Trophy Bass Fishing Videos and Tips

Catching Big Bass On Frogs

Bass fishing with frogs is one of the best techniques for catching giant largemouth bass all over the country. While most anglers employ a slow twitch and pause technique in either heavy cover or lily pads, and this does catch big bass most of the time, but there are times when you can pass up some of the largest bass in the area by not changing up tactics with these frog baits.

Types of Frogs

There are a lot of frog type baits out on the market right now, but in the lakes and rivers across the country, the top producers for really big bass are the Tournament frogs in half ounce sizes made by Snag Proof, the Spro frog, and The Swamp Donkey by Reaction Innovations.

I use these baits in three basic colors everywhere I go, because I have experimented with every color these manufacturers produce, and I found that regardless of where you fish, you really only need any of them in just black, brown, and green. Yes, I have used a white frog and rat type bait as well, from the time they first came out and were made popular, but these three basic colors consistently produce the biggest bass wherever you fish.

Techniques

As I mentioned, the most popular way to fish these baits is in heavy cover by casting them out, letting them sit for a long while, then twitching the bait ever so slightly, and if it doesn't get smaashed , then repeating the twitch and pause and casting again. This does produce bass, but the first time I discovered that this does not always produce the most or the biggest bass was prefishing for a tournament on the Potomac River in Maryland.

I was fishing a cove where there were bass by the hundreds in the three to five pound range, with some even larger ones mixed in, feeding on frogs in the pads as the tide came in. These bass did hit the frog worked slowly on occassion, but I was outproduced 5 to 1 by an old guy who came in behind me working the frog as fast as he could. It was ridiculous how fast he was working it! He caught several bass right from where I had been in the 6 and 7 pound range, and several others that were almost as big. Experience had taught him that when the bass were in these pads and the sun was out, by pulling the frog as fast as you could over these large pads, it produced a reaction bite that you couldn't match any other way. When the bait came across the pads the sun produced a image of the bait through the pads and the bass went crazy!

I reproduced this action on several other bodies of water in the following years all over the country using the same tactic.

The other thing that many anglers just don't do is fish the frog in open water. I cast the frog as I would any other topwater bait and work it with an erratic action around cover and over submerged structure in open water. Dean Rojas popularized this technique when he won several tournaments doing this.

I also cast the frogs all the way up onto the shore and then slowly pull them into the water from the banks, producing tremendous strikes when they enter the water at times.

Equipment

I like to use a heavy action frog rod made of a composite material or fiberglass, in 7 to 7 1/2 foot lengths, with a 65 pound braided line. It is really important to be able to muscle these big fish around when they are in or near cover, especially when they exceed 6 pounds. I also use a Shimano Chronarch reel for this, as it has been the most reliable of every brand I have used over the last 20 years.

Try these tips this year and watch the size of the bass you catch in the lakes and rivers increase ten fold!

A SLOW PRESENTATION IS WHAT IS EXPLAINED IN BASIC FROG FISHING BUT YOUR CORRECT I HAVE FOUND THAT THE INTIAL CAST LET THE FROG SIT FOR AT LEAST A MINUITE THEN WORK IN A PATERTTERN OF 3 TWICHES OR HOTS THEN PAUSE THEN REPEAT THE PUASE BETWEEN THE 3 TWICHES SHOULD BE 15 SEC OR LESS - THIS WORKS

                      Appreciate all the great info from everyone. since I started using frogs ive been tearing them up.
      My first frog catch!!!!!

It wasn’t one of those high-percentage casts that keeps your adrenaline racing with every reel crank, but when the9-pounder did hit, Dean Rojas remembers that it did take his breath away.  The fish didn’t hit his floating frog with a weed-scattering explosion the way so many do, either; rather it just sipped in the lure and turned back toward the cover.

The Arizona pro remembers his hands shaking as he unhooked the big bassand released it.  This was on Grand Lake, Okla., a reservoir not knownfor topwater frog fishing, but then again, Rojas had been in theprocess of re-defining the entire spectrum of hollow body frog fishing,and this fish only verified once more what Rojas had already realized: plastic floating frogs have to be considered one of the most lethal bass lures on the market today.

“The only thing you know for certain when you’re fishing a frog,”laughs Rojas, “is that something’s going to hit it.  You don’t know when, or how violent the strike will be, but I can just about guaranteeit will come.”

Rojas should know. For the past four years his Bronzeye frog produced by Sprohas been one of the top selling bass lures in the country, and Rojashas won hundreds of thousands of dollars with it in tournaments,including a victory in a 2008 Bassmaster Elite event on New York’s LakeOneida.  Just over a year ago Spro introduced his Popping frog, which Rojas uses just as much.

In the process, Rojas has totally re-defined the face of frog fishing. He has repeatedly proven the unique hollow-bodied, twin-hook baits,originally developed in north Alabama more than 35 years ago to skitterover the shallow, matted milfoil of Lake Guntersville each autumn, arefar more versatile and productive than anyone realized.

