smithy97

43 minutes ago, lew said:

If following fish are coming from structure, mark the location on your map and come back to the same spot after dark and toss big, black & noisy slow moving baits near the surface and you'll often get the same fish.

Great tip...thanks for this! 

Great report Hank, good to see you again! I went out for a couple hours on Sturgeon on my last night there, got 2 to follow, one was a nice one. They were slow and lazy follows on my double 10's. Went back the next morning after the winds had totally died. The lake was glass, but the fish were gone. 

On 8/20/2019 at 10:41 AM, KawarthaAngler said:

Gave a thumbs up. 

Watch your length though.  Even though you may get a perk from YouTube by going over the 30min length ... that video dragged and found myself jumping forward several times.

Thanks for the tip! Yah this is something I'm working on. Still very new to me and learning a ton everyday. My goal is 20 minutes max. I sure appreciate the advice!

Try a Z-Man project z weedless chatterbait, these do very well. Once the weeds go down a bit in the fall, fish this right over top. You can straight retrieve it or give it some rips like a jerkbait. The best trailer I've found is a Keitech swing impact fat 4.3 inch. As bass tear it up you can trim a little off the head and keep making it shorter, allowing re-use of the same trailer. 

White is always a good option for colour, black/blue if you fish chocolate milk. 

Hey everyone, I made a video that shows the tips I described in the comments above. Its no where near Tactical Bassin quality haha...but it may help you out if you are having trouble getting bit on a frog.

Not trying to promote my channel by any means, just think it could help someone out. Happy fishin! 

7 hours ago, Bassin15 said:

Hey guys thanks for all the tips, really appreciate it. I have cut the legs down very short on the frog, to like 1'' or so and went fishing this morning and caught two bass on the frog, one being 4 pounds, my PB. 

 

Thanks for all the help, was very helpful. 

Hey thats awesome! Congradulations! Bet you are addicted to froggin now like the rest of us! 

I've never found a bait that flutters on the fall the way a Yammy Senko does. It's the original, and still my confidence stick bait.

Welcome eh! I know where I'll be getting my next tungsten order from.

Froggin is one my favourite techniques, and I've learned a ton over the last couple years. 

- Use a soft body frog like a Live Target. They compress really easily. I use these in slop and pads. I use Spro Bronze eye popping frogs in grass or more open water. The spro's are not as soft, so spend some time "working it in" with your hands when you take it out the package, kind of like working in a new baseball glove.

- Trim the tails. I trim the length to about 2-2.5 inches in length. This creates a more compact profile, and a fish that only wants to "smack" the bait comes closer to the hooks this way. 

- Bend the hooks out. Flip the frog over the hooks and turn it around so the hooks are totally exposed. Take two pairs of pliers and put one one each hook, and bend each one away from the other at the same time. This will expose the hook points more (yes, a bit less weedless but will hook up far better)

- Sharpen the hooks!! This never gets talked about. While you still have the hooks exposed, take a hook file and sharpen each hook until they are sticky sharp (if your thumbnail "sticks" to the hookpoint, rather than slides across it, you're good to go). Think about a bass hitting the frog, and maybe not grabbing it totally. Dull hooks will allow the fish to just slide right off if you don't get a solid hookset. The sticky hooks help to keep the bait just pinned enough to give you the time to react and set the hook.

I've noticed my hook ups have gone way up since I've started doing these things.Another thing is to make sure the rod you are using is stout enough and has a fast enough tip to set the hook quickly.

Yes, many times a frog will get "smacked" instead of eaten. I've found if a larger fish smacks the frog, the sticky hooks sometimes help to pin the frog to the fish and you can set the hook. A lot of smaller fish will smack the legs and may not hit again.

Hope this helps 

On 7/3/2019 at 1:45 PM, Sketty55 said:

Just looked up the River 2 Sea s-waver. Looks pretty cool....and big! Where can you buy these in Ontario? I don't see anywhere online and they are out of stock at Bass Pro. 

