Frogging for bass in full swing

August 23, 2024 by lbailey

Frogging for bass is arguably one of the most thrilling ways to catch a bass. Hollow body frog fishing combines the adrenaline rush of an explosive topwater bite with the physical nature of grass fishing. Frogs are one of the most weedless baits on the market. The hollow body frog is an indispensable tool for tournament anglers. This is the best way to try to access big fish in heavy cover. Frogs are also a great option for novice topwater anglers who don’t want to constantly worry about snagging.

Frogging for bass in full swing

A combative brand of fishing unrivaled in terms of excitement and big bass attraction. The frog bite starts to heat up in the spring. But gets better as the days become longer in the summer.

Hollow body frogs don’t only imitate amphibians

Vegetation and fishing pressure grow in the summer months. Bass will start to miss your frog, blowing up just behind it, or struggling to penetrate through dense mats. To stack the odds back in your favor, you can make a couple of small adjustments to your frog. Helping boost hook-up ratios and pique interest. If the cover allows, try slightly bending your hooks up and out with pliers to help improve your hook-up ratio. A frogs hook points should be angled away from the plastic body. This gives the frog a better chance of burying into the mouth of the fish. Some anglers will even go as far as adding a stinger hook if the fish are swiping at it.

A heavier frog will sit deeper in the mat and is less likely to move when fish strike. To increase the weight, try removing the hook and inserting small weights into the hollow body cavity. Not only will it help boost your hook-up ratio around thick mats, but it will also extend your casting distance. To set your frog apart from the competitors, try adding an acoustic element of attraction by inserting a small glass rattle into the body. Create a pop of color and scent with some dippin’ dye.

Frogging for bass with a heavier frog will sit it deeper in the mat

Frogging for bass has so many choices

Popping, walking, buzzing, and pointed nose hollow body frogs provide anglers with different actions. There are shapes that make them better suited for fishing different types of cover and retrieve styles. If you’re fishing targeted pieces of cover, walking frogs are a great option. They can be worked in place to help keep you in the strike zone longer. Alternatively, if you need to cover water around sparse cover or along the edges of grass lines. I would choose a buzzing or popping frog. They offer more efficiency as the action is created by reeling, twitching, and moving the frog across the surface. In extremely matted vegetation standard or pointed nose hollow body frogs may be the best option. The cupped mouth of a popping frog or legs of a buzzing frog could have a tendency to hang up.

Frogging for bass is explosive whether you’re methodically crawling a frog over mats, popping it along a tule berm, or walking it in open water, you can’t help but feel the anticipation of being a split second away from a new personal best! The hollow body frog presents a substantial meal for large opportunistic fish making them a must-have for any angler’s bass fishing arsenal. Pair a hot summer day with emergent vegetation and you could be in for some of the most exciting topwater fishing that can be had all year!

Posted in Lure Specific, Summer | No Comments

Quickly Break Down Flooded Bass Fishing Cover

August 8, 2024 by lbailey

Flooded bass fishing cover conditions incites one of two responses from fishermen; there are anglers who dream of endless shallow water targets to fish, while there are others who dread the confusing maze of new cover available when water levels rise. Whether you love it or hate it, high water and flooded conditions are a common occurrence in most reservoirs, lakes and rivers. Especially in spring, when bass migrate shallow, so you need to understand these scenarios.

Flooded bass fishing cover conditions

How to fish flooded bass fishing lakes and rivers

With all of the crazy rain many of you have been experiencing, I decided to put together a comprehensive piece that will help you keep catching ’em even in these nasty conditions. I will teach you how to make the most of a muddy situation and fish through a flood on your local fisheries.

“The best advice that I can give anybody, is that they need to do their research on flooded bass fishing cover as to what that body of water normally does when it comes up or goes down.”

Some fisheries are able to move more water through them at a faster pace than others, returning to a somewhat stable level more quickly. Whereas on some other fisheries, the same amount of rainfall has longer lasting effects.

There is always a pattern within a pattern in high water. Some days they want to be in the thickest part of the bush, others they may swarm new growth (green limbs or leaves in the water) or you’ll notice you get bit every time you come across a horizontal laydown in the water. They might be in the deepest bushes or the ones in the dirt. If you get more than one bite on a specific type of cover, it’s no accident.

Not all fisheries flood the same. Some come up and go down quicker. Others rise 25 feet and some just two. Some have more current and in some the fish are less effected by the mud than in others.

