Have you ever been fishing topwater, had a strike and missed it and threw back to the same spot over and over to no avail? Well, I have too, many more times that I care to remember.
My favorite place to fish for bass is in very thick lily pads. I'm talking about pads so thick that water is far and few between them. The only thing I fish in these pads that I have found that don't get hung up is the Scum Frog. This little frog is soft so when the bass strikes it he feels something mushy like a real frog would be. I have tried other frogs, like the ones with weights in the back and fishing pads as thick as I do, all they do is get hung on the pads because of the weight. Also, when the bass strikes the frog, it feels something hard not soft like with the Scum Frog.
Even so, I still miss a lot of nice bass when fishing the thick pads with the Scum Frog. The bass a lot of times hit the pads instead of the frog, get caught in the roots of the pads when hooked, or some other weird thing to cause the bass to get loose or not get hooked at all. I miss more fish than I catch in these very thick pads sometimes.
The good news is there is a solution to this problem after the bass strikes but missed your lure. That solution is to have a plastic worm rigged Texas Style waiting on another rod just for this occasion. When the bass strikes at the Frog and misses, pick up your other rod with a plastic worm on it and throw right where the fish missed the lure. There's a good change you will catch him on the worm rig.
I use a watermelon colored worm with a 5/0 hook and a 1/4 ounce weight. When I cast the worm in the pads I just pull it to where the strike was and let it slip below the pads. Usually, the bass will strike within a few seconds once the worm is in the water below the pads where the strike was missed with the frog. This isn't 100% foolproof but it does cause more bass to be caught than just throwing the frog back to the same place after a missed strike. By the way I use a green and white Scum Frog. I have used other colors but have had better luck with the green and white. Whatever color you use make sure it has a white belly as the bass more than likely thinks it's a shad and not a frog.
Charles has owned two tackle shops in his life and fished with the pros in Florida. He has fished from California to Florida and has caught over 6,000 bass in his lifetime with his largest bass going 12 pounds 14 ounces.
Charles now lives in Ohio where he grew up and has his website at: http://www.bassfishingohio.com where you can get bass fishing tips to catch more and bigger bass in Ohio.
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