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Hollow body frogs have an open body cavity that traps air and makes them float when idle. The soft body compresses when a bass eats it, exposing a nasty double hook designed to hold up when winching big fish out of heavy cover with stout tackle. (Photo by Matt Williams)
The Deps Slither K is a nifty little frog lure with a super soft body, rabbit hair tail and stout hook that comes through dense cover remarkably well. (Photo by Matt Williams)
A hollow body walking frog is a great choice for tempting head-hunting bass hanging out beneath lily pads. Texas bass pro Keith Combs of Huntington says the best lily pads are those with “clean water” beneath them. (Photo by Matt Williams)
Hollow body frogs have an open body cavity that traps air and makes them float when idle. The soft body compresses when a bass eats it, exposing a nasty double hook designed to hold up when winching big fish out of heavy cover with stout tackle. (Photo by Matt Williams)
The Deps Slither K is a nifty little frog lure with a super soft body, rabbit hair tail and stout hook that comes through dense cover remarkably well. (Photo by Matt Williams)
A hollow body walking frog is a great choice for tempting head-hunting bass hanging out beneath lily pads. Texas bass pro Keith Combs of Huntington says the best lily pads are those with “clean water” beneath them. (Photo by Matt Williams)
It’s fall in Texas. Time for all you gutsy bass busters out there to put Kermit on a leash and get ready to rumble.
Kids may recognize Kermit as the mouthy Muppet character with a colorful personality.
Bass anglers are different. When they think of Kermit, most picture a soft plastic lure with a squishy body known for getting into serious trouble in the shallows.
Frogs are nimble amphibians that rank pretty low on the food chain. Bass are eating machines and top end predators with very few enemies.
Things can get bloody when the two collide. The bass almost always wins. They love to munch frogs.
Anyone who has played the game will agree it takes some nerve to take Kermit out for a stroll. That’s because a bass rarely holds anything back when it wages war on a toad.
Strikes usually come when you least expect it, and most hits are so violent they might be heard from a considerable distance on a windless day. Think of it like a head-hunting linebacker crushing an unsuspecting tailback who has just hauled in a screen pass that should have never been thrown.
Therein lies a big part of the attraction many anglers have for these baits. Longview bass pro Jim Tutt is admittedly a wolf for excitement and a glutton for punishment. He says frog fishing feeds both obsessions.
“A frog won’t always work, but when it does it can be really exciting,” Tutt said. The strikes can be so violent at times that it is almost like practicing self defense out there. It catches big ones, too.”
The best time to throw a frog is whenever the bass want one. Fall can be hard to beat. Frogs works best on lakes with abundant vegetation like lily pads, hydrilla, pepper grass, duck weed and torpedo grass (hay grass).
Water levels are usually low and clear during fall. Low water causes vegetation to crowd the surface and makes it easy to detect the distinctive grass edges bass use to ambush prey that swims dangerously close.
Fall brings also with it the cool weather, shorter days and longer nights resulting a downward slide in water temperatures. It’s feel-good season that puts bass in the mood to chase shad, bream and other forage prone to gravitate towards shallow cover once the cool down begins.
Tutt says frogs can be effective when tossed beneath boat docks and around stumps, lay downs, bushes or anything else the bass might use to ambush forage, but says shallow water (four feet or less) with some sort of aquatic vegetation is where the baits shine the brightest.
Areas with clumpy or scattered vegetation are ideal, but Bassmaster Elite Series pro Keith Combs of Huntington says fields of lily pads also can be magic. Combs especially likes pads with “clean water” or an open understory beneath them. Pads congested with thick hydrilla aren’t near as productive.
“I like pads where I see a sandy bottom beneath them,” Combs said. “The pads don’t necessarily need to be near deeper water, either.”
When fishing around grass mats, Combs will key on holes, guts and other broken spots in the mat. He also pays attention to places where thick, green surface mats have begun to fade to yellow. He says surface mats will get thinner as the grass goes dormant and begins to decay during fall. This makes it easier for bass to zero in a frog when it passes above.
“That’s already beginning to happen right now on Sam Rayburn and some of our other grass lakes,” Combs said. “It will just get better with time.”
There are dozens of frog brands on the market that are divided in two basic styles — hollow bodies and buzz frogs.
