Page 183 - South Mississippi Living - September, 2024

ABOVE LEFT: Gerald Swindle, a professional bass angler, lands a bass he caught along a weedy shoreline. ABOVE RIGHT: A frog imitation can go over the grass to get to the bass.
LEFT: Jake Davis shows off a bass he caught on a plastic frog in a grassy area. RIGHT: A young angler shows off a bass he caught around lily pads.
“A buzz frog is one of the few lures that anglers can use in really thick, matted vegetation all year long,” advises Shaw Grigsby, a professional bass angler and television personality. “It’s like a buzzbait that anyone can throw in the thickest vegetation where a regular buzzbait would hang up on every cast.”
Some frogs float and others slowly sink. Anglers can run either with a steady buzzing retrieve. With floating frogs, try the hop-and-pop method. Let a frog float on the surface a few moments. Then, pop it vigorously to simulate a live frog splashing in the water. Ease sinking frogs into open pockets. Let them sink a foot or two before resuming the retrieve.
Buzz frogs create tremendous commotion, but sometimes bass want a more subtle enticement. Unweighted soft-plastic worms or fluke-type baits slowly crawled over the matted tops mimic snakes, eels or other temptations. Bass see realistic objects silhouetted in the vegetation and attack. Work slithering soft plastics like a sinking frog. Bass usually
slurp these subtle offerings as they sink. Sometimes bass burrow in so deeply that anglers
almost need to dig them out. Drop worms or jigs rigged weedless into any tiny openings in the grass. Let the lure fall naturally. If it hits bottom, jig it up a few times. If nothing bites, drop the bait into another nearby pocket.
In tidal deltas, bass and redfish regularly hunt the same prey. People don’t think of redfish eating frogs, but given a chance, a redfish will gulp down anything that might tempt a bass and vice versa.
Nearly impenetrable mats can look intimidating, but that’s where the biggest bass like to hang out
waiting for someone to tickle
their noses with something irresistible.
Pete Ponds, a Mississippi bass pro, shows off a bass he caught on a frog.
SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living | www.smliving.net
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