PH Custom Lures
Squeaky P
according to Batts,
the minimum water clari-
ty requirement for catch-
ing bass on a frog or
prop bait while running a
bream pattern is about 3
or 4 feet of visibility.
“if it’s dirty i throw a
1/4-ounce buzzbait that
makes a little more
noise. that, or i flip a Big
Bite Baits fighting frog. i
kind of get away from
the topwater deal.”
Brian’s Bees
Prop Bee
Strikezone Lure Co.
Pro Series Popp’n Frog
Batts targets his casts at shade lines
created by overhanging trees and
docks – particularly dock walkways. his
go-to lures are a strikezone lure co.
pro series popp’n frog and a prop bait
that, like all good prop baits, was cus-
tom-made by “a guy” in appalachia. he
says the Brian’s Bees prop Bee and ph
custom lures squeaky p are equally
good and available to consumers who
don’t have a connection to a custom
lure maker.
“i use a bluegill pattern,” he says
about the prop bait. “on my best ones
the bottom colors on them are either
yellow, which matches a pumpkinseed,
or tangerine orange. i’m ripping it and
fishing it pretty slow for, like, the first 4 or
5 feet in ‘the juice.’ i throw it behind the
dock, fish it a few feet and reel it in. in the
shade, i work it all the way out through
the shade line and then reel it in.”
the frog works in the same areas,
but Batts says it has a lower strike-to-
hook-up ratio, so he tends to reserve it
for skipping under overhanging tree
limbs and docks or for working shore-
line grasses, where the prop bait’s tre-
ble hooks would snag. he likes the pop-
ping frog over a regular hollow frog
because it can be worked side-to-side
without moving forward quite so far
with each twitch.
WATER CLARITY
FACTORS
on docks, for example, Batts doesn’t
worry about fishing every corner if he
knows the bass are hunting bream
under walkway shade around the banks.
“When they get up under those
docks it takes so long to fish them, but
if i know they’re on the walkway pattern
i don’t even mess with the rest of the
dock. if i put it back there [under the
walkway], i know i’m putting it on one
that’s about to chew.”
likewise, he doesn’t often re-fish
water unless a group of fish shows
itself by following a topwater to the
boat. Generally, he moves quickly from
one pocket to the next.
“if a bass is up in a foot of water and
it’s 100 outside, it’s up there to feed.
You’re just trying to come across
enough of them in a day. covering water
and having the confidence to do it all
day; that’s the key. You can go out deep
here [the oconee system] and catch 50
fish, but they’re 12- or 13-inchers, and
you won’t do any good [in a tourna-
ment]. You can throw that frog and prop
bait, and you might get five to eight bites
a day, but they’re the right ones.”
S&H OUTDOORS
550 Chicken House Rd.
Golden, MS 38847
662.676.2330
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tournament strategy
as mentioned, the key to this tech-
nique is to cover water. in a tourna-
ment situation, that means fishing as
efficiently as possible.
maY-june 2017 I FlWFIshInG.com
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