Bazoo

That's good thinking. I wasn't considering that, because I'll be fishing from the same bank, and there is some light bushes there in front of that spot. I was saying, I'd back off up the bank a ways instead of getting right on the spot, like I had been when I was broke off. That's one reason it surprised me, because I was sitting on the bank at the time, right in front of the spot.

Nice assortment. I've never seen a plopper like that black one, what make is it?

Thanks for sharing @Big Hands, and all. I'm planning on going tomorrow. Thinking my game plan out. Think I'll sneak to the spot, and ease a lizard in there from father up the bank so that if he's watching it don't spook him. I'm thinking, first a lizard, and then a senko.

Nothing toothy in there. Yes I am.

I was fishing Freeman Lake, the local city lake, and I had an interesting thing happen. I was throwing a weedless/weightless lizard (vintage rattlesnake brand), anyways, I was slow pulling it along the bottom and letting it rest intermittently, and when I got about 3' from shore I saw the water bulge and a fish grabbed it and broke it off with such power that it snapped my 10 pound trilene without moving my rod hardly at all. I had my rod tip down, unfortunately if I'd had it up a bit, I may have had a chance. My drag wasn't set too high, so I guess I had an abraided spot in the line is all I can figure. I hate it though, I hope the fish spit it back out. The shore drops off to about 2'-3' here, and I'm not sure what type of fish it was, maybe a large bass or a catfish. I fished that area a while with lizards and senkos in hopes to catching that monster to remove the hook.

I'd guess it would work pretty good staying right side up with that much keel weight from the hook. I cleaned the rust up and rerigged it, heck I'll probably try it. Might be the stuff on the pond I frequent.

I work at a place that is pretty lenient as far as schedule. Provided we weren't crushed with orders, we could take a half day offer or a day to go fishing, with no pay of course. Myself and my buddy often went fishing a couple hours at lunch to a spot up the road, when we both worked there and had the spot. I currently work from home, but for the same company. Thankful for my family and work situation.

Thanks. I inspected it thoroughly before I unrigging it, I should have thought to take the picture beforehand, I'll rig it back and take a picture. The hook did fit, but its the biggest hook that would without the toad straddling it.

A little old, but I appreciate this conversation. I am going to check out the other thread and the video mentioned. I've never fished blade baits before but started looking into them. I'm excited to learn a new lure, especially a wintertime lure.

Thanks. The toad was rigged on that huge hook. I do like the look of the toad, I don't suppose you recognize the brand? I've never fished soft toads like that but I've been wanting to give them a try. Finding that one is just the "kick" I need.

Must have been trying to imitate a tree frog. You gotta be trying pretty hard to lose a frog.

I found these in the last week. The Rat-L-Trap, in gizzard shad (a color I'd have chose myself), was found at the local city lake, on the bank where a lot of people fish. I went to pull up a gob of fishing line and this was attached to the other end of about 50 feet. It appears it was left in the weeds and then stepped on until it was flush with the surface. The rings are good, but the hooks have disintegrated. On that trip, I went for a nice wade. I'd lost a chatterbait, and then I snagged my worm and hook in the same spot. I had the wife hold the rod so I could trace the line and went in after it. I pulled up a big gob of line with my chatterbait attached. Only a couple sinkers and rusted catfish hooks on the other end. All the rest, I found at my local large pond, I got out there in my boat and first thing scouted the back side of the reeds... Who would through a plopper in that pond I don't know. A buzzbait does okay there but with all the cover, I doubt the plopper seen more than a couple casts. The trap, buzzbait, and Whopper Plopper I've cleaned up with spray nine followed by some hot water, dawn, and scrubbing with a toothbrush. The Whopper Plopper's hooks were still sharp, but there is some finish damage to the them and very light pitting. I cleaned them up with a bronze wire brush so It's usable until I can buy new hooks on my next order. No markings on the buzzbait, so I assume it's a cheap one.. does anyone have a guess on brand or opinion on how it will do with that angle? I've seen one like that before, but I've never used one like that, only the normal shaped ones. [url=https://postimg.cc/CnzfG6RZ][img]https://i.postimg.cc/D0cdK9Fc/B3-A0-D238-CB08-47-ED-9370-44-D3-C8-DC5439.jpg[/img][/url] Of course I found a handful of bobbers and weights, and a couple walmart bags full of garbage. Dunno why my pic didnt work, try this.

Those are useful comments, thanks all. The packaging on the OT hard baits says Eagle Claw hooks and they are quite sharp. For topwater lures, my go to is the Spit'n image. I don't currently have a bill dance signature in Tennessee shad, but it's my preferred color. I have one of the new purple back tn shad.

Thanks for the replies those are helpful answers. I'll have to give the OT cranks a direct comparison to other brands. I've only observed it by itself, not side by side with another similar crank. I'd be interested to know which of the expensive lures are flops. I will give $10-$12 for a lure, but... more than that and I start think I should invest in more of what I know works and I use.

Awesome and well thought out rig, thanks for sharing.

I often fish minimalist, but with 2 rods. One rigged with a frog, and the other with a worm/lizard. Sometimes I'll carry a small box in my pocket with a popper, extra frog, small crankbait, beetle spin. I often take sometime new and or different to try if things are slow.

