Travis Manson of @SmallmouthCrush talks about some great techniques to catch BIG BASS in the late summer season. He breaks down flipping and frogging baits in the pads and grass for those big bass bites. He also shows you exactly what rods, reels, line and lures to use in those areas for better success.

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Video Transcript:

Travis Manson:
Yo. Hey guys, SmallmouthCrush. On behalf of MonsterBass, We're going to make a quick video about fishing pad fields today and I'm going to take you on the lake. A recent trip, caught a bunch of fish. Now this is the Northern part of the country, so the bass don't get big. A four pounder is a good fish, but we caught a bunch of fish between two and four pounds and it was just fun. It's fun fishing pads this time of the year, late summer, the fish are setting up in that grass or utilizing the thick vegetation that's there for cover. There's a lot of blue gills, a lot of perch, a lot of bait fish in those pad fields, and so I like to use three different approaches when it comes to fishing pads. Of course, top water frogs. I like a popping frog if there's not a lot of vegetation, and I've been throwing that a lot and you'll see it in this video. I caught them pretty good on that.

Travis Manson:
But I also like to have a Texas rig stick bait, like a Cinco, ready to go. I throw this a lot when I get a blow up on the frog and I miss it. Now in this video, there wasn't a lot of missed fish. They were eating that frog pretty good. So I didn't have to utilize this, but they always have it ready to go. So if that fish is coming up and you see it roll on your frog and you don't get a bite, it doesn't hit the frog, I would take this Cinco and I would try to throw it in the exact place where that blow up just occurred, and a lot of times that fish is still searching around, looking for that top water bait, and he's going to grab that Cinco. Then I also did a little bit of punching.

Travis Manson:
So I like a heavy weight. This here is a one ounce weight and I'll just put a little creature bait and Texas rake that, and that'll allow me to punch through that thicker grass, the thicker pad. So I just kind of look for areas that seem fishy, if you will, thicker parts in the pads, and you'll see me in the video as I go along, but I'll sit here and I'll punch with that. So my setup for the frog, I really like a nice long rod with a real nice soft tip, but heavy, so I can set that hook and pull that fish out of the vegetation. You know, even a two pounder that's buried in the lily pads is going to be a little challenge sometimes to get it back to the boat. So I like to throw that on braid. I use 65 pound braid on my frog baits and seems to be a pretty good combination. On the punching deal, same thing, 65 pound braid.

Travis Manson:
Now sometimes if you get around fish that are pressured a lot, perhaps you might want to put a little fluorocarbon leader or just go straight floral 20, 25 pound fluoro. But I really like braid and I seem to be able to get away with it here in the Northern part of the country. It doesn't cause too many issues. I seem to get enough bites using that, but I like to use a real nice long, this is an eight foot, heavy flipping stick because I'm utilizing those big weights. So on my Texas rig stick bait, soft plastic, I have 12 pound tests, you know, 12 to 15 straight fluorocarbon on that.

Travis Manson:
Plenty of targets to hit, but... Oh, that's a good one. That's not a bad bass for the Northern part of the country. That was fun. I was like any second. There's so many targets to hit here. Lily pad tails. There's some coontail down there. That was fun, man. Anytime you can catch them on the frog, sign me up. I like how this wind's blowing on here. Winds blowing. There's some scattered grass that's matted up in these pads, and I'm just working this wind blowing, I guess, point, you would call it, in the grass here.

Travis Manson:
So for me, the most effective way to cover a pad field is with a top water frog. And that's what I was doing today. But you'll see, later in the video, I did a little punch in as well, which equally can be just as effective.

Travis Manson:
Here we go. So what I like about this area is obviously the lily pad field, but there's some really good depth underneath of it. So these fish are holding in here because it's got plenty of depth to it. Oftentimes, you'll find some pads that are just really super shallow and yes, they will get up in there. But I really like the fact that I can go along here with the trolling motor, not worry about hitting bottom. There's not a lot of grass underneath, so it's pretty much a free range underneath these pads, and we're going to run into some different scenarios today, I'm sure, but in this particular pad field, I really like it. They could literally be anywhere. So I'm just fan casting. I'm moving around, I'm covering water, for this body of water that I'm fishing, a four pounder is going to be a good fish. You're going to get a lot two and a halves, threes, and that's how it is a lot of times up North. You're just looking for that one big bite, a five pounder would be a big fish for up here, but they're here.

Travis Manson:
I'm throwing up [inaudible 00:06:15] frog. Really like that, especially when there's enough open water here where I can get that frog to really pop and walk through this. There's some cases where a popping frog is not the best bet, especially when you get up in a lot of slop and stuff. But when I got some open water here, I'm going to definitely use this popping frog through here. And that just chose black. I really liked black. I just chose black even on sunny days, especially in the Northern part of the country, black's just a really good color for me. Although we do have a little bit OF overcast, some cloud cover, but there's some sun, too. I'd call it mostly cloudy right now, and we're going to keep chucking this frog.

Travis Manson:
Missed that one. I'm going to fire up the Cinco and see if I can get him to bite. He didn't seem that big.

Travis Manson:
Now, I wasn't able to catch this fish, but it's very important to have that bait ready to go, and toss right back where you had that blow up. See if you can get that fish to commit. It happens more than you think.

Travis Manson:
Come on, buddy. Better fish. Man, aggressive. They're aggressive today. We like that. We like that when they play, when they play nice. Now I'll flip and punch anything that looks good as well, some thicker grass, thicker pads, lily pad roots. Not big. Not big at all. Anything and everything that I think will hold that fish. So here I have a beaver dam hut. Got to' fish it. Normally some fishing around that. Normally some deeper water around it. I'll flip that creature bait right in there. Not a bad one here. Nice. He choked it as soon as it hit the water.

Travis Manson:
Like the thickest stuff on the edges, I can find like right here. You don't get one, keep pitching. Pick targets that look like thicker grass, or maybe an opening underneath the pads where it's not as thick, matted up, or matted up. I mean, you're just looking, you're constantly scanning, looking for something that would... Because you could just flip this forever, and if there was a lot of fish, I certainly would pick it apart, but I'm just trying to hit what I feel is high percentage spots.

Travis Manson:
A good one. Nice. Oh man, it's fun. That was an isolated clump of pads away from the main one. I knew there was a fish there. I don't know if you caught it, but I worked at real slow and convinced that one to bite. We knew he was in there.

Travis Manson:
I really like to flip the lily pads stems, the roots. Come on out of there. As I was saying, now we get bit. Not a giant, but...

Travis Manson:
So I didn't come across a lot today, but if you're in a pad field and you're going to see this looks like wood floating, and those fish will get on that and hang out. There's another one right here. Let me see if anybody's home. They're really important to hit every one. There's another one right here.

Travis Manson:
So those isolated lily pad roots will definitely hold some fish. I also went real back into some of those thick reeds that had some pads growing in there. Those fish will get way up in that heavy cover at times as well, and it takes a little work, but it certainly can be pretty rewarding pulling a monster bass out of that grass.

Travis Manson:
Well, hey guys, I hope you enjoyed the quick video on fishing pads. It's one of my favorite ways to catch large mouth, especially up here in the Northern part of the country. They get in and they utilize them. So don't discount the pad field. So much fun, especially when they're cooperative. Frogging, throwing that stick bait and doing a little bit of punch in. Hopefully it'll help you catch some more fish. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel, and as always until next time, we'll see you guys on the water.