Frog Mats

Mats for Frog Fishing

Endless grass mats make for tough decisions on choosing where to fish. It is not easy to choose where to fish when there are miles of grass mats, something must stand out so you can make a choice; where do you fish and what makes one clump of grass look better than others? These are the questions you must answer every time you get on the water and start looking for that frog bite. To me there are some easy answers you just must store them in your memory bank, so the choice becomes easy.

First, I look for grass that has become burnt looking and cheesy where your frog makes a trail through the cheesy grass. Next let your ears be your guide; as many of us painfully know, the grass knats can be a pain, but when you hear blue gill feeding on those nasty gnats and they are making a popping sound; you have found some perfect mat choices.

Once you have found some key areas as mentioned above then you start narrowing the choices down even further. Let the elements lead you deeper into frogging territory; for example, water current, if the area you have identified has water current moving around it from wind or dam control you have once again narrowed your choice to even a better set of elements. Grass mats make all kinds of different formations, but when they form points or have outside and inside bends where the bass can feed from you have once again narrowed your choice and gotten closer to the some of the best frogging areas on the lake. There are also other visual keys that can define a good frogging area; blow holes are one, if you visually see where bass have exploded through the mat that is some pretty telling indicator that there is bass in that mat area. Many times, you can also see the drag lines where another angler has dragged a fish from that very blowhole indicating that this area is being fished for a good reason. Lastly, I like scattered grass much better than the thick stuff as the fish can identify what is above them easier and deep water near is always a good thing.