Posted in Summer, Technique | No Comments

Baby Buzzbait Midsummer Bassing

December 6, 2023 by lbailey

Baby Buzzbait midsummer bassing begins after the hot weather has set in, bass fishing can be fantastic. Warm waters mean an increase in the metabolism of bass, which can lead to more frequent feeding activity. Additionally, Warm waters allow anglers to move faster and burn lures. The Baby Buzzbait™, not only works retrieving it directly by a bass. But also through the edges of their larger strike zones.

Baby Buzzbait™ midsummer bassing begins after the hot weather has set

It’s smaller size, especially the 1/4 oz size allows the bait to be sucked in the bass’ mouth deeper.

When bass are aggressive, anglers can choose between lots of different lure options. Methods and can often use their favorites to score. Still, the most efficient method is usually going to be a faster approach. Smaller -sized offerings are usually best, the water has an abundance of small prey at this time. Picking a lure that can be fished fast, such as a Baby Buzzbait™, spinnerbait, lipless crankbait, is a top option. Swim jigs paired with paddle-tail swimbaits and some blade baits can be good choices as well.

Buzzbaits may all look the same on the shelf, but each has its own special features

While standard-sized offerings can produce, be ready to quickly switch to smaller sized lures if the bite doesn’t pick up. Likewise, while a slower Baby Buzzbait™ midsummer bassing retrieve speed is best, if the standard and slow speeds don’t produce, be ready to radically increase the speed, even faster than the higher-speed approach common when summer bass are active. Burning lures at high speeds can play on the instincts of bass and cause them to attack lures when they normally wouldn’t with slower retrieves.

Baby Buzzbait midsummer bassing may all look the same on the shelf, but each has its own special features that will work better in different places. A basic buzzbait will simply spin the blade on the top of the water making a slight trail behind it and a slight noise as it moves. The Baby Buzzbait™ is the most compact size on the market today. It’s smaller size, especially the 1/4 oz size allows the bait to be sucked in the bass’ mouth deeper. This produces more bass in the boat, resulting in bigger creels and a lot of fun.

Lee Bailey Jr SLOW Baby Buzzbait

Posted in Lure Specific, Summer, Tips | No Comments

Summer Glide Bait Fishing

December 6, 2023 by lbailey

Summer Glide Bait Fishing is best when bass are in their main summer patterns, understanding what the fish want helps you plan your big-bite strategy. Here’s the skinny on proven giant-finding prowess.

One of those innovations over the past 10 years is the emergence of Glide baits. These oversized, hard-bodied fish imitators originally were created to mimic trout in California lakes, but have transformed into replicating large bass prey across the country. Glide baits can resemble trout/ gizzard shad/ perch and other types of fish that bass feed on.

Summer Glide Bait Fishing is best when bass are in their main summer patterns

Summer Glide Bait Fishing brings in the giants.

Summer is a prime time to fish Glide baits. For the most part, anglers have learned that these lures produce best in the late pre-spawn, and summer to late fall.

Summer Glide Bait Fishing requires a shift in perspective and expectations. The most important thing to remember is that the number of strikes you can expect go WAY down, especially as the size of the bait increases. For the most part, the most productive and popular sizes are 6-9 inches. Most of them will weigh between 2 and 6 ounces.

Glide bait areas are dependent of the type of cover and clarity available

Casting distance is critical. It is especially important to cast Glide baits as far as you can. Most of the time they are fished in cleaner water scenarios. As well, this gives the bass more time to find and tract your bait. While tracking the big ones in Summer Glide Bait Fishing . Most Glide baits have a built-in, wide side to side action when reeled straight in. Most experts with this technique prefer to work the bait almost like a jerkbait…twitching the bait to make it dart harder side to side.

Glide bait areas are dependent of the type of cover and clarity available on the lake you are fishing. Since you are targeting big bass, you must fish big bass areas. Some of the better Glide bait locations are bluff banks, steep channel banks, points, and over deeper grass beds. When approaching these areas, wind is your friend. Getting a Glide bait bite under calm conditions in the summer is exceedingly difficult.

Posted in Lure Specific, Summer | No Comments

Binsky In Late Summer

December 6, 2023 by lbailey

Binsky In Late Summer works so well when those bass move offshore and begin to school in deeper water, that’s when you can get your money’s worth out of this blade bait.

