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Dare
to get sloppy and you may get fish
The weed cover was as thick as a carpet. A blistering sun attacked my pale skin, etching its way through the so-called, expensive high-tech sun screen I had carefully applied to my exposed legs. Ouch! There was the slightest indication of an on-coming breeze, and then it was gone. I managed to flip the tiny popper to an opening in the shoreline greenery. A micro-second hadn't elapsed before a big bluegill charged out from its hiding place and made a valiant swipe at the offering. I waited a breath too long and didn't hook the fish. That happened a half dozen times more and that's when I decided to go for the "slop" with one of the weedless, floating baits I use for heavy-cover areas. I was formally introduced to modern-day slop fishing 10 years ago by a friend who plied the shorelines of Bangs Lake in Wauconda. He gave me a couple SnagProof frogs and mice and told me to go find some fish. "Just throw `em into the goop and hold on," he instructed. I did exactly as ordered, only I never was able to hook the fish and bring them in. My father used to take me to the Fox Chain every weekend many years back and anchor the boat in a little channel off the main body of Lake Catherine. It was on this channel that two things existed for me--my dad's favorite Bohemian restaurant and big largemouth bass. Big in those days was any fish over 3 lbs. Just being in that channel was enough of an excuse to go have one of the great lunches at the restaurant and talk fishing with some of the locals. The folks who lived on that channel had valuable information for us as to where the fish were hiding. They figured we would get fed up trying to drag regular lures through the channel's weedy congestion and go away without catching any fish. My father came up with a weedless hook idea using a thick rubber band stretched over the barbed-end of the hook. That worked with minnows and nightcrawlers until he decided we would switch to Johnson Silver Minnows tipped with pork trailers. That worked for a while until a better method came along. The original Plummer's Frog caught my dad's eye in one of the outdoor magazines. He raced into Klein's Sporting Goods and bought three of the weedless frogs. That next Saturday morning found us back in the channel again, catching bass from cover heavy enough to almost walk on. We kept using those frogs for years in every channel that had a good crop of heavy weed growth. And they were definitely weedless. Spin the clock up some years to the present time and Bangs Lake. This is where I was introduced to the SnagProof frogs and Grass Frogs. Include the Mann's Ghost in the group as well. The SnagProof lures appear to a direct descendent of the Plummer bait, and maybe they're the same in fact. Anyway, there are sections on Bangs Lake, Lake Zurich, Channel Lake and East Loon where I only use these types of baits. The hooks on each style of lure are placed close to the bait's body and don't give weeds a chance to grab on to the barb. And because they float for the most part, retrieves are made without dragging in a couple pounds of salad. And because some anglers want everything handed to them on silver platters, the frogs and other similar baits aren't really in the main stream of tackle box boulevard. In other words, many anglers I've encountered refuse to use the weedless baits because it takes some effort to catch fish. I've said it before in this column. When I use a floating, weedless lure in the heavy slop, I will get hits from bass, pike and muskie. It's happened hundreds of times. The problem is that I will fail to hook a fish on any number of occasions simply because that's the nature of the lure. A fish will "blow up" on the bait from underneath the weed cover. Sometimes the lure will be thrown through the air from the force of the strike. And when a fish actually starts to bight down on the bait, we have the tendency to immediately strike and go for a hook-set. That's a no-no. You must allow a second or two for the fish to clamp down hard so the hooks are exposed, guaranteeing a solid connection. Here's what I use for gear when I'm dialed in to slop fishing. I prefer a 6 1/2 foot, medium-heavy casting rod and a medium-weight bait casting reel spooled with at least 20 lb. test mono. In Florida, Louisiana, and other southern big bass spots I'll use 25 or 30 lb. mono because the fish tend to be considerably larger. Once a hook-up is made, your next job is to "horse" the fish out from the cover and bring it to the boat. I've seen perfectly tied knots suddenly come apart from the strain on the line and lure. And I've also had fish jump 3 feet in the air and throw the bait after I thought the fish was hooked. You will definitely catch fish--more fish too, because you will be presenting a lure to gamefish in these hard-to-fish areas that most anglers avoid like the plague. After all is said and done--the most important thing to remember is that you now have the right medicine or tools to do the job.
©copyright 1997, Mike Jackson Outdoors
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