Fishing Heavy Cover on Hard-Hit Water with Weedless Frogs

[David Lehmann]

My most accessible water gets pretty heavy fishing pressure. The water that is easily accessible by boat or shore gets hammered every day. So, I'm now sinking my boat way back in heavy weeds - areas that look more like wetlands and farm fields than lake water. I've been fishing hollow weedless frogs and having a blast. Sometimes fish will come two feet out of the water when they hit (or completely miss the lure). Using 60 lb super-braid on a little 1970s vintage Ryobi Mag reel with a 6.5' medium heavy casting rod, and it cast these frogs a mile.


Catching mostly 2 to 4 lb largemouth. This is after weeds are cleaned.


What a fish looks like when landed. Some are even more covered with weeds.


Pike that shot through the weeds for a frog. Pike miss the lure about 75% of the time.

Maybe these lures and technique work on other high-pressure waters too.

[Midway Tommy D]

Looks like fun, Dave.

[Paul Roberts]

Great fun! Wetlands are beautiful places and so full of life. Add topwater bass and… wow!

[Mike N]

There’s just something about those sleek, aggressive Pike…. Great photos, David.

Mike N

[john elder]

That’s something i finally learned about fishing anywhere. I was always worried about getting caught up and interfering with a partner’s fishing by “fishing for birds” along the bank. That resulted in a lot of wasted casts out three feet off the shoreline. I didn’t have to remove many weeds from the hooks, but i also didn’t have to remove any fish! This probably was ingrained in me early on when dad or my uncles bitched about me getting hung up. They also had me convinced that weedless lures were also fishless lures. At ant rate, I finally went with a couple fellows that had a clue and started using “weedless” frogs and assorted plastic with the hook tine buried, throwing right into the weeds and cattails… and started finding some serious bass. And yes, you need to do some cleaning after most casts, but thats just part of the deal.

[Richard Lodge]

Great fishing lesson, David. That's a fine pike, too!

[reelsmith.]

.
When I pull all the weeds off there is rarely a fish underneath.

Looks like good fun Dave. Pickerel can be a ton of fun, they can fight !

Dean.

[Paul Roberts]

Got a bit of "froggin'" in myself. The pads are mighty thick here. Caught this barrel of a 19"er today.