Top 3 Fishing Stories of the Week: Spinners for Weed Walleye, DIY Tapered Trout Leader, and Slop Frog Bassin’ Tips

From trolling spinners for weed walleye, to building your own tapered trout leaders, to frog fishing for summer bass, these stories captured our Sports Illustrated fishing reader’s attention on Fishing on SI this past week.

From trolling spinners for weed walleye, to building your own tapered trout leaders, to frog fishing for summer bass, these stories captured our Sports Illustrated fishing reader’s attention on Fishing on SI this past week. | Shead | Taback | Mazurek

1.) How to Fish a Spinner Harness Over Weeds for Big Walleyes

Learn how to fish a spinner crawler harness over weed beds for walleyes—creating the best rig, bullet sinker tips, and shallow water trolling techniques. | Joe Shead

Spinner harnesses are some of the most popular lures for walleyes. When trolled slowly they are good search lures and the use of live bait tempts even the wariest of walleyes. Spinner harnesses are often fished over classic walleye structure like gravel bars or mud flats where you can cover a lot of water without encountering many snags. But what about weed walleyes? Don't fret. You can still use this presentation, even when walleyes are in the weeds…GET THE REST OF THE STORY HERE.

2.) How to Build Your Own Tapered Trout Leader

Small streams call for short leaders. | Photo by Jasper Taback

Every trout angler has experienced it – you go out to fish, and the leader you have on your fly line just doesn’t fit the water you’re fishing. Maybe you had planned to fish the main stem of a river and decided on the drive over to check out a tributary stream. Now you’ve got a 9-foot leader that you’re trying to fish on a 6-foot wide brookie stream. Yikes. Here’s the solution.…GET THE REST OF THE STORY HERE.

3.) Frog Fishing for Bass: How to Trigger Explosive Strikes in Summer Slop

Let me tell you why frogging for bass in thick vegetation is one of the most exciting ways to catch largemouth. | Kurt Mazurek

From early summer through fall, if you’re fishing a lake with a canopy of vegetation, whether it’s pads, duckweed, hydrilla or any other matted greens, why wouldn’t you throw a frog?

The frog bite got burned into my young bass fishing mind as one of the first reliable lures I was able to catch multiple fish on. Generally speaking, when conditions are right, it doesn’t take a ton of skill or experience to get them to bite a frog. Now, getting them out of the weeds and into the boat is a different story, but just getting bites on a frog is pretty addictive to a new angler…GET THE REST OF THE STORY HERE.