Topwater Frogs

[Cecil]

The main reason I use a 7-6 is to pick up more line on hookset and make longer casts.

[Fever]

6-6 MH St.Croix, phlueger Citina 7.1:1 ratio, 50 lb Power pro, #6/0 hooks and the Rage tail shad or Toad. My hook up ratio is quite high I think because of the whole package. The power pro alows me to turn their heads and keep them up out of the weeds. The good ratio lets me pick up slack line in a hurry. I'm only 5'8 so the 6'6 rod works well for me. The 6/0 hook is the biggest I could find and it works real well as far as getting solid hook ups and luckily I havent had any too deep yet. Bass love those Rage tails I'm tellin ya. They are a bit spendy at about six bucks a pack. But you can catch a handfull of fish on one before you have to change. Their tails are a bit weak IMO. But I outfished my buddy from the back of the boat while he was tossing Moss mice and a white buzzbait. The green pumkin rage shad was the ticket.

[Craigums]

Alright went out to a local lake to fish from shore before work this morning. The water was like glass, the dragonflys were buzzing, sunfish were popping the surface all over and that pre storm electricity was in the air along with the overcast. I thought for sure I was going to get a strike on my spro frog. I worked a large milfoil mat for over an hour trying to cover every single inch and never got a strike. Not sure what I did wrong or if I am missing something, but that was kind of disappointing as I have yet to catch a fish on a frog.

[Cecil]

Jinxed

I have found most pre-storm fish to go out onto the edges...

[Craigums]

Jinxed

I have found most pre-storm fish to go out onto the edges...

I had high hopes based strictly on the conditions. It just wasn't meant to be I guess. I'll have to keep at it. I just got a sweet custom made 7' Heavy with a gloomis blank enscribed with my name on it just for that purpose

[bluebill97]

I love to throw frogs and have extreamly good luck on them, but they are expensive and in 5 minutes i weant thruogh a whole bag. The fish bite the legs off, the hook tears them, and the hook bend or coil pulls out or tears the nose easily. In your eyes what features would the perfect topwater soft plastic be? do you guys not mind adjusting the hooks in them of rehooking them after a hit or catch or maybe even from just pulling it through weeds or a tear from a strong hook set. Does it bother you that when the fish are going you go through one frog every couple of fish or every couple of hits? don't get me wrong i love topwater frogs and even rigging them texas rig or carolina, Just looking to see if anyone else goes through this and has any other issues they want to bring up and how you deal with them.

[riverrat63]

u can fix them just melting them back together and u can just flip them over u can make them last a while

[goblueM]

i caught 6 fish on a spro frog the other night and it still looks brand new...how would frogs be any different from ANY soft plastic? Fishin is expensive sometimes, if you want the most bang for your buck go throw some .99 cent spinnerbaits from the bargain bin

[JesseParker1]

I had a blast with a Spiro lastnight! I must have had 20+ strikes on it. So much fun. Setting the hookis the hardest part because you get too excited.

[riverrat63]

i no its expensive but when u are fishing a tournament and u run out of the sizmic or rage frog u have to be cheap and melt them back together i even glue the rips back on my spro frog

[hidepounder]

[ShoreGuy1984]

Have you tried the Yum Buzzfrog at all? its also pretty good

[HellaBass]

Any of you cehck out the new "Mad Maxx" Floating frog yet?

[LOTWSvirgin]

On them floating frogs do you bend the hooks out a bit to get a better hook set or just give the fish more time

[hidepounder]

[HellaBass]

On them floating frogs do you bend the hooks out a bit to get a better hook set or just give the fish more time

I never bend the hooks, just use an 8ft rod, heavy braid and pause a split second before setting the hook

[TonkaBass]

I agree, if you bend the hooks you will have an issue hooking more weeds than you will bass the hooks should be close to the body, the spro frog is tough to beat.

[RECOIL]

I never bend the hooks, just use an 8ft rod, heavy braid and pause a split second before setting the hook

Exactly my thoughts!

[Aaron Carrell]

I'll agree with the last few above statements regarding the gear to use. I got to see first hand last week how much the proper gear can make a difference in getting a good hookset first and then also making sure you can get them back to the boat through the thickest of weeds. As I stated earlier, I use a 7' Heavy, Fast St. Croix "Slop-n-Frog" rod with 65lb braid, however my buddy was using a 6'6" Medium Fast Fenwick rod with a spinning reel and 30lb braid. I missed quite a few fish, but still was getting probably 60% of them to the boat for a total of 11. Not all misses are due to the fisherman anyways, cause in my opinion sometimes the fish can't see where the frog is by the time they come up to the surface to grab it if they're being really aggressive. My buddy however was really having a hard time getting those hooks to dig in and only got 3 fish into the boat, with probably about 12-13 blowups. Every fish he did get in really exhausted him trying to fight those weeds on too light of gear.

Luckily for him, 2 days later he found a guy selling a nice Guide Series 8' Heavy rod at a garage sale for cheap and he jumped on that in a heartbeat after the rough experience a few nights earlier. I think he learned his lesson, and if you do enough frog fishing with someone next to you that's having so much better luck, you might see the need for the right "tools".

[gritsnham]

I think bigger hooks help alot and usually use 5/0 gamus and can get my frogs running nice and smooth. Try fishing them a bit slower if they are running wrong on you and sometimes when bass wont blow up on these they will destroy them a couple feet under the water when you dart them around

Also the new rage tail toads with cofee scent are amazing. Bass just go crazy on them and they dont spit them very fast either

[EBass]

Awesome info - I think RK or someone on here talked about bass whaping said frog with the tail to stun it, then come back and woof it down. I had this happen to me before. A big ol swirl and my frog gets whacked, but it didn't take it and it's sitting there. I didn't pull the trigger and let it sit there for a few more seconds. Then a twitch of the rod and wham the bass hits it.

So sometime they miss your frog on purpose - sneaky lil devils.

[NCLaker]

I've been using a Fenwick 7'MH and it seems too soft when I am hauling in 10# of weeds with the catch. Worried about breaking it.

So I hit Cabela's and found they had their Cabela XMLTi 7'6" H (telescoping) on sale for a great price. I plan to use this as my frog rod. It had pretty consistant good reviews on their site. Anyone have any feedback on these rods?

The XMLTi rod - turns out it weighed a lot, and stiffer (like a pool cue) than my musky rods despite being rated 3/8 - 2.5 oz. So I returned it. Ended up going with a Fenwick HMG XH 7'6" rated 3/8-2oz .... used it last weekend and absolutely LOVE it paired with Curado 300DSV with 65lb braid (one of my Musky reels).

What a difference, loads up great, much better hook sets, cast great, and no more worries about breaking my rod/line when trying to pull it out of the stick stuff. Fishing top water frogs, I am suprised that the fish size is consistently much larger. Scum Frog Trophy Series (white) continues to be the go to lure - Hooking percentage has been excellent with this lure!

Plan to also use this combo for light Musky duty also.

[ShoreGuy1984]

I just got a St. Croix Mojo Bass Slop-n-Frog rod and paired it with a Curado E. I Have not gotten a chance to use it yet, but it seems like a great setup. It looks kinda funny with such a small reel and big rod.

[Cecil]

Thats what she said

[TonkaBass]

LOL, I love the new Curado! Shimano really nailed it with that one...