wats going wrong?

[HandGunner]

fished saturday caught 1 pike off a buzzbait at moore lake nothing else. sunday today fished these ponds in the early afternoon caught one 2 lb'er. took off to moore lake off hwy 65 got 2 hits off a stanley ribbit frog first hit tore off one leg secong hit failed hookset, nothing else then left to medicine lake at medicine lake park nothing as well 2 hits last hit was right at shore was not paying attention. did this weather and high water screw us over for bass? whats going on? im looking for new frog lures any suggestions on cheap good frogs? also when and what conditions would a frog do better than a buzzbait? and vice versa?

[Craigums]

Try going smaller and slower

[mww24]

the weather and rain has been kind of wacky. I fished a lake up by me and had water right around 70 degrees. I caught one small bass in the hour or so i fished. I'm guessing a lot of lakes that warm up early are just post spawn and the fish may be a little deeper and recoupperating from the spawn. As for the frogs and buzzbaits. I really don't fish them very much. If I do its usually early morning on glass calm water. The buzzbait I would fish anywhere and the frog only in slop and pads. Usually though I throw a rigged creature bait in that stuff with a heavy enough weight to get through the junk or i pick holes in pads to pitch to. I'm just not a top water guy but a lot are.

[HandGunner]

a couple years ago back when i first moved to the chisago area i was still in 10 grade I would fish bass early in the year after ice out and into spring, that was when I didnt know catch and release was still not legal for closed season fish. I would catch tons of bass all kinds from nice 2 lb'ers to small one all throughout that spring before bass opened, I noticed that back then I would fish slow with T rigged senkos. this was when I first started bass fishing, that folowing summer still all my bass were all on senkos im talking in the hundreads of bass I caught. moved out of chisago a few years back and went back up there last summer for fun and I noticed everywere i go the fishery has declined. Maybe our state fishery is on a decline could it be possible? seems like every year that goes by we have to keep traveling further and further for crappies and walleyes now im noticing bass are disapearing too, or maybe this year had some wacked out weather to screw things up for us plus that awful boring un MN like winter

[mww24]

I don't think the bass fishing in the chisago lakes area has declined. I've had some big number days out there and i don't even fish there a ton. I think the fish are more pressured and things need to be changed to catch them. but they are there.

[Deitz Dittrich]

topwaters will not heat up for a few more weeks yet.. that could have been your problem.

[Aaron Carrell]

topwaters will not heat up for a few more weeks yet.. that could have been your problem.

Topwaters (frogs primarily) were the only thing that could buy us a fish yesterday on one of the lakes I hit this weekend... Just saying.

[Juan Grande]

Handgunner,

Mww24 is right, you probably need to mix it up bait wise. I know people still swear by them, but you have to think metro bass have seen thousands of senkos thrown their way. At some point they become conditioned and don't hit them as readily as they used to.

[RumRiverRat]

Topwaters (frogs primarily) were the only thing that could buy us a fish yesterday on one of the lakes I hit this weekend... Just saying.

Lakes with developed mats and pads right now have the frog bite in full swing.

Picture Proof

[NickMcD63]

I did very well this weekend slow rolling a NorthStar Custom Baits Flip & Swim jig in 12-14' of water. Big profile + slow retrieve was the ticket.

[KickNBass]

topwaters will not heat up for a few more weeks yet.. that could have been your problem.

This is probably closer to the general rule IMO but as you see from the other posts, fish don' always follow the general rules.

Regardless, if they're not responding to topwater I would move on to something else like a swim jig, spinner bait, crank, jig, tube, senko, worm...whatever it takes.

The nice thing about a small lake is you have a captive audience so you can at least be sure that you are around fish.

[thatoneguy]

topwaters will not heat up for a few more weeks yet.. that could have been your problem.

I picked up a lot of nice fish on a Jawbreaker on Sunday - but it was in the late afternoon once the sun came out and the wind went away. I'm guessing that cranked up the water temps a bit in the shallow bay I was fishing, and got the bass a little more active.

Like many others have said, don't be afraid to mix up your lure selection. When my top three soft plastics didn't produce much on Sunday, I switched to something I had never used before (a type of paddle tail trailer on a swim jig) and hit the motherlode.

Once I had boated a dozen or so fish on the new lure, I switched back to the two other lures...nada. Back to the new one, and it was game on again.

I'm sure there's a lesson for me in there somewhere.

[corncob]

We tried senkos and soft plastics on edges, caught a few, topwater worked OK, but, the spinnerbait bite was the best in Boy Bay....Go figure.