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Try Frog Fishing!

Frog fishing is often thought to be a vegetation only type technique. However, more and more anglers are throwing frogs in different situations. Vegetation, open water and even below the water's surface can all be very successful techniques with frog baits. Modifying frogs and soft plastic frogs is also becoming popular with tournament anglers. Here are a few tips and tricks I've heard many of the top pros are using.

Where to throw frogs:

Vegetation: Frogs are fantastic baits in the heavy vegetation. The weedless design of the frogs make them the perfect bait to throw on the hot summer days. During the hottest days of the summer the fish often move up right below the heaviest vegetation to escape the heat of direct sunlight. Working with a hop and stop method across this heavy vegetation will generate big strikes through the vegetation. The hook up ratio in this style of frog fishing is less than the other styles of frog fishing, but the strikes are heart stopping and memorable! It's an awesome sight to see a huge bass bust through all the vegetation trying to eat your frog!

Open Water: Frogs also work very well in open water. You should target areas with shade from trees, docks or sparse vegetation. Most of the time walking the bait much like you would with a spook style bait proves to be most effective. Generally, the slower you can walk the bait the better, but at times the fish want the bait walked very fast. Often the standard frog needs to be modified to make it walk effectively.

Types of Frogs

Hard Plastic: There are many types of frogs on the market today. The Snagproof, Sumo, and Spro frogs are made of hard plastic with either a single or double hook. These frogs work well in both the vegetation and open water techniques. However, these frogs sometimes need to be modified to get them to walk correctly. I'll cover the modification possibilities a little later.

Soft Plastic: The soft plastic style frog baits like the Zoom Horny Toad, Sizmic Toad, Stanley Jigs' Ribbit, and the Gambler Cane Toad can all be fished in both the vegetation and open water situations as well. However, the bait is much more suited for open water or low vegetation applications. In the vegetation, these baits are generally much lighter than the hard plastic style frogs and therefore make less of a commotion on top of the thicker vegetation. In open water they are fished more like buzz baits. Some float and some sink. The floating styles can be buzzed and then paused and then buzzed again often triggering the strike on the pause. Another technique is to Texas-rig one and throw it like you would a swimbait. I've even heard of guys Carolina rigging some of these soft plastic frogs.

Frog Modifications:

With the hard plastic style baits many anglerss have gone to modifying the baits to get them to work the way they want. Although everyone has different modifications they make to the bait here are some of the more popular changes:

Legs: Often the thicker rubber legs on the frogs are being swapped out with finer rubber. Using longer legs with this finer rubber helps the bait "walk the dog" in open water situations a little easier. When fishing in the vegetation leaving the legs hanging into a hole in the vegetation also creates added strikes.

With some models of hard plastic frogs anglers are cutting the tips of the hard plastic legs off then retying them with braid to keep the water out. The shorter legs on the bait again help the bait to walk easier.

Color: Using ceramic or model paint many anglers are adding additional colors to the bottom of the frog.

Hooks: Swapping out the standard hooks with bigger frog style hooks often increase the hook up ratio on the hard plastic baits.

Other Changes: Weights and rattles added inside the main body of the frog is a very common thing among frog anglers.

To sum it up, don't think of a frog style bait as a vegetation only bait. Ish Monroe, Dean Rojas and many others are proving that this bait can be fished in many situations. In addition, don't be afraid to modify the bait in any way that you may think could create more strikes. Think below the surface. Frogs in the wild don't just swim on top of the water. They often spend quite a bit of time below the surface, so don't hesitate to do the same with your frog baits. Think outside the box when it comes to frogs and you may just get that fish of a lifetime!

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