Top Tips from Frog Experts

What started as a tough June day on the California Delta made a turn for the better as the sun warmed the water above the magic 75°F mark. By 5:00 p.m., we’d boated 15 healthy Delta bass over 3 pounds, a couple over 4—all caught on frogs.

As a breeze slowly pushed us across a vast flat, Bobby Barrack skillfully placed his Snag Proof frog against a weedline and began to walk it methodically across open water toward an isolated mat of grass, and crept it onto the mat, where it rested.

Without warning, the mat exploded in a spray of weeds and water. As I looked up, Barrack’s rod bent under the strain of a large and angry bass. With the rod high, he kept pressure on the fish as it struggled to get back into the grass, but it soon succumbed to the pressure of the heavy rod and 65-pound braid. Into the net slid our “picture fish,” a 10-pound 2-ounce toad.

Here are tips on tackle and techniques the nation’s top frog fishermen use to win tournaments and to make clients happy on guide trips—new techniques for your repertoire that will put more big fish in your livewell this season.

Tackle

Whether you’re fishing hollow-body frogs like Scum Frog or Snag Proof Tournament Frog, or the array of new soft-body swimming models like Zoom’s Horny Toad, Berkley’s Batwing Frog, or the YUM Buzz Frog, proper gear is key to success. “Heavy tackle is in order,” states Barrack. “You’re deep in heavy cover, and you’re liable to stick a giant under the next mat.”

Rods: “Heavy- and extra-heavy-action rods are a must to set hooks in monster bass and get them away from the cover,” Barrick says. He favors Lamiglas 797 and 806 casting rods for his froggin’.

Tour pro Dean Rojas agrees. “The rod is key,” he says. “I hadn’t found many that fit what I needed in a frog rod, so I worked with Quantum to design the Dean Rojas Signature Series Frog Rod, which I feel is perfect for both open-water and mat fishing. It’s a 7-footer rated medium-heavy, with a fast taper to allow precision casting, plus the backbone to land those toads.”

Shimano has just added a frog rod in their Crucial series. “The CRC-X72H rod is designed for frog fishing,” Gary Armstrong of Shimano says. “It’s a 7-foot 2-inch extra-heavy power blank, but with extra-fast action, rated for braided line up to 65-pound test.” G. Loomis, Bass Medics, Kistler Rods, St. Croix, and All Star also have added frog sticks to their line-ups in recent years, thanks to the fast-growing popularity of this technique.

Reels: Reels also play a role in the angler’s ability to land fish. “You need a reel that can take up a lot of line quickly,” Rojas says. “This year I switched to Quantum’s new Burner reel with a 7:1 gear ratio and it’s been outstanding—plenty of power to get fish away from cover fast.”

Alabama tour pro Tim Horton also favors a fast reel. “At times you need a speedy retrieve when fishing either the hollow Rat-type frog or a soft-plastic Buzzfrog. In either case, you’re often targeting bass in particular types of cover, and you want to quickly retrieve the lure once it’s passed through. I use a wide spool Pflueger President with a 6.3:1 ratio. It gives me plenty of power and retrieve speed. There’s also plenty of line capacity for long casts with heavy line.”

Some high-speed reels seem to sacrifice power, but Shimano has overcome this by upgrading their Curado line with the new DHSV 7.0:1 reel, providing fast retrieves but with the power of a 3.8:1 gear-ratio reel, according to company engineers.