Yesterday I had the pleasure of fishing with Jake, a great angler from Fort Worth who was in Kingsland on vacation. Jake just bought a brand new Skeeter FX 21 LE... basically my dream boat, but wasn't familiar with the lake. We opted to take his boat and show him around the lake, key him in on some good spots and patterns that would produce for him and his son this weekend while they are on vacation.
To try and beat the heat and avoid the summer time boat traffic we hit the lake at 6:15AM and got an early start. We started out throwing a top water frog and boy was it fun! We unfortuanely did miss several bites and I even had one break off... yeah it snapped 50# Power Pro!
Jake was really good about waiting to set the hook. If you are not aware, the worst thing you can do when frog fishing is to set the hook the moment they blow up on it. You need to wait 2-3 solid seconds after they hit the frog before hammering them with a hook set. Frogs obviously are weedless, which means that you really need those hook points to pop out otherwise you will pull the bait out of the fish's mouth. Waiting to set the hook will ensure they have the bait down in their throat and when you set the hook you'll set it into the roof of their mouth.
My preferred frogs are a Spro popping frog in black when I am fishing around primrose and sparse pads. My second is a KVD walking frog in any dark brown color. I like the walking frog around lilly pads as it moves through them easier and the lip of the bait doesn't get caught up on the pads. Throw you frog on as stiff of a rod as you have, but one that will still load up well and cast far. Ideally you want something with a moderate tip and a ton of backbone. I throw a Dobyns 736 Champion XP for my frog rod.
One tip, we hardly got any bites in lilly pads, all our bites came off the edge of primrose grass... look for that and you will find the fish.
We tried fishing some offshore stuff, but didn't get bit. We only had 4 hours to find them since Jake had things to do with his family. I'm confident you can get on an offshore bite out there, but you're going to need to spend a little time graphing and finding those rock piles that are holding fish.
Get out there and let me know how you do!
If you are looking for a fishing guide for Lake LBJ I would love to put you on some fish! I fish Lake Travis a ton, but truth be told LBJ is my favorite lake to fish.
Tight Lines!