Many an Angler Try 'Em, Only a Few Stay With 'Em

If you get frustrated easily, don't even bother--that's my advice. These baits will send you over the edge in short order. What am I talking about? Why, hollow-bodied frogs, of course.

You don't have to take my word for it. Here are three online videos I found that more than aptly demonstrate what happens to the majority of frog users. Take a look for yourself...and plan to be amused.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=truGaRgVKBI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8Nlk1bujWo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwePrYmaakM

If after watching these videos, you still decide to give hollow-bodied frogs a try, you might first want to digest this online advice from an FLW angler. He notes that many people make the mistake of skipping the frog along, as if it were frantic to get away from a predator. "While you may get some strikes doing this, you'll miss out on the better quality fish," he explains.

The FLW angler says he likes to pop or twitch the bait a time or two before stopping it for a few seconds and repeating. When the bait approaches a pocket, weed edge, lily pad, or something different to key on, he lets it sit...sometimes for as long as 30 seconds, or maybe even a minute. If no blowup occurs when he twitches the bait after one of these long pauses, he'll just barely move it, which makes the legs quiver a little. It's at this point that a big fish usually strikes.

If a frog appears to move too quickly for a bass to chase down, he often will search for an easier meal. After all, he doesn't grow big by being a stupid and inefficient hunter.

When a frog makes a huge boil, and you set the hook, but the lure just floats back up, that signals a couple of things could be wrong. You could be using the wrong equipment, or you might be setting the hook incorrectly. The correct equipment is a beefy rod (a 6 1/2-foot medium/heavy- or heavy-action casting rod with an extra fast tip) and a reel with positive anti-reverse, spooled with 30-to-50-pound braided line. These all play a key role in hooking more fish when using frogs.

If you're fishing lighter cover, or when the conditions are tough, it's OK to scale down to a 6- or 6 1/2-foot medium/heavy-action spinning rod, spooled with 15-pound braid. With the smaller diameter line, you'll still have the 0-percent stretch properties, but you won't spook as many fish.

The FLW angler also suggests that another reason why people lose so many fish on frogs is because of "how" they set the hook (e.g., jerking too early, too late, or with the wrong technique). As he points out, "When a fish blows up on a frog, half the time he won't even have it in his mouth. Many times all he does is smack the frog under the water's surface, where he then attacks it. So if you set the hook on the blowup, you often will miss the fish.

"Instead, as soon as the strike occurs, drop your rod immediately, but don't set the hook. Reel down slowly until the line is semi-slack, then wait and watch for line movement, or until you can feel the fish, and then set the hook with a swift, hard wrist snap in the opposite direction your line is moving. It's absolutely critical to have some slack in the line before you snap your wrist. If you try to set the hook on a taught line, you'll only pull the bait out of the fish's mouth. With a slack line, you'll be at maximum velocity when the line tightens up and have enough force to drive the hooks home."

The FLW angler went on to acknowledge that, in the beginning, he was one of those folks who would throw a frog for 10 casts and then put it away for the day. "Now I always have one tied on, and it's one of my go-to baits," he concludes.