How To Find Productive Frog Grass

The Daily Bass is on a 7-day hiatus. It'll be back the week of August 20.

Editor's note: This blog installment comes from Fishhound pro staffer Capt. Mike Gerry.

Over the many years I've spent on Guntersville, one thing that seems to be a common question among fisherman during frog season is how to figure out which grass is productive for the frog bite.

I'm not sure there's any great secret to it, but I've found that you can tell which grassmats can be productive with just a little drive-by examination. That's right: You just need to ease by the area you intend to fish and make some observations of the mats.

During your drive-by, the first thing you should look at is the condition of the mat. Is it nasty, foamy, icky and will your frog make a trail? If so, it's a good sign.

The next thing to consider is baitfish. If there's baitfish moving about in and around the mat, then you have another piece of the puzzle.

Once you have those first two pieces – an icky mat and baitfish activity – the next important consideration is the thickness of the mat. Does the mat have holes in it, and does it have space underneath for the fish to hide from the sun? Sometimes the mats are so thick that the grass has no space below it, in which case it's very hard to get a blowup. Grassmats block the sun and the water underneath is generally a little cooler by about 5 degrees, and this also drives the bass to the grassmats in the hot sun.

The fourth and final factor is overall size of the mat. I believe that, especially in late summer and early fall, the smaller the area of matted grass the better chance it'll have fish underneath that'll strike. Large mats are just too hard to cover, but the smaller areas become target areas for feeding bass – especially if they're near deeper water.

Capt. Mike Gerry has lived in north Alabama since the 1970s and has been fishing Lake Guntersville for over 35 years. He owns and operates Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service and books individual, group and corporate trips. He also offers pre-tournament trips for competitive anglers. Visit FishLakeGuntersvilleGuideService.com, send him an email at bassguide@comcast.net or call (256) 759-2270. He'd love to hear from you!

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