I will have to say one of my favorite ways to catch giant largemaouth bass is on a plastic frog. This style bait when matched to the conditions is deadly on bass and can fill your livewell in a hop. ( No pun intended. ) Here are some of my favorite times and places to fish these awesome baits.

There has been a craze as of late on fishing topwater frogs. I am going to talk about one of my personal favorites the Gitem’ Toad. This bait really mimics a frog when moving across the water or on top of vegetation. You can fish it in open water or in the thickest mess you can find and it still performs time after time. The Gitem’ Toad has well designed legs for making a light chop on the surface0 this is very attractive to largemouth bass and will normally get you a reaction bite. The noise of the legs on the surface also attracts bass from longer distances thus maximizing your each and every cast. The most important feature to me is it’s look, a bass may hear the lure and come to investigate it but if they don’t like the body style or it does not mimic what they are used to seeing they will not strike. The Gitem’ Toad is the total package!

Let’s discuss retrieval speed and style. There are many ways to fish a plastic frog which makes it that much more versatile. My all time favorite way and most productive would have to be working the frog slowly across matted grass. When fishing a frog under these conditions try and pinpoint holes or cover mixed in with the heavy matted grass. Bass will stage in these areas and ambush food, aka your frog! The speed of your retrieve for this style frog fishing is going to be a slow stop and go or short quick jerks across the top. This makes it look realistic to the fish and the slow retrieve puts your bait in the strike zone longer. If fish are holding on shoreline cover I recommend what I call the “Bank Retrieve” this means casting your frog onto dry land and bringing it into the water as a real frog would do. If you watch a frog on the bank they almost always jump into the water and not crawl into it. It may sound funny but give this a try. Cast your frog onto land (if possible) and give your rod a quick jerk making your frog “hop” into the water then retrieve it with a steady retrieve and short jerks to mimic the frog kicking it’s legs. My only advice after that is hold on! One other method I like is fishing a frog under overhanging limbs and bushes. Bass will stage here where the shade will hide them from upcoming meals. Try casting your frog under these limbs and use the slow stop and go retrieve.

I normally use a good medium heavy rod with a light tip and good solid backbone for frog fishing. It you so desire you may buy specially designed frogging rods. These rods are built specifically for frog fishing and usually perform best. I like heavy line for fishing frogs even sometimes opting for braided line. Stay with strong line no matter what this helps keep your frog on the surface and gives you strength for fighting fish. On your hooksets ALWAYS wait until you feel the the fish then set the hook. Fish will sometimes miss a topwater bait and come back for a second chance. I also use a heavy Gamakatsu 5/0 hook for frogging to give me good penetration. You may also add weight to your frog or add it to your hook for better casting and keeping the frog low in the water.

It is getting that time of year here in sunny Florida to really fish the plastic frog hard so if you see me on the water you better bet I have a a little Kermit on the end of my line! Get out there and give them a try and enjoy the outdoors!

Keywords:  frog fishing  |  largemouth bass 

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Fishing Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.