Hollow bodies have an open body cavity that traps air. They float when idle and work best around thick cover with a stop-and-go retrieve. The angler imparts the action by making short twitches with the rod tip.
Some have silicone strands for legs and feature a pointed nose designed for walking side-to-side. Others have a cupped nose that casts spray and creates a popping noise when twitched on the surface. Most are designed with a flat butt weight and pre-rigged with a heavy duty double frog hook that hugs the hind quarters to reduce snagging on grass or brush.
Popping style hollow bodies like the popular Spro Bronzeye Poppin’ Frog tend to work best in situations where grass is sparse or clumpy, whereas walking hollow bodies shine around denser grass mats and pads.
One of the best walking hollow bodies I’ve seen is the Slither K by Deps. The 2 1/4 inch frog weighs 3/8 ounce, has super soft body and a pulsating rabbit hair tail that adds casting weight when wet.
The Slither K also comes through heavy cover remarkably well, is simple to walk and provides an excellent hook-up ratio. The downside is the frog is somewhat pricey. The Slither K sells for $20.99 on tacklewarehouse.com.
There are plenty of other good ones with catchy names at a cheaper price. Strike King’s Sexy Frog and Booyah’s Pad Crash both sell for under $10.
Popular buzz frogs like the Stanley Ribbit and Zoom Horny Toad are made from soft, solid plastic. These frogs are designed to swim across surface using a steady retrieve and they sink when idle. The Ribbit is equipped with boot-style feet that churn the water like a buzz bait; others have flat feet that produce more of a subtle "pitter-pat." Running frogs are ideal around clumpy hydrilla beds or scattered pads, or when used as a buzz bait trailer. There are several double hooks on the market designed for use with buzz frogs, some of which are built around specific body designs.
Frogging is no different than any other specialty technique. It demands specific gear to be most effective.
It also demands the proper mindset and discipline to avoid overreacting when a fish slams the lure unexpectedly. Many anglers set the hook prematurely and wind up jerking the bait away from the fish before it has the chance to eat it. Always wait a couple of seconds or until you feel tension on the line before setting hook.
Rod: The ideal frog rod should be a broom stick and a rocket launcher wrapped into the same package. The main body should be stiff enough to drive the hook deep into the bass' jaw and provide the necessary leverage to overpower fish before they wrap you up. Meanwhile, the tip should be light enough to help launch the bait. This promotes longer casts and allows you to reach isolated pockets and other targets without moving so close that it spooks the fish.
Two more attributes to look for in a good frog rod are high quality line guides that can take the punishment dished out by braided line, and well-balanced, lightweight construction that lends itself to all-day use with minimal fatigue. Combs’ favorite frog rod 7 foot, 5 inch Shimano Zodius.
Line: Premium braided line with a breaking strength of 50-65 pound test is the only way go in frog country.
Braided line is super strong and resistant to abrasion. Plus, it casts extremely well, has no memory or stretch, and cuts through vegetation like a knife.
There are variety of good braids the market. Tutt likes the Gamma brand in 50-pound test. Power Pro and Sufix 832 also are good choices.
Reel: Spinning reels and spincast outfits have no place in frogging arenas. You need a high quality baitcasting reel built with some guts to withstand the shock of hard hooksets on large fish in heavy cover with braided line.
It also helps to have a reel with a relatively high gear ratio. The higher the gear ratio, the more line that is retrieved with each revolution of the reel handle.
A gear ratio of 6.4:1 or higher is a good choice for fishing with buzz frogs or hollow bodies. The high gear ratio makes it easy to get the buzz frog up and running. Plus, it gathers line quickly so you can make fast work of a big bass should one come calling and make more casts over the course of the day.
Bass are natural born bullies, and few baits bring out their mean streak better than Kermit does. Though frogs won’t work all of the time, the results can magical when everything lines up just right. Perhaps the late Lonnie Stanley summarized it best.
"Bass hate a topwater," Stanley said. "The beauty of a frog is it 100 percent weedless and it allows you to get into some really tight spots where you wouldn't dare throw another topwater. Plus, the action drives the fish crazy."
Fall brings with it some of the best frog action of year.
Matt Williams is a freelance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by e-mail, mattwillwrite4u@yahoo.com.
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