A bass fishing video blog dedicated to teaching and helping bass fisherman grow.
Tagged with: topwater
Summer means topwater! The buzzbait is such an interesting way to trigger a bass. Its ability to call big bass from big distances can make for some acrobatic and explosive bites. Matt Allen teaches you how to pick the right buzzbait for the job and how to use it out on the water this summer.
Earlier this spring Tim and I were approached by River2Sea about a new frog they were planning to release at ICAST. At that time the Spittin' Wa didn't even have a name. After seeing the bait, having the opportunity to film with the frog before it hit the market sounded like a great opportunity and the chance to have some fun with a brand new product.I was looking forward to fishing with this unique frog, what I didn't expect was to start catching consistently bigger bass than I had caught on a frog in years past. After spending a few months with the bait I feel that there are a few factors contributing to the increase in fish size.
1) SIZE The Spittin' Wa 70 is a large frog. In fact, the only baits I know that are bigger are the Spro King Daddy, and the Snag Proof Frogzilla The large profile naturally lends itself to big bites.
2) WATER DISPLACEMENT The cupped face moves a lot more water than a traditional frog. As a result I was able to fish the frog out over deeper water and pull up large fish earlier in the spring than I had in the past. The wake that tracks behind this frog in open water is pretty substantial and helps to call fish in frog greater distances.
3) OVERSIZED HOOKS As odd as it sounds, strong hooks make all the difference in frog fishing. For many years a "secret" frog modification has been to reinforce the base of the hook where the shanks come together. The reason for this is that a hook can flex and deflect away from the surface it is supposed to penetrate during a hook set. While this doesn't happen often, it is most likely to happen on the largest fish with the largest hard bone section in their jaw. The hook in the Spittin' Wa 70 is larger and made of a heavier gauge wire than other frogs I have fished in the past. The result is a very stable hook that doesn't deflect when setting in to big fish.
I hope you enjoy the video. This frog is deadly and definitely worth adding to your arsenal. If you don't have the Spittin' Wa in a local shop you can pick them up and support Tactical Bassin at the same time by following this link to tackle warehouse.
I should also add that like most baits, I don't fish these straight out of the package. I shorten the legs and change the hook angle slightly before fishing the baits. I'll be sure to cover those modifications in a future video to clarify any questions. In the meantime, pick a few up and see if the size of fish your catching on a frog increases.
Don’t you just love those winter days when the sun comes out, the wind lays down and for a few brief moments it feels like Spring? Despite the ice cold water you can almost imagine fish starting to head for the shallows and begin to feed near the surface. You know the days I’m talking about; you’re in full winter gear all morning but by early afternoon you’re wearing just a sweatshirt and for a few minutes you even give the T-shirt a try. Nearly a month ago now I was enjoying one of those very days. I was with a client and he was on a school of fish that that wouldn’t leave a swimbait alone. During a lull in the mayhem my mind started wandering to warmer places and despite the 50 degree water temps I started digging through the lockers looking for a topwater. Wouldn’t you know it, down in the bottom under all the winter tackle I found a lunker punker. Without a doubt, the punker is my favorite early-spring topwater bait.
I tied it on for kicks and began firing it around the boat haphazardly. What I didn’t expect was that after just a few casts, a fish would roll and miss the bait. As I continued slowly walking the bait to the boat I could see the fish following behind working side to side as she tracked the bait’s movements. It seemed to go on forever but realistically, she was probably behind the bait for 15 to 20 seconds before finally inhaling the bait on the side of the boat. It wasn’t the biggest fish ever but a 5 lb topwater bass in early March is a sight for sore eyes.
As soon as I got home from the lake I started searching for my lunker punker footage that I could share with the Tacticalbassin community. The following video was put together in 2 days of epic fishing on one of my favorite fisheries.
The bass in this area were keyed on large prey and the punker was the perfect tool to do the job. There was a lot of fishing pressure but most anglers missed the opportunity to step up the size of the baits and specifically target the larger fish. Its important to realize that this can be applied to your local waters as well. These larger baits don’t just catch big fish, they catch 1 and 2 lbers as well. Some of these same fish might have eaten a smaller topwater but the bigger fish would have passed them by. By using the right tool for the job I was able to catch more of the fish that were in the area. We were literally catching MORE fish because we were using BIGGER baits. That is a concept that a lot of anglers fail to realize.
There are some simple modifications I make to this bait to help increase my bite to hookup ratio. While I don’t have time to cover them right now, get a punker or two in your hands and in the next couple of weeks I’ll shoot a follow up video to show you exactly what hooks I use to make the bait do what it needs to do as well as the tackle I’m using when fishing the bait.
Though I throw both sizes of the wood punker as well as the full range of injected baits, this video was shot with the 6″ Injected G2 Lunker Punker with Rattles. Here is the direct link to the bait I was using: Injected Lunker Punker
Since the rest of the world seems to have “Linsanity” I thought it wouldn’t hurt to let it infect the TacticalBassin community a bit as well. I had the pleasure of fishing with Josh Fan and Jeremy Lin (The NBA’s newest star for those of you who may have been living under a rock) last fall. I thought the sports fans in the crowd might enjoy a quick clip from that trip. Here is Jeremy catching a nice Clearlake bass on a River2Sea Bubble Walker in the 128 size. There isn’t a lot of knowledge to be gleaned from this video but its still fun to see a guy like Jeremy getting out on the water and relaxing in the off season. Enjoy!