they use too heavy of a rod. A flipping rod may be all right for the punching rig mentioned, but if you use it to cast all day, it can cause hurting arm fatigue. A 6’10”-7” medium/heavy bait cast rod is lighter, more accurate, and helps you to work the frog better. Use a twitch, twitch, reel retrieve to make the frog bob up and down on the retrieve. Don’t be afraid to let the frog sit for a few seconds especially when working it over a hole in the slop or pads.
Most hollow plastic frogs come with extremely long rubber legs. Most avid frog anglers will trim them down to a couple of inches to help make the frog dance side to side and up and down better. A growing trend is to place a rattle or two inside the frog to help the bass in heavy cover to “home” in on the bait better. Don’t overweight the frog or it will cause it to sink quicker. Some of the top bass pros are even removing the legs entirely and replacing them with two plastic jig skirt rattles glued in place of the rubber feet.
Toads
When the bass are in the thick slop, the hollow plastic bodied frogs mentioned above fished over the top are a necessity. But when bass are holding off the edge of the slob or thick pads, in more open water, other frog versions may work better for more hook ups.
Soft plastic frogs such as the Zoom Horney Toads and Frog Factory Ribet Frog (old Stanley Ribet Frog) are Texas exposed with a single wide bend hook and will hook and hold bass better. They act almost like a small swim bait. Many other companies have similar versions as well.
When it’s more calm, avid frog fishing anglers will use the Zoom Horney Toad with its small swimming legs with less disturbance. When there’s slightly more wind in and around the thick cover, wise fishermen will use the Ribet frogs with a more water displacing kick.
A neat little trick to use on toad style baits is to add a rattling bead. First slide on a bobber stop, run your line through a rattling bead, then tie on your heavy, wide bend hook. Make sure the bobber stop, and rattling bead are snug up tight against the head of the soft plastic swimming frog. Once years ago, while fishing as a co-angler during a Bassmaster Top 100, I was paired the first day with a well-known pro on Lake Champlain. We traveled several miles first thing in the morning from the north end of the lake to the south end. The pro was casting a hollow body frog over thick grass and pads. I decided to fish a Zoom Horney Toad on the outside edge that he was neglecting. I started putting it on him and he was getting upset. After I caught a handful of bass and him nothing, he suddenly turned back around to me and yelled sarcastically, “What do you have, some kind of a magic frog there?” I thought it was comical he would not change to what I was doing and continued his slow fishing.
Late summer and early fall fishing are known as the “Dog Days of Fishing” when bass angling can be very slow. Try heading out into the thick slop and pads at this time of year and try the techniques mentioned above. These fishing styles just may have you go from the Dog Days to the Glory Days. Fish On!
