I live near Chicago, and I throw frogs from April through October, in both wide open water and slop. I fish them because I'd rather catch one fish on a frog than two on a Senko. I like braid and a long stiff rod with a quick tip, but I suspect you are going to fish it on whatever you have. Here are my thoughts - If you fish your frog on a slack line - walking or chugging by snapping your rod and quickly pointing back at the bait -you really can set the hook as soon as the bass pulls the frog under water because there was no resistance to the fish taking the bait. If you are fishing on tight line, you really are pulling the bait away when the bass tries to suck it in, so dipping your rod and counting to three is probably a good idea. Even on slack line, you don't have to rush the hook set because bass hold on to frogs, so if you just took a bite of your sandwitch when the fish hit, take your time, square up your shoulders to the fish, pick up a bit of line, and slam the hook set straight up - you want to drive those double hooks straight into the top of the mouth. You can practice your hook sets with no bite. If the frog comes flying at your head, you are doing it right. It is also very important to use a quality frog. Plan on spending over $7 if you want a quality bait. There are all kinds out there and all serve a purpose, but if your worried about hook ups, you want a soft body with big hooks. I started my frog fishing with the bronzeye popper, and noticed that I got a lot better hookups on big fish than I did on small ones. When the bass takes it all the way down and the hooks are in the top of it's throat, you probably won't be loosing it. If the bait is just in the mouth, small hooks seem to just catch flaps of skin, which will be a problem on the way back to the boat. Now, I immediately replace the 3/0 hooks that come in the popper with 4/0 hooks. It doesn't affect the action and those bigger hooks go right through the lip. On a non popper style frog - check out the Snag Proof Bleeding Frog. Those 6/0 red hooks are money when it comes to hook ups, and it has a cool additional front weight that keeps the frog level for walking and keeps the frog from sliding down on the hook when you are fighting the fish. Once you get the feel, you can switch to any brand. They all have different plastic, some do long glides better, some chug better, some walk better, some skip better. Pick one that works for what you do, but make sure the hooks are at least 4/0. On the topic of missed fish - I am never really sure what people are talking about. If a bluegil or 5" bass grabs the leg of the frog and pulls it down, it really doesn't matter how long you count, your probably not going to catch it (and if you do it will probably fly at you on the hook set). If on the other hand, you set the hook and feel the fish and move it on the hook set or better yet - it barely moves on the hook set, those are fish you should catch. I expect to land 85% of the bass I feel - and if I avoided stupid things while fighting the fish or bad luck while fishing extreme cover, world probably land more. If your are using a good frog with good (big) hooks and take your time to do a good hook set - those are fish you should catch. Again, when I started froggin' I often would fight the bass the same way that I would fight the same fish on 8lb test spinning line and a finesse worm. That is the wrong thing to do. A stiff rod, braid and double hooks are a disaster if you baby the fish in. There is no built in shock absorbsion with a stiff rod and braid, and double hooks are not ideal if you let the fish turn to the side or start running the other way. Instead, if you get your hooks in the fish, keep the rod tip up and bring the fish hard straigt toward you. Then use the heavy rod to flip it in the boat or hold it's head up if you need to lip it (you are probably better off just flipping fish up to 5 pounds into the boat). Bottom line - don't let the fish turn or bury themselves in slop, just bring it! In fact the most likely fish to lose are the ones that hit the frog and run straingt at you in shallow water. For them, pick up line, hit em hard, and wind like crazy til it's flipped in the boat. Hope this helps. If you do it right, you should be landing way over 50% of the fish you hit, and there is nothing you can do to catch small fish who just pull on the legs.
