Fishing tip of the week: – 11/04/20

Fishing Tip of the Week

Tuesday, 03 November 2020 13:44

It is finally time for the fall frog bite
by Mike Gerry

Late October is upon us, and the fun is about to begin on Lake Guntersville!
Every year about this time, and in many cases earlier, I start to get that urge to watch a bass destroy a frog over the grass. We are right on schedule. The grass is beginning to brown up, turn nasty and icky, and the nastier it gets, the better the frog bite.
If you go back to the history of this technique, no technique or pattern has brought more people or notoriety to Guntersville than catching fish on a frog. The excitement of the explosion and heart pounding response from a big largemouth bass exploding up through the grass is second to none.

In the late 60’s and early 70’s Lloyd Talent, of Guntersville, invented this technique it was then designed as a soft rat so that he called it “rat fishing”. Along with the Guntersville grass it made Guntersville as famous as any lake in the country.
In the late 80’s Lloyd Talent sold his technology and patterns to Mann’s bait company and the rest is history. Rat fishing became frog fishing and has proliferated all over the country. There are now probably ten companies making their own version of the rat, or frog, and people come from all over the country to fish Lake Guntersville. This attacking explosion of a big bass busting up through the grass to eat a frog is as addicting as any fishing pattern ever discovered. There is no presentation as exciting in the bass fishing world.

The best thing about this is, as we move through late fall, the frog bite lasts all day long. The brighter the sun, the nastier the grass, the ickier the top is, the more it foams and creates a path with your frog the more fish you catch. There is no real key to it, you just have to find that icky brown grass, listen for the bream sucking insects off the top of the grass and you’re ready. Throw the rat out there, slowly wind it back, maybe pop it a little, or stop and move it and hang on!
The frog fishing pattern is upon us; my preferences is SPRO Frogs, they’re tough, weighted correctly, and catch fish with extremely sharp hooks.
Captain Mike