Hold out for the big ones with a Snag Proof frog

When I was doing fishing seminars every year, I would be bombarded with questions as to why and how I could enjoy fishing the heavy cover, like thick weeds and grass.

All this after I displayed a couple dozen slides showing heavy cover and how I attacked it for the really big bass. I guess some people didn't pay attention.

Nevertheless, this is the time of year when I celebrate the heavy weed growth on a lake or river. This is my time to grab some "holdouts," the big largemouth and smallmouth that have seen the plastic worms and spinner baits tossed at them by a regiment of die-hard bass anglers.

Fishing the "slop," as I call it, is just as easy as tossing a crankbait into the water. In fact, in my book, topwater fishing is the most exciting aspect of the sport.

I suspect there is a legion of older fishermen out there who caught their share of bass on the old reliables like the Zara Spook, the Jitterbug, the Heddon Mouse, the Lucky-13, Heddon Basser, and the ever-popular South Bend Bass-O-Reno.

When I was a kid, one of my uncles took his share of big bass from the thick weed growth on Lake Zurich while using the old Plummer's Frog. There used to be red and black ads in the old, big three fishing magazines touting the way the Plummer Frog caught fish.

Well that frog eventually evolved in to a Snag Proof weedless frog and has literally turned thousands of skeptics into true believers who prowl the carpets of cabbage and coontail weeds.

These gems come in various sizes and colors, with some equipped with small weights to make them sink down in to the weed pockets, but my favorites are the ones that can be skated across the surface.

I will never forget one morning some years back on Bangs Lake. I pulled up to some extra-heavy weed growth and pitched a light green Snag Proof frog to an inside weed edge.

I placed the rod down, against the gunwale, and proceeded to pour some coffee into my cup. I took a couple sips and then laid the cup down on a seat next to me. I started my retrieve by hopping the frog over lily pads and heavy cabbage. That lure didn't travel more than 3 feet when the water suddenly exploded. Having been schooled by other frog fishermen, I allowed that bass to chomp down on the lure thereby collapsing the soft body and exposing the hooks.

I reeled in the slack and executed a strong hookset. My coffee spilled all over my shoes and floor of the boat, but I had a fish, so I really didn't care all that much. The scale read an even 5 pounds. I caught six more big bass that morning by working the slop, slowly and carefully, and making lots of surface noise as part of my routine.

I've taken the Snag Proof frogs and poppers to Minnesota and Wisconsin and wound up with ripped-up baits after catching pike and muskies hiding in ambush mode under the heavy cover. I've had jumbo smallmouth bass attack the frogs and poppers on river systems after I pitched them under heavy branches sprouting out from deadfalls. In Florida, I flipped the Snag Proof Tournament Frog to grassy areas where big snook were cruising and was able to dredge them out from their hiding and feeding spots.

As I said before, nothing beats topwater action, especially when faced with what many anglers will avoid - heavy, matted, cover in the form of weeds and grass.

I suggest trying something different right now and put a little kick back into your angling with these weedless lures.