Fishing Topwater In Lily Pads

In 2004, I fished more lily pads than ever before? Why? Well, because I caught fish in them. I probably caught over 100 fish in the lily pads this year alone. Two were over 5 pounds and one over 6 pounds. So what did I do different this year?

I'm glad you asked......I used a lure called the scum frog, green and white, not only that but I fished it different than ever before. You see, I used to go slow, I mean real slow, my way of thinking was that even though the bass is a fast swimmer, he would have a hard time catching up with the lure through the pads, if I retrieved it fast. Not only that, but, I wanted to put it in his face a lot longer by going slow on my retrieve.

Well, then I watched this guy and he was running it through the lily pads almost as fast as any buzz bait I have seen used. I was using the same lure except slow. The outcome? Well, he was getting strikes, I mean lots of strikes, I was getting none. So, I went back over the same area I just fished and guess what? Yep, I began getting strikes, but I was missing them as the lure would get past the fish. I thought maybe I should compromise, so, I slowed down my retrieve just a hair and bingo, I started catching fish. That is the way I used the scum frog for the rest of the fishing season. Fast, but not quite as fast as a buzz bait, when they would hit and miss I would stop the bait and just twitch it a few times. This was one of my best fishing years in over 40 of fishing for bass, all due to this new retrieve. As Mikey says "Try it you might like it".