Fishing Rats/Frogs

[Duke]

Anyone getting good fish on Rats & frogs in slop or pads lately? I think I'm finding a bite on that right now, but haven't had a chance to confirm it yet. Curious if anyone else has been doing this with any success lately.

Duke

[spinninbug]

We have been doing fair on some of the lakes up here in the north on slop frogs and rats.  I just started doing this kind of fishing this year,  it's fun but I have a hard time sometimes getting the fish up out the weeds,  that sometimes makes it frustrating.  I don't have a very strong hookset for pulling them up and out of the weeds.  We try to go and get them but seems they always come undone before we get there. 

My husband loves to watch me do this because it always scares me when I get bit,  I always jump and start laughing (ok maybe a little scream too).

[fishon1219]

I have been scumming quit a bit lately in the oakland county lakes and I havent had no were near the activity I should be having. I dont know if the fish are not in the junk yet or with the weather we have been having the shallow fish are just confused as to what to do. All of my off shore fish seem to be still biting good, but anything under 10 ft deep I am haveing to work real hard to catch. Maybe I am just fishing the wrong type of scum or maybe I should put the jig-n-pig down for a while and really try to catch some of the scum toads

[joshimoto son]

Because of where I've been fishing... I have been almost fishing frogs and toads exclusively since July. I managed to cut a check in the Stren Series using the toad.
Just recently I won a tourny up at Wixom Lake fishing the toad.

It definately is an art.
And once you get the hang of it, it can be a great attribute to your arsenal.
I think there has been another post on the "how to" of frog fishing, so I won't go over any of those details.

The one thing that I have noticed, especial during the summer patterns, you can go behind a lot of anglers and catch fish on the frog or toad.
So many of them just running the weed edges and maybe picking up a few here and there, but I think when fishing lakes with a lot of pressure, you'll find more fish burried up in the thick stuff.

The fish only have a split second to decide if they want it or not...and when the commit... they don't mess around.
I have a lot of confidence in this style of fishing, even when sometimes I can't get into a group of fish, I can still throw these things and feel confident with the "one here... one there" type bite and still feel like I can put a limit together.

To answer your question, yes! I think the frog bite is working.

Spinninbug...
when you're throwing that froggy... you gotta get mean! Change your attitude, crank your drag down to ZERO and put it in four wheel drive!
Wait for that splash... give it a split second and pull that fish out.... and don't stop reeling! Frog fishing is not for playing the fish out and netting it. It's for skiiping and dragging that fish all the way to the boat. And if Terry can't get there in time with the net, real down and flip that mug into the boat. If you have the right equipment, you can boat flip a 3.5 pounder like it was a 14 incher.


joshimoto son

[HellaBass]

Joshimoto has the right idea,
I use a 7'10' Flipping stick with 50-65# Braid, no matter how big the fish or how thick the cover, I just winch them in.  You just need to change mindset when tossing the frog 

www.RichLindgren.com

[spinninbug]

I'm doing better since I started using a frog,  when we were trying to fish with jigs or sinkos to get down through the slop is when I really had problems but it's not so bad with the frog at least they are already close to the top.  I did put a keeper in the boat on hamlin doing this and I did drag right to the boat and flipped it.  I don't know what would happen if I got a 5 pounder on though,  first off I'd probably pee my pants

[bosshawg]

 and shame on me for not doing that yet this year.  my 2nd best technique other than fishing straight top water......