It’s a good bait for pressured or schooling fish. Bass don’t stop eating bait fish when the water gets warm, so continue to use a Binsky blade bait no matter what time of year it is. When it’s in the dead of summer, you might not be able to just pull up and drop-shot on a school of fish. But, if you use a Binsky, they eat it at first sight.”

Binsky In Late Summer works so well when those bass move offshore

A Binsky has the kind of versatility that you simply can’t get from a drop-shot.

A blade Bait is great to use in summer because it can sink like a rock to whatever depth you need it to/ You can get the reaction bite with it because it’s so fast and moves so quickly. It’s also a good casting bait to use when you’re waiting for topwater fish to blow up because it’s so heavy and you can throw it far.

A Binsky blade Bait is great to use in summer

Binsky In Late Summer is more effective than a suspending stickbait during this time because it can probe deeper and catch fish in the 30 to 40 foot range. Steep drop-offs along main and secondary points or creek channels in the major coves are the prime spots to introduce the metal Binsky to bass.

The best sizes to use for this blade bait are 1/2-ounce for depths under 20 feet and 3/4-ounce for probing deeper than 20 feet. After making a long cast, allow the bait to sink to the bottom on a slack line before starting your retrieve. You want to lift that bait just enough to where you actually feel it vibrate. Once you feel it vibrate then kind of let the lure pull back down on a more tight line to where it will pendulum out a little bit. You don’t want it to go straight up and down during your retrieve.

Make sure you work the lure all the way back to the boat because bass will frequently hit the lure right under the boat. Match the lure with a medium-heavy rod and baitcast reel filled with 15-pound fluorocarbon line.

Posted in Lure Specific, Summer, Technique | No Comments

Summer Bass Fishing Tips

December 6, 2023 by lbailey

Summer Bass Fishing Tips will show you that you need to get out early. Fish the shallows hard based on water temperatures and bait. Once it gets hot focus on deeper water where the water temperatures are lower and the bass have structure to ambush bait.

Bass behave in predictable ways based on temperature, food and available structure

I have mentioned this many times bass are a very predictable fish. In general, they will behave a certain way based on three main variables:

  • Water temperature
  • Available food supplies
  • Structure availability

Yes there are tons of other Fishing Factors™ that affect the way a bass or any fish will behave. These include barometric pressure, wind, rain,moon phases, water flow, etc. Almost year round, there’s a short window at the beginning and end of every day when the fish just bite better. The first hour is best quite often, because there are far fewer pleasure boaters on the water early compared to late in the evening,

Summer Bass Fishing Tips choices of preferred lures.

During these low-light hours both early and late, top-waters can be super productive. Choosing something like a buzzbait or a Whopper Plopper will allow you to cover as much water as possible,Maximize the number of bites you can get during these short windows of time.

But slower top-waters like walking lures, poppers and hollow body frogs also work well if you’re fishing targets. So you could choose to run around for that last hour and target laydowns with a Spook for instance. Or try to draw the fish up out of those laydowns that have been hunkered down all day.

BUT if you can figure out the three most important factors. Water temperature, available prey items and available structure, then you are 80% of the way to catching more bass.

Posted in Summer, Tips | No Comments

Summer Dog Days Pitching for Bass

December 6, 2023 by lbailey

During the Summer Dog Days Pitching for Bass is my preferred technique in the heat of the day. Depending on the type of water you are fishing. Bass are going to either go deep or relate to structure and shade in shallow areas. When I first started cutting my teeth on fishing bass tournaments. Pitching quickly became one of my favorite ways to catch largemouth bass.

Summer Dog Days Pitching for Bass is my preferred technique in the heat of the day. Depending on the type of water you are fishing.

When looking for the best places to find summertime bass on lakes in the heat. There are three key factors to consider are shade, deep water and flowing water. Here is a look at the three best places to find summertime bass based on those factors.

Summer Dog Days Pitching

Boat Docks

The approach to pitching a boat dock is crucial. I approach a dock and dissect it prior to my very first pitch.

  • First: be sure your shadow doesn’t cast to where you think the bass might be holding.
  • Second: analyze where your targets are going to be and pitch to the closet ones to you first
  • Third: after you have pitched around the outer edge of the dock. It is now time to hit the hardest and most shaded targets around you..