Rojas doesn’t need vegetation (although he certainly likes it), andtoday skittering is only one of several presentations he uses.  He fishes his frogs beside stumps and laydowns, over rocks, along sea wallretainers, underneath over-hanging limbs and boat docks, and even across open water where they bring bass up from deeper depths – placesthat rarely if ever saw a frog a few years ago.  His favorite presentation is skipping the lure into hard-to-reach places, and“walking” it like a Zara Spook, but he won’t hesitate to cast it tosurface-feeding schooling bass over points and channel breaks.

“The Popping frog pushes a lot more water and makes more commotion thanthe Bronzeye, so it walks better,” notes Rojas.  “I like to walk a frogwhen I’m target fishing around visible cover like stumps and laydowns because the lure stays in the strike zone longer. 

“I actually trim about an inch off each leg to reduce drag in the waterso the frog walks easier and has better side to side motion.  You can twitch your rod to make the frog turn, but if you don’t crank your reel, it literally stays in the same spot, which helps attract bass.”

Rojas strongly encourages using 65-lb. braided line, and keeping asmuch as two feet of slack in the line after the cast.  When you walk afrog, you’re really just shaking this slack line; you move the frogforward with your reel.  Braid, with no stretch, improves bothhook-sets and fish control.

Rojas also suggests using the walking retrieve when fishing along theedges of matted vegetation or when working over structure, because the added commotion will actually bring bass out of slightly deeper water. He’s fished it over depths of 15 to 20 feet where he felt fish weresuspended 10 to 12 feet down.

When he’s fishing a frog over the top of surface vegetation, Rojas often uses to more standard stop-and-go skittering presentation but hedoes it slower than most because he feels it gives bass a better strike opportunity.  His hook up ratio is also better when the lure is fished lower like this.  For this retrieve, he does not trim the frog legs,but he still moves the lure by jerking his rod tip.

While the Popping frog creates a lot of water movement, the original Bronzeye actually walks smoother and skips easier because of its generally flat-sided design.  It’s more of a passive bait Rojas usesfor target-oriented bass that may be reluctant to strike; it’s also his choice for extremely shallow water where bass may be spooky.  One ofhis favorite places to use it is around boat docks where he can skip itinto places that rarely see a lure.

Water and weather conditions play a role in which type of frog Rojas uses.  His preferred water temperature range is between 55 and 90 degrees, although he’s caught fish in chilly 44-degree water. He’scaught bass on a frog in water with a one-foot chop, too; so much forthe old rule that bass couldn’t see a surface lure in rough water. Basically, says Rojas, anytime bass are shallow, be it for spring spawning, fall feeding, or just summer in the shadows, a frog can beused.

Under clear skies, he prefers the lighter white or green frog colors,while on cloudy days he uses darker colors.  A pure black frog works well anytime, however, and often out-performs the others.

Rod-wise, Rojas designed his own for his frogs, a stiff 7-footer with avery fast 10-inch tip that is now produced by Quantum.  This is whathelps him skip the frogs as well as walk them. 

“The most wonderful aspect of frog fishing,” concludes Rojas, “is thatthey can be fished a lot of different ways and in so many different places.  When my original prototype frogs were finished, I literallyhad to learn how to really fish what I had just designed, and I’m still learning.”

                    Great info Steve it will be useful . Just got some 3.5`` swamp frogs,they are small bodied. Also some 4.5`` cane toads and more of the grub double tailed.(which work very well)
I`ll let everybody know how well the frogs work .

                                Swamp frogs, legs don`t move like you would think. Really dont move at all . Would`nt recomend buying swamp frogs.
                                 Cane frog`s  legs move very well and are nice sized. Would recomend them to anyone!!

Heavy Cover Frog Fishing Danno Wise Image

Bass love dense vegetation.

Whether fishing in the California Delta, aneast Texas reservoir or a Florida lake, odds are if you find densevegetation you'll find fish. But, while locating these beds may beeasy, presenting lures to bass dug into their snarled depths can take abit of adjustment.

A favored approach for probing dense weedbeds is to punch heavy jigs orheavily weighted Texas-rigged soft-plastics through the canopy,allowing the fish lurking beneath to get an eyeful of the lure.Punching beds can be effective. However, it is also tediously slow and,at times, downright boring.

Many anglers -- especially those wishing to cover vast amounts of water-- have chosen to force the fish to come to them rather than trying toplace a bait right in front of fish hiding beneath vegetation. Forthese fishermen, nothing is quite as effective for finding out if fishare home as an artificial frog. When rigged weedlessly, frogs can befished in even the densest vegetation. And, once a bass zeroes in on afrog drug across the surface of a grass mat, the strike can be both violent and exhilarating.