Interesting opinions here so far. I do use better quality stuff than the OT lures most of the time. Actually, I just now started trying the OT stuff, I've always used name brand lures like Rapala, Storm, Heddon, Arbogast, Terminator for spinnerbaits. So here is a question... What makes OT lures inferior to the name brands? Obviously, with the whopper plopper copy I tried, it's inferior. But what makes the OT frog inferior to other brands? I've been using a Scum Frog, and some Lunkerhunt Pocket Frogs. Obviously the Pocket Frog is different, but the Scum Frog is very similar. I've not had any luck on the Scum Frog, but I've caught a mess of fish on the Pocket Frog. What about the crankbaits? I saw in the found lures thread mention made of them as if they were just worthless, picked up only to clean up the shore/water. While I've not had a lot of success on the few I've tried, I don't see any reason they would not work just fine for bass (provided I could find waters that were not severely pressured to try them). And don't get me wrong, I'm no advocating OT lures, I'm researching them.

I've caught a mess of bass on a shallow shad rap in clown. Not the color I'd have chosen, but I ended up with one and it worked well.

What's everyone's opinions on various Ozark Trails lures? I know that they probably aren't as good as most name brand lures, some probably out right suck, but I've tried a few that seem decent. I was reading through the found lures thread, and I seen some comments that were not positive of the OT branded lures, so figure I'd ask what everyone else thinks about them. I've been using a couple of Ozark Trails hollow body popper frogs from Walmart this season. They do pretty good, and I've caught a few bass on each. I was unsure about it to start, but I watched a video on youtube by ndyakangler, where he used one, and started giving them a solid chance. They are only a touch over $2 and so far, I haven't any complaints. Does anyone else like and use them? How do they hold up over the long haul? https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-Frog-Popper-Lure-Frog/966594669?from=/search I want to pick up a couple of the non popping version if I get to the other area walmarts anytime soon, my local is picked clean. I've also tried one of the 1/3oz OT crankbaits a few times and caught 2 nice crappie. I haven't caught bass on one yet, but they seem decent to me, especially if you're in a place where you risk losing it. To be fair, no crankbait is likely to produce bass on the heavily pressured city lake I was fishing (freeman lake). https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-1-3-Ounce-Translucent-Crankbait-Fishing-Lure/523184773 And I've tried one of their 1/16oz Minnows, and caught a sunfish on that lake... but still, it seems decent and has a decent action when twitched. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-1-16-Ounce-Natural-Minnow-Fishing-Lure/325308970 I have one of their spinnerbaits too, and it seems decent after I tweaked the wire a bit. I've not caught anything on it on the same lake. I forget which weight and version it is. Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that OT baits are a replacement for the better lures... but I think they may have a place in a person's arsenal. I tried one of their Whopper Plopper copies, the 3.5 Prop Bait, and it sucks. The body spins some of the time. I didn't fish it more than 10 minutes so no chance of a fish there.

I carried a Smith & Wesson 642 a while, it was a good little gun, but like so many others it fell victim to the urge to trade.

Thanks WRB, I actually have one of those in my box and have used it on the spot that is covered with pads/moss. It does pretty good going through it, but I haven't had any success with it yet.

Persistence is key. If the place you're fishing is heavily pressured, it's likely you won't have much luck with all the normal stuff too. I've found that the worst thing you can do is give up. If you're out on the water, have your line in... its the only way you'll catch fish. When I go fishing with my wife... she'll not catch anything for a while and then she'll stop fishing. I keep fishing as long as I'm there, and I often catch something after she's given up. The other day we was fishing a high pressure spot, and she was saying she wanted to leave and go to another spot down bank... I continued working my Lizard... then I caught a 1.5 pound bass. A while back we fished a couple hours, and she was ready to change spots... I said we couldn't, that the way it works is you fish a couple hours with one bait, then change baits and only after you've tried every bait you have, are you clear to say "the fish ain't biting" and move spots. The look on her face was priceless.

I've been fishing my local city lake, and it's pretty highly pressured. I've caught 2 largemouth bass, one on an ozark trail topwater frog, and the other on a weightless and weedless rigged zoom 6" lizard. The other bass tackle I've tried, I've not had any success with. I did catch a couple crappie on an ozark trail crankbait though, I think its the 2 3/4" version. Surprised me. Because a lot of people fish it, I've been researching techniques to help deal with the pressure. One of the reason I ended up finding this forum. I pretty much figure I'll have to go all fitness, or use something very obscure to have any success. I also figure I'll need to get into the spots that are not as easily accessed, though the bass I caught were right off a commonly fished area. There is a lot of shoreline that is not easily accessed unless you have a boat. I figure that will be more productive when I get set up to my pond hopper boat in there.

I've had a lot of bluegill that have went after my frogs when I've used a smaller frog like the lunkerhunt pocket frog. I've actually caught several of the larger bluegill on it, one being the largest bluegill I've ever seen, over a pound on my calibrated estimation, he had a solid 1 1/2" wide mouth! I caught him right at the end of the cast, I was standing on a culvert that is an ambush point. A lot of times, when its a bluegill, they will grab it and swim, even fight a few seconds, but when I set the hook it doesn't set because the fish only had the legs is my guess. My thought is, you probably have missed some bass, but also have had bluegill going after your frog and those are much harder to get because of their smaller sized mouths. I love fishing frogs.

I've caught a lot of bass on soft frogs of frog color and yellow, but not of black for some reason. Maybe its because I don't tie it on enough. Confidence in the lure makes a lot of difference I think. I've used rebel poppers in silver/black and chugbugs in both chartreuse and silver/blue with success. My favorite topwater is a Heddon Spit'n image, bill dance signature in Tennessee shad. It always seems to entice. I wonder if it's because it's less common and many people don't seem to use one around here? I've had some success with buzzbaits, but I don't fish them as much as I should. The few times I tried a Devils Horse... I got skunked. Maybe I'll have to give it another go.