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 of vegetation to escape from the heat of direct sunlight. Working with a hop and stop method across this heavy vegetation will generate big sloppy strikes through the vegetation. The hook up ration in this style of frog fishing is less than the other styles of frog fishing, but the strikes are heart stopping and some of the most memorable strikes you?ll ever get. Personally, I will never forget the first frog strike I ever had, it?s simply 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. It wasn?t until recently that I truly believed that this was the case. Target areas with shade from trees, docks or sparse vegetation or tulles. 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 however, River2Sea has just released a couple versions of a frog that walk very easily.

Types of Frogs
Hard Plastic: There are many types of frogs on the market today. The Snagproof, Sumo, River2Sea, Deps, Spro and Kanji 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 mentioned above. However, as mentioned above, these frogs sometimes need to be modified to get them to walk correctly. We?ll cover the modification possibilities a little later in this article. The Basirisky by Deps waddles more than it walks and is quickly becoming a regular in pro?s tackle boxes throughout the west. The Basirisky doesn?t need to be modified for either the vegetation or open water techniques.

Soft Plastic: The soft plastic style frog baits like the Zoom Horny Toad, Sizmic Toad, Stanley Jigs? Ribbit, 3:16 No Bull Frog 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, with the exception of the 3:16 No Bull Frog, than the hard plastic style frogs and therefore make less of a commotion on top of the thicker vegetation. In open water these baits are fished more like buzz baits. Some float and some sink, with the floating styles it can be buzzed and then paused and then buzzed again often triggering the strike on the pause. Another interesting technique is to Texas-rig one of these soft plastic frogs and throw it more along the lines you would a swimbait. Lastly, I?ve even heard of guys Carolina rigging some of these soft plastic versions with a lot of success.

Frog Modifications:
With the hard plastic style baits many of the pro?s have gone to modifying the baits to get them to work the way they want. Although every angler has different modifications they make to the bait here are some of the more popular modifications.

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 such as the snagproof tournament series 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. I?ve even heard of anglers taking the 3:16 No Bull frog legs and appending them with glue to the hard plastic frogs for another completely different look and action.

Color: Using ceramic or model paint many anglers are adding additional colors to the bottom of the frog. Some of the standard changes in colors are adding a tan color to the main belly of the frog and then adding darker markings on top of the tan. Generally only the middle 2/3rds of the frog belly is painted leaving for a contrasting color on the sides 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 Alterations: Weights and rattles added inside the main body of the frog is a very common thing among frog anglers. I?ve also even seen certain pro anglers take the legs of the snagproof frog and tie them together so they end up pointing straight up. They then add additional orange rubber skirt styles strands to the bait to give it its legs back. This creates a bait that looks a lot like a baby duck instead of a frog.

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. Lastly, think below the surface, frogs in the wild don?t just swim on top of the water, frogs 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 drum up that fish of a lifetime.

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