"I have absolutely had a blast with that lure," said former bass proand current lure designer John Dean, referring to his Ribbit Frog. "Ilike seeing bass blow up on it, I like seeing people fish with it and Ilike seeing people win money with it. It's really worked out all theway around."

When fishing dense vegetation, Dean says he attacks it as if it were a microcosm of an entire lake.

"When I'm fishing a dense bed, I try to look for areas that aredifferent. Obviously, I like to find avenues where the mat is clear …find a place with a hole or an alley where you can make a clean cast.If you rig them weedless, they'll come back pretty clean even when yougo over the top of the mat. But, those little alleys and holes arewhere the bass will ambush them.

"I'll also look at the edges of the vegetation. I'll fish the secondarypoints of the mat. And, I'll fish areas where little sloughs or drains cut through the vegetation. You're really just trying to find featurest hat are different, just like you would when you are fishing a shoreline."

Despite popular belief, Dean says there's more than one way to rig and fish a frog.

"Everybody thinks about fishing frogs weightless on the surface around thick grass like hydrilla or pepper grass. And, that does work well.But, that's not the only way to fish a frog. For starters, you don'thave to have grass to be productive on a frog. Stumps, rocks -- any type of structure can be good for frog fishing.

"If you are fishing the frog on the surface, you don't always have tokeep it right on the surface. When I'm fishing on top, I rig my frogs with unweighted or weighted; I let the fish dictate which.

"I'll typically start out with an unweighted hook. But, if I'm getting a bunch of blowups, I'll switch to a weighted hook. With the weightedhook, you can drop the bait down a little and get it right in front ofhis face. You'll usually hook up a little more that way. And, if you miss a big blowup on an unweighted frog, don't hesitate to throw a weighted one right back in there. That's one thing about frogs; bass will come back and hit them again and again."

Although he likes the visual strikes provided by surface fishing frogs,Dean says he feels like he can consistently produce heavier stringerswith a lesser utilized method.

"If you've never fished a frog on a Carolina-rig, you're missing out,"Dean stated. "I don't really do anything different than I would when fishing any other type of soft-plastic on a Carolina-rig. I don't try to swim it or move it extra fast to make the feet kick. I just slowly drag it along, almost dead-sticking it.

great info and while a slow presentation works best most of the time I've seen occasions when you couldnt reel the frog fast enough.

Once while fishing a tourney as a co-angler on the Potomac i drew a real river rat as a boater and he was on some monster fish in practice on a Snag Proof frog in the flat pads in Potomac Creek, on the Potomac River.

We arrived in the morning after a twenty minute ride down river excited at the fish stories of the strikes he had a few days before from some monster fish.

After about 30 minutes of our normal slow hop-hop pause frog technique, we had a tiny miss to show for it.

We had just discussed when to leave the spot and were saying that the fish had moved when I went to make a long cast and got a backlash. The bait plopped on the pads barely half way to my target and out of frustration I reeled it as fast as I could over the pads to get it in to make another cast......and BOOOOOM! A 4 pound bass slammed it and I landed the fish.

So, what I did was throw right back out and went right back to my normal routine of hop-hop pause. 20 minutes and no fish later I saw a fish wake on the far side of the pads, so I started to reel in at turbo speed with my 6.3 to 1 reel to make a cast to the wake and ..........uou guessed it!  Boom. Another explosion, except this time the bass was over 5 1/2 lbs.

Well, I finally listened to what the bass were telling me and after I had 7 bass to his 0, so did my partner.

Over the next few hours we had about 30 bass between the 2 of us and I ended up with17lbs and he  finished with 15lbs on what was a very tough day.

The 2nd place boater had 12lbs and I beat the  nearest co-angler by 7lbs in a 100 boat tournament.

Every single fish was caught on the speed reeling technique. Now this was before the Horny Toad and other toad baits were around.

I'm guessing the way those baits came about was by some guy was reeling in his standard frog to cast and having a bass just blast it .

Just a guess.

I've managed to reproduce this a few more times since and while it doesn't happen alot, when it does, wow!, its awesome.

There's something about the speed of the bait as that bass sees the silouhoute of the frog whizzing over it's head!

By the way,in that tournament on the Potomac, I also saw my partner lose the largest fish I've personally seen on the Potomac or any tidal river in the northeast.

I know the bass was at least 91/2 lbs and perhaps over 10. The fish broke his G-Loomis rod at the boat when it surged after jumping right in front of me.

So this technique will take some exceptional fish as well. Give it a try and good luck. 

great info brooke -well just have to give that a try

FROG TYPES and SELECTION   <<Click

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This last video is of a bass caught on an awesome new frog bait called cpt. Ken Dauberts Designer Frog. Its a pretty cool bait I just happened across it one day lookin at youtube videos of big bass and saw it. I later found his site Bass-Frog.com and after seeing more vidoes and still pictures I love it check it out.

:DFrogging must be the most blood rushing way to catch bass. Hands down!!!!