“In a Bassmaster Elite Series Tournament I fished on Table Rock Lake. The Summer Dog Days Pitching had me loaded with a reliable shakey head finesse worm. Then I headed for a couple of docks I knew held fish. While pitching into the shady wells of a dock, I immediately caught a 3-pound Largemouth Bass. This pattern of targeting shady areas of docks on sweltering summer afternoons has produced bass for me throughout my years of competing as a pro anger on the Bassmasters and FLW Tours”

Rivers

“Everyone knows I am a river fanatic. I grew up bass fishing on the CT river and built my tournament career winning tournaments and guiding. The rivers and streams feeding into a lake offer plenty of water flow and oxygenated water. This keep bass active even in the midsummer heat. Run up these creeks or rivers as far as you can to find the strongest flowing water. The most productive spots to try in the tributaries are the pockets near the river bends. This is where wind and current push baitfish towards the bank. I started fishing major tournaments in 1983, and turned full time in 1996. What a ride that was. It was some of the best years of my life. Since I am retired now in Florida I no longer compete. However I fish 3 to 4 days a week. What a great life this is!”

Tips for pitching summertime bass

  • Use heavy hooks, smaller hooks can bend out and cause you to lose fish when muscling them out of heavy cover.
  • Pick your targets out and try to establish a pattern. Are you catching fish on one side or the other (Shady side or sunny side, up current side or down side) At the bottom, in the middle, or near the surface as you are pulling out?
  • When you pitch to your target be ready for a bite at any moment, let your bait fall to the bottom, twitch a few times, pull the bait out and repeat. Depending on the how the fish are reacting you may need to try soaking a bait a little longer with more twitches, try dead sticking for a bit, or shake and bump the bait against cover at the surface.
  • Look for shallow structure/vegetation areas that are close to deep water, big fish like to sit in shallow haunts near deep water for an easy retreat.
  • Practice controlling the entry of the bait to make as little water disturbance as possible upon entry.
  • Ease the bait out of the cover so your weed guard or weedless Texas rigged bait doesn’t expose the hook and snag up on the structure.
  • Lock your drag down so that the fish can’t take any line. Then you will get good hook penetration and be able to clear the fish from cover as quickly as possible.
  • Only lighten the drag in areas where clearing the fish fast off the cover is not as crucial like soft grass or vertical poles. Loosen the drag some, while using your thumb to lock down the spool for the initial hook set.
  • using a high speed reel, this allows you to take up any slack line faster to set the hook, catch up to a fish running at you quicker, and also get your bait back to the boat faster for the next pitch.

“Last but not least, A lot of guys just don’t practice their pitching enough to be able to get it into that target zone. If they’ll practice their pitching and then really concentrate on where should that fish be, the darkest, baddest, hardest to get to area, then they’ll start catching a lot more fish.”

Posted in Summer, Technique | No Comments

Blade Baits in Summertime

December 6, 2023 by lbailey

Blade baits in Summertime work well for largemouth bass. They may not be a super popular bait for targeting largemouth bass. However you can definitely catch some nice bass on these baits. Some anglers will wind these baits in with a steady retrieve. However, one of the best ways to fish the Binsky blade bait is to vertical jig it. This works great in the summer and fall when big largemouth bass are suspended over schools of bait fish.

Lees Seasonal Approach Guide is a system I’ve adapted to help find bass on unfamiliar waters.

The best ways to fish the Binsky blade bait is to vertical jig it. This works great in the summer when big largemouth bass are suspended over schools of bait fish.

Fish blade baits in summertime Vertical

If you’re like most bass fishermen, you probably have a couple of blade baits you bought years ago. Probably fished once or twice with little or no success, and tossed them in a forgotten corner of the basement. Now is the time to dust them off!

When largemouth bass move into deeper water, a blade bait can be very effective for vertical jigging. It’s not a super common way to target largemouth bass. However, it works great when largemouth bass are feeding on bait fish in deeper water.

The trick to catching on blade baits in summertime is not to overwork them. An angler who is new to fishing The Binsky blades tends to fish them with big sweeps of the rod. This causes the bait to jump 4 to 6 feet off the bottom. The most successful blade fishermen lift their rods just enough to feel the blade kick a couple of times. Making this adjustment will improve your Binsky blade bait success ten-fold.

In lakes with alewives, use silver blades. In lakes without alewives, gold or perch-colored blades will be your best bet.

Keeping regular contact with the bottom is crucial. So when targeting deep bass, you’ll need Binsky blade baits from ½ to 1 ounce. By far the best on the market is the Binsky blade bait. In lakes with alewives, use silver blades. In lakes without alewives, gold or perch-colored blades will be your best bet.

Posted in Structure, Summer | No Comments

back to top