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November 2008 |
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Spring and summer time frog fishing; Part 2 |
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Tuesday, May 06 2008 |
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By Mike Harber On thicker mats, you may need to add some weight to the frog. A couple of small weights shoved inside or some lead wire wrapped around the hooks should do the trick.
Take care not to pack too much stuff into the bait since it will pile up at the tail end and may hinder your hook set if the body of the bait won't collapse to expose the hook points. Observe how frogs move, most often with fast short hops and long pauses, and imitate this natural motion. Frogs are more apt to pause on a pad or other floating debris than just stopping in open water where they know they are vulnerable, so try to imitate that behavior as well.
When fishing a break or opening in the mat, or when coming to the edge, be especially prepared to get bit since this is where the bass will see your bait most easily and can get at it without getting a mouthful of grass.
Hop your frog near the edge of the hole and slowly twitch it forward and pause it on the edge. Playing with the family cat can teach us a lot about bass. How many times have you seen the cat watching a toy just sitting motionless, getting more and agitated until just the first twitch makes the cat explode? Bass are the same kind of predator; something that has stopped moving will draw more and more attention until the first twitch will make them eat. Your frog stopped at the very edge of a mat looking like it might want to jump in will keep a bass fixated until you twitch it in, and then hang on! Holes, edges, and thin spots are not the only places where your frog will be attacked. You will have fish breaking through thick stuff trying to get at your frog. Sometimes all they'll be able to do is knock it several feet into the air, but if they do get it you'll be glad you spooled up with heavy line on a stout rod.
One of the tricks to learn when frog fishing is the hookset. You may be all keyed up waiting for the explosion and pull the trigger right away, but all you'll get is your frog flying back in your face. When the bass eats, wait a second or two before setting the hook to ensure the fish has the bait. This way, your hooks will stick fish instead of nothing. Many anglers will wait until they feel pressure on their rods before setting. Experiment to see what works best for you, but pause before you set the hook and if you continually miss fish, pause a little longer.
Another reason for missing strikes is as simple as dull hooks. Also, be sure to check every once in a while to make sure the hook point has not penetrated the body of the lure, where it won't do you any good. When you do set, set hard and try to get the fish turned toward you. If you can pull him back out the same hole he created when he bit you've got a good chance of landing him. If the fish turns on you and starts swimming around under the mat, tying up bales of grass, you'll have a much harder time. Be patient and keep pressure on the fish like you would if you were wrapped around a stick or brush in other situations and he may back himself out. The big double hooks found on most frogs hold on pretty well, but as we know, bass will always find a way to get off!
Color selection for frog baits is a subject of debate among experienced anglers. Since the frog is often on top of vegetation and therefore almost invisible, some anglers claim color doesn't make much difference. However, as we have seen, bass often lurk around the edges, and they may get a good look at your frog before committing to it. Straight black and plain white are the most common frog colors, and by far our best sellers. Brown, green, and other natural colors, as well as chartreuse, come along behind black and white, with other colors bringing up the rear. More and more natural looking finishes have been gaining popularity and seem to be catching more fish, and all major manufacturers have natural patterns currently on the market or planned for introduction. Since some frogs are supposed to imitate birds that get too close to hungry bass, the black and red patterns are supposed to imitate red-winged blackbirds, the black and yellow the yellow headed blackbirds, and the sparrow pattern is self explanatory.
There are some modifications that can be made to change your frog and make it more effective in certain situations. As we have seen, weight can be added so the bait will make a greater impression on the surface, and the noise from rattling weights will attract even more attention. Lure marking pens can add more realistic color patterns, and a white bait could be considered a fresh canvas waiting for you to create a masterpiece. Some anglers will replace the round rubber filament legs with plastic worms. This will enable you to create bait up to a foot long with more weight and action. The hooks are also replaceable, and ultra-sharp replacement hooks are available from HYPERLINK "http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage-GDHEWGB.html" Gamakatsu and Owners. The Gamakatsu Wide Gap Frog Hooks can really help your hookup ratio since the soft plastic body of the frog will be able to depress further, exposing more of the hook and allowing better and deeper penetration.
Whatever you choose to do to modify your frogs is careful not to raise the center of gravity or your bait will land and hop upside down! Bass in some bodies of water seem to respond to plastic frogs and rats more than others and some days are better than others, so if the fish don't eat your offering today in one lake don't give up, try it again somewhere else. Once you start catching fish on the frog, you'll look forward to frog fishing every year. I hope you will get a couple of these soft plastic replicas and give top water frogging a try on your favorite pond or lake and hold on for some fun and excitement when a big bass explodes out of the grass to take that frog. So until next time please keep only those you will eat and release the rest to fight again. Mike Harber
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, May 13 2008 )
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