Frog Fishing From The Shore

Hey, everyone, Bass Pro Dean Rojas here. You're probably wondering why I'm standing on the bank here. But this is how I used to fish, that we all used to fish is, you know, from the bank, if you're fishing a little pond, or a riverbank, you know, or a stream, it's kind of how we all get started. I remember when I was a little kid, running up and down the shoreline, you know, making casts and so forth. So, just kind of wanna bring you back to, you know, what I always liked to do when I was bank fishing, I always liked to cover a lot of ground, depending on, you know, what I was fishing, you know, and the shrubbery, as you can see, whatever would allow you to fish in fishing the bank itself.

So, usually, when you're bank fishing, you're kind of limited on what kind of, you know, equipment that you can carry, because usually, it's a backpack. Back then it was a fanny pack. Those are outdated now, but you can tell I've been doing this for a long time, but I used to carry everything in a big fanny pack. I'd keep all my tackle here. And I'd have sometimes a backpack on, moving down and just had, you know, some specific baits that I would use while fishing, you know, small bodies of water. And I still love to do that. You know, now, today, even when I see it, you know, I'd pull into somewhere and I see a little lake or a little pond, I can always envision myself walking down there and making casts and then around the bank and so forth.

So, the cool part about, you know, fishing from the bank is you utilize your time a lot more. You break down the area that you are dealt with, say, right here and you're able to fish, you know, basically, everything. If you're on your Chola motor going down the bank, you're making a cast here, a cast there, and a cast there, and it's about covering the water. When you're bank fishing, you can't have that mobility as you would on a boat.

So, what I like to do is be able to fish all the water depths that you have. Obviously, the shoreline cover, wherever there's a grass line, or a hard edge, or a rock, or whatever, you know, you wanna be able to make casts, you know, at, you know, the, you know, 3 o'clock position. So basically you're at, you know, 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock is your half circle here. So, you're gonna be fishing different parts and you're able to make, say, like 8 to 10 casts in this area here. Whereas if you were just going down the bank, you would just make one here, one there, one there. But it really teaches you how to fish certain parts of the water column and where you're at.

And it's gonna tell you exactly where the fish are at. They could be out here in the middle. And there can be some lily pads or, you know, patches of grass out there that you can cast to and work, you know, that type of thing. So that's at the 12 o'clock. And you can work from 12 o'clock, 11 o'clock, 10 o'clock to 9 o'clock, you know, and then 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock on this side. So, it really enables you to cover a lot of the water really thoroughly, and especially on a small body of water, where you're just constantly making repetitive casts, you know, trying to get them to bite. And that's the cool part about, you know, fishing. It's a very simple way of doing it. Anybody can go fishing, you know, and be close to the water, and feel the coolness of the water coming up as the wind blows. You know, you're walking around in the shrubbery, you get to see the landscape. You get to see what's in the water, the water clarity, you know, and how the fish are reacting to the bait.

And you can use multiple baits, you know, for that. Obviously, top water is a fun way to fish and it's something that I truly love to do, especially frog fishing. But you can fish, you know, every foot if you wanted to, and just do a parabolic all the way across the whole spectrum here, and covering shallow water, deep water, all the different water columns. And, you know, you can throw a worm, you can throw a crankbait, a buzz bait, a frog, any type of stick bait, weightless. There's so many... You know, it's infinite on what you can do when you're forced to fishing, you know, small patches of area that that's all you can fish. So, you end up utilizing a lot of different techniques to try and get and catch as many bass as you possibly can.

So, it's how I got started. It's how I think we all got started. From me being a little boy, you know, just going down the bank, you know, trying to catch a bluegill, you know, or a bass for that matter. And it brings back the simplicity of what fishing is. And, you know, there's a lot of super high-tech stuff that we use on our bass boats. But actually, shore fishing brings you back to being around nature and being in and around it all the time to where, you know, you pay attention to every little detail that's happening in and around where you're fishing.

So, those are things that, you know, kind of brings you back to where, you know...or your first love of catching a fish was probably from the bank. And it's easily accessible on all that. So, I still enjoy doing it. It's a lot of fun for me to do that, you know, for the simplicity purpose of it all. And, you know, it's something that, you know, people who are just novice fishermen love to just go out and bank fish. And even if you're just fishing with a bobber, you know, with a red worm or something, catching bluegill, it's still fun to watch the bobber go down. So, cool things. You know, fishing from the bank, it's still a fun way to fish and an exciting way to fish. So, it's something that I love to do and continue to enjoy doing. Us here, and you're wondering probably why I'm standing here on the bank with a frog in hand, well, it's almost... He's on your blooper reel.