Hollow Body Frog Fishing Knot?

[Janderson45]

Hey everyone-  I do a good amount of frog fishing and have always tied a palomar knot in either the 40lb or 50lb braid that I'm using.  Seems to have worked well in the sense that it's held up to many vicious strikes and lots of strain while hauling in bass covered in weeds.  I always fish frogs in very dense cover, so the walking motion people often impart on the lure doesn't seem very important for me to produce strikes, what does seem important is producing a good deal of surface disturbance by making quick rips of the hollow bodied frog along the surface.  That being said however, I'd like to try and improve my success rate in more sparsely vegetated areas, and I feel as if a good way to do this is by walking the frog along the