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While the Devil’s Horse and
Frederick’s favorite custom version
aren’t the largest topwater baits,
they’re not just small-fish offerings.
Even outside of Florida, big bass will
key in on the popping, water-spewing
prop bait.
“It doesn’t discriminate,” Frederick
says of the prop bait’s appeal. “It catches
giants – 10-, 11-pounders – as well as 14-,
15-inchers.”
Custom version or original, there
are plenty of ways to modify a prop
bait like the Devil’s Horse to make it do
exactly what you want it to do – catch
fish. Take Frederick’s advice if you
want to catch a few more giants, espe-
cially in Florida around the spawn.
“You can do shorter pops with it
where you’re not moving the bait as
far,” Frederick explains of his one-prop
setup. “You want to keep that bait in
the strike zone, and you can do that
with that single prop.”
When the bait lands on any given
cast, Frederick waits until the ripples
dissipate before ever moving his bait.
He wants subtlety and finesse, and he
wants that bait around any potential
bedding bass as long as possible.
He pops the bait with short rod
twitches, one twitch at a time, and then
waits. In many cases, the slow presen-
tation allows bass to come to the sur-
face and simply suck the bait down,
which promotes better hookups than a
reckless surface strike and results in
fewer lost fish.
Frederick is also exacting about his
equipment. He’ll use either a 7-foot, 2-
inch, medium-heavy rod or a 7-foot,
medium-heavy rod depending on how
precise he needs to be with his cast,
and he’s a proponent of using monofil-
ament line as opposed to braid or
braid-to-leader.
FLWFISHING.COM | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | APRIL-MAY 2020