Weedless and Frogs : Northern Freshwater Fishing

passenger279 · Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 1:13 pm Post subject: Weedless and Frogs

I'll call this asking for tips instead of a report since it is lacking in photos or landed fish

Spent the last 3 days camping and looking around the billabongs surrounding and including yellow waters.. the water temps ranged from 24 in the mornings to 28 in the shallows in the afternoons, alot of fish and bait around and amazing scenery and camping..

Long story short, no fish landed

However, had plenty or hits, pulls, short runs and aerial incidents, but none in the boat..

So i wanted to ask, how do you improve your hook up to hit ratio when fishing weedless lures and skipping frogs along lillies, had my heart in my mouth so many times with big boofs or toga flying out of the lillies or a barra cruising in clear water, swallowing the weedless i dropped in front of it and promptly spitting it back at me..

Fishing with owner wide gape weedless with white/red soft plastics with paddle or wiggle tail in the 65 - 80mm range.. didn't have any of the tasty fish scent goo with me but I'm thinking something tastier may have encouraged them to hang on a bit longer..

thanks,

jeremy

Pecheur · Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 1:31 pm Post subject: Re: Weedless and Frogs

Hi Passaenger279,

I am by far no expert on the topic so take what I will write with a grain of salt...

But last weekend with Arrabmundi on his boat we hit the Mary River Billabongs for the round 3 of the Top End .....
I tried with a weedless lure of mine for a while and did get a few hit but no hook ups...
Later in the day I tried one of his weedless lure...
And I got a hook-ups, so I guess the brand was making a big difference.

Sadly I do not remember what lure he was using...
:bonk:

So it is not all your fault.
Blame it on the gears!
:wink:

Have a good day,
Pecheur

Mr RiverBabe · Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 3:05 pm Post subject: Re: Weedless and Frogs

I find when using softies the fish hook themselves. But with the seedless you have to be fast and actually strike at them. This is only from my experience only so don't take it as gospel but works for me. Hard strikes so it really sets the hook past the weedless part. Try the river2sea diver frogs. They are great.

cuddlescooper · Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 3:37 pm Post subject: Re: Weedless and Frogs

Use really soft plastics that squash easily and have a good wide gape so that when the fish strike they push the point of the hook into the open and give you a chance at a hook up. As MRB said strike hard and fast to set the hook before the fish spit it. A retrieve that keeps the pressure on the lure the whole time aids in a good hook up ratio. Still, no matter what you do you will miss as many as you get. Only use weedless when you have to and exposed hooks when you dont.

JEDA1 · Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 5:03 pm Post subject: Re: Weedless and Frogs

Hi guys I have been using normal soft plastics alot lately and have been rigging them weedless just so I don't have to worry about snags that I can't see I also have started with weedless frogs. I have found that most of my Hook ups were more consistent when the barra would inhale when I had slack in the line but this had to be paired with an instant strike with the rod other wise I would miss the fish. Hits when the line had tension would result in the plastic sucked half way down the worm hook !

This is just what I found and I'm interested in what some of the others on here are finding.

Nobby · Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 10:03 pm Post subject: Re: Weedless and Frogs

What size hooks are you using?

SUSIE Q · Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 11:23 pm Post subject: Re: Weedless and Frogs

PASSENGER 279. You are doing nothing wrong in my opinion, 1 the fish arent hitting hard enough so maybe just SLOW your retrieve a little but most importantly SHARPEN THE HOOKS RAZOR SHARP as fishing weedless is NORMAL to get more strikes and less hookups, so SHARP hooks are sooooooooooo important as they are at the business end of the line as tyre are on a trailer or car if they go the poop hits the fan. BE CONFIDENT IN WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND JUST INSURE THE POINTY END IS POINTY and you WILL hook and stay hooked to more fish.

Cheers

itsinmeblood · Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2011 11:09 pm Post subject: Re: Weedless and Frogs

those scum frogs with the double hooks have a reasonable hook up rate for weedless jobbies :mrgreen:

arrabmundi · Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:55 am Post subject: Re: Weedless and Frogs

Hi Jeremy,

Agree with Cuddlescooper on this, plastics need to be soft, I use Snapbacks and Zman as they are very very soft, which gives a great hook up rate because the hook exposes easily on the bite.
These Paddle tails also need to be worked very very slowly and these two brands will beat ANY other for the ability to have a serious paddle tail wobble at slow speeds.
These tow brands are my gun choice when working the billabongs and can be tossed well back into the lillies and grass beds.
The bonus with these two brands is their elastic ability and are indestrutable- yes thats right, I fish all day with just one plastic, no need to change because of tearing or tails being cutoff.
Attached is my rig plus proof of the pudding. :mrgreen:

One more tip, Snapbacks in the colour as per the pics and Zman in Chartruese/glow.

Cheers,

Arrabmundi.

Mud · Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 12:40 pm Post subject: Re: Weedless and Frogs

Hey Jeremy

I found hookup rates with the texas rig to be down to around 60% of the normal rate but when I used a rig with a wire guard the hookup rate changed to just around 90% (these figures are off the top my head and therefore probably dodgy)

The wire rig does have a slightly higher propensity to pick up snags than the texas rig but well worth it in my opinion. They also dont have as much finesss as the lead tend to be quite chunky.

I use the wire weedless almost exclusively because of its greater hookup rate.

Mr RiverBabe · Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:15 pm Post subject: Re: Weedless and Frogs

I have not seen those double tailed softies for ages. Where you pick them up Mud

Mud · Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:12 pm Post subject: Re: Weedless and Frogs

lol I always look out for them in shops that are not mega franchises so they still have those boxes of mixed plackies.....you know the ones where someone drops a red one in the box of white ones so theyve all got pink splotches on them...

I think youve just got to be lucky to get some old stock..

...and youve got to get there before me....

passenger279 · Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 8:30 pm Post subject: Re: Weedless and Frogs

Friggin Awesome!!!

I'm tripping over myself to get back out there with some of these tips on board, i was using quite firm plastics and not striking on hook ups, so some good potential for improvement =)

Nobby I think they were 2/0 and 3/0

Cheers everyone

Finatic2 · Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 11:00 pm Post subject: Re: Weedless and Frogs

I use a similar rig to mud only diff is that I use weedless fly hooks and drop bear skins without weight. You cant cast them super far but when you use them you are generally right next to the lillies anyway. I dont weight them so you can use them a bit like a scum frog. Hook up rate is almost every time

passenger279 · Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 7:55 pm Post subject: Re: Weedless and Frogs

I updated my skills to include hard striking on the hit and no slack on the line, using white softies with wiggle tails weedless rigged at corroboree today and landed my 1st and 2nd saratoga, no barra landed, but a few seen and a few hitting lures, good fun!!

thanks again for all the tips,

jeremy

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