Check smaller shops that carry JDM stuff, like Megabass, Duo Realis, etc. Often these stores will have swimbaits from different brands there. I believe you could order the bait thru Cabelas or Bass Pro site and have it delivered to your place. I order everything from Tackle Warehouse or other American sites when they run sales. Then I ship to a shipping depot in Port Huron MI and go over and pick them up myself.

Upsizing baits is good, but location and timing are everything. Once you have the spot nailed down, try sizing up your bait for the situation you are in at that moment. Example, if you've locked down a big fish spot in the morning, throw a 5'' walking topwater as opposed to a 3.5'', or a 3'' frog instead of a 2''. Throwing a 5-8 inch glide bait is a great option if you have any, like the River 2 Sea s-waver 168 or 200. But, finding where they are holding is everything. 

On 4/22/2019 at 5:01 PM, bobowski said:

What software are you guys using to edit your GoPro footage?

I just did my first youtube video, I edited it with Shotcut. You can download it for free. Lots of great tutorials on how to use it. I'm a newbie and I got thru it! I wanted to use the preinstalled windows movie maker on windows 10 but it would not export anything I edited, so I tried Shotcut and loved it. 

Good suggestions here. For pike I like braid to fluro or copoly leader, its a solid set up that will hold strong as long as your knots are good. For bass, straight 10 or 12lb copolymer is my choice. Love how supple copoly is (in that pound test range), and it has very little memory and amazing abrasion resistance. I used to use 30lb braid to a 12lb leader for jerkbaits for bass, and I found the lack of stretch cost me some big fish. I switched to straight copoly and will never look back.  

Haven't wet my line yet, but my wife and I are heading to Kawartha's on Wednesday for a week. I'm chomping at the bit..hopefully the muskies will be too! 

8 hours ago, SaugaPikeSlayer said:

You are not alone.

I deal with other peoples' problems all day long at work. I enjoying nothing more than popping in the earbuds, walking down to the lake to enjoy the solitude and maybe catch a fish or two. 

Some people meditate or go to the gym to blow off steam...I load up my favourite bands in my phone's playlist and toss Rapalas. 

 

Curious - what bands are you listening to? Off topic I know...

There is no better feeling than being out solo, casting for muskies or bass. I love the peaceful solitude. I love not having to go by anyone else's schedule but my own. That being said, I have a couple buddies equally as "hard-core" as me, so fishing with them every now and then is a blast. Whenever my wife happens to comes out with me, we enjoy our time together for sure. But, I'll always be a solo angler at heart. 

Nice - thank you!

Hey all - never launched out of Windsor before, I live 2 hrs from there. I want to go down there this week to fish on the Detroit River. There are a couple launches at marinas right near the mouth into Lake St Clair. Does anyone know if they are still open? Or are there other public launches near there?

Thanks

I've had those days. I find that muskie give you an hour or two window when they bite most days. I never know when that window is, I've caught them at all different times of the day. If I'm not casting on the right spot during the 1-2 hour window, I'll be skunked that day. But, I've caught 3 all within an hour or each other. Right place, right time, right presentation. They don't make it very easy for us do they...

Double 10's on Sturgeon payed off for me a couple weeks ago.

Good info everyone - thanks for the help. I am pretty fussy on the lures I buy, so this may not be for be.

Hey all - wondering if anyone is a subscriber to MTB? I'm looking into it, and wondering if it'll be worth it with the USD exchange rate right now. I see that they ship for free to Canada so that helps. If you have it, are you happy with it? Is it worth the $25 US per month?

Thanks!

I like the idea of a wacky senko as a follow up bait, especially to a topwater. Can't tell you how many times a fish has whacked and missed my spook (or flown 3 feet in the area after missing it lol) I'll be trying this next season for sure. I learn something new every day!

One of the best musicians of all time - 2017 has been a terrible year, we've lost some amazing talent so unexpectedly!

My go-to is topwater, followed by texas rigged plastics and wacky senkos. I'll usually try these methods before grabbing the crankbait rod. I just don't have the confidence in crankbaits, but I can see why using them to find fish fast in a tournament situation makes sense. I'm not sure if many people fish crankbaits in the kawartha's because of how weedy the lakes are, but maybe I'm wrong. I know that a lot of big bass have come from those lakes on topwater frogs and wacky senkos