2 Tips for Catching Bass with Frog Baits
written by Evan Anderson
In this episode of Sweetwater, hosts Joey Nania and Miles Burghoff spend a day frog fishing in Miles’ stomping grounds, Lake Chickamauga. It’s a beautiful sunny day out on the water, making them grateful for their Wiley X sunglasses to keep the glare out of their eyes. “I don’t care how many times you dump a bass boat in the morning,” says Nania, “there’s still those jitters you get, that excitement, that nervous energy you get when you’re about to go fishing. And that just happens when you’re that passionate about something.” We’ll take a look at some of their techniques and insight on using frog baits to catch smallmouth bass. Here are 2 tips for frog baits.
SE Multimedia | 2020
FISH THE SHALLOW MATS
One of the first things that the Sweetwater hosts noticed was that the fish were in much shallower water than most people would expect. “One thing that was really common,” says Burghoff, “was that all the bites were coming ultra shallow. You had to make ultra-long casts to get into the back of those areas, and that’s kind of common when it comes to Florida strain largemouth because the shallower that they end up going on those sunny days when it’s been cold in the morning, the warmer those mats are gonna be and the more they can warm up, which is essentially their goal.”
Nania adds, “It was the perfect area. It had deep water access, and then those protected bays are going to warm up faster. They’ve got the bank on 3 sides, you’ve got the back and that nice opening they can come in and out of. It’s just the perfect place for that water to warm and for those fish to tuck up shallow and heat.”
Fishing in shallow water is an excellent opportunity for sight-fishing, though somewhat difficult in grass mats. Having a good pair of polarized sunglasses like Wiley X helps cut down on glare and allows you to spot the fish better.
KEEP AT IT
According to the Sweetwater hosts, fishing with frog baits, as exhilarating as it can be, is not easy. “ Frog fishing is very, very particular,” says Burghoff, “The conditions have to be perfect, it’s actually one of the hardest tactics to get going and to get those fish fired up. A lot of people get discouraged with it and don’t try it throughout the day.”
“Frog fishing is very, very particular. The conditions have to be perfect.”
Like the whole art of fishing itself, fishing with frog baits takes time, patience, and perseverance. “If your timing’s not right frog fishing, you’re not gonna catch them,” says Nania, “And you have to be persistent with it, but it’s good to take a break from it every once in awhile, step away from it, and then hopefully the fish get into a better mood and then go back to that frog bite.”
SE Multimedia | 2020
“you have to be persistent with it, but it’s good to take a break from it every once in awhile, step away from it, and then hopefully the fish get into a better mood and then go back to that frog bite.”
Thus concludes a great day on Lake Chickamauga. If you want to see these concepts in action, check out the full episode below and learn more about fishing with frog baits on Sweetwater S6:E4.
