spaghetti_bassin

Only two bodies on Long Island hold smallmouth, two lakes that I hardly fish. When I’m up in New Hampshire though, river smallies all day.

I would swim a horny toad over the tops of the weeds. Then again, I’d always throw a horny toad...

This is really good advice. I remember one day I was on the pond in my little kayak. Feeling confident on my “home waters,” I had brought a bluetooth speaker along to listen to some death metal at conversation volume. Ended up boating one fish while the music was playing, on a loooong cast. Basically, the vibrations from the speaker, resting anywhere on the kayak, were amplified underwater and alerting the fish of my presence. Started catching them after the batteries had died. Now, I clip the speaker to my PFD and have had much better luck. Like Scale said, it’s the little things. If you’re fishing from the bank, try sneaking up on them. Stay light on your feet and present a light presentation with a quiet cast from 15 feet away from the water’s edge as you approach the bank. Often times, you’ll see a swirl from a bass moving off the bank as you approach with heavy footsteps.

Yessir, I'll usually wrap braid around my pliers or a stick if I have to.

While all litter is infuriating, I hate hate hate getting snagged on someone's leftover line while retrieving a bait.

I run a President 30 on a 7’1” MH spooled with 10# PowerPro and I can fling weightless plastics quite far. Maybe try a different braided line, a thinner diameter or a different coating. For what it’s worth, the President 40 on my 7’1” rod would not give me the casting distance that I get with the 30, simply because the center of the 40 spool doesn’t line up through the guides as well as the 30 spool.

Thanks bud, I agree! Hope the fishing is good wherever you’ve landed

The really light VMC drop dead hooks usually do pretty good for me. I just picked up some Owner 5/0 screw lock superline hooks and 4 packs of toads for the weekend, I’m hoping the bigger hooks will stick some more fish.

+1 @GReb Make the switch to braid, 50lb braid is likely similar in diameter to the 12lb mono you’re using. You’re likely loosing a lot of penetrating power and allowing the fish to throw the frog due to the line stretching. As a bonus, you will really enjoy the sound of the braid slicing through the vegetation on a hooked fish.

I have not used that particular bait. What got me starting on toads was burning a havoc pit boss over the same areas I now fish the toad. Something about the profile of the horny toad and the curly feet activate the bass on my home water like no other bait I’ve used. Another thing I should have mentioned in my previous post is to be ready to throw out a follow-up for those missed blow-ups. The toad is a great search bait, let’s you get a visual on active, aggressive fish. I throw a weightless plastic or a 4” ned right into the ripples after a missed strike, they usually can’t resist.

At first, probably 1 out of every 4 or 5 strikes. I was able to stick some more after spending a couple days fishing horny toads d**n near exclusively. Some adjustments I’ve made: - When rigging weightless, let the toad sit on a slack line for 2-3 seconds to let the bait right itself with the hook point up. Eventually, I’ll switch to a nice thicc hook for weightless rigging. - Set the hook HARD. I was using too light of a hookset at first, the fish would take the toad under and load the rod up but would end up throwing the bait. - Fish the toad with different retrieves. I do get great results from a steady retrieve but I’ve also had success killing the bait over pockets, holes, against standing timber, or at the edge of weed lines and letting the bait sink. Set the hook as if you were fishing any other weightless creature. - I lost a lot of fish when they would jump. I think better a better hook set helped and I started anticipating the jump, bring the rod tip down when I felt the fish rushing me or about to jump. Toads are just super effective in the shallow, weedy fisheries near me. I’ll take a few missed strikes for a whole day’s worth of blow ups.

Horny Toads are my new favorite thing. I tore up two packs before I figured I’d take a picture of a fish.

I’m in the same boat. I’ve had some decent days out walking a pop-r along weedlines and working it in weed pockets. To translate those shorter strikes into landed fish, I changed the stock hooks to some super sticky mustads. I picked up some soft toads to burn over the mats, I’m anticipating some success with that.

Caught my PB on a LiftedJigs 1/16oz EWG Ned head. The hooks are pretty light, the finish chips off pretty quickly, and they’re expensive but it worked for me in that situation. Being able to throw the Big TRD on a weedless head is money for me.

Update: Purchased Rebel Crickhoppers in yellow and brown, and Yo-Zuri Pin’s Minnows in 1/16oz, in gold flame and silver/chartreuse. The crickhoppers cast really well on my UL rod, they float nicely and the fish in this pressured pond seem interested. The wobble is super wide, way wider than the Rapala, but not necessarily a bad thing. Keels out to one side, I’ll have to spend some time tuning them next time I’m out. Doesn’t seem to gather as much pond scum as the Rapala, probably due to the relatively big lip. Overall, pretty neat bait, I wish I had smaller hooks laying around to upgrade the stock ones. Onto the Pin’s Minnow...I had ordered two “floating” in 1/16oz. The finishes are great and the hardware is decent. I only had time to test one of them, the silver/chartreuse. Tied up, tossed it in...and much to my dismay, it suspends! Maybe it’s the water temperature, I reckon it’s at least mid-upper 80’s, and air temp was in the 90’s. I found the wiggle on a fast retrieve to be very tight, almost too tight out of the box, but there’s still much to experiment with. I was disappointed that it wouldn’t float/twitch on the surface. However, if it still suspends when the water is colder, it’ll make a great little jerkbait. Next time I’m out on the water, I’ll remove the stock split ring and tie off with a loop knot in an effort to get these to float and wiggle a little better. The search for the ultimate tiny floating jerkbait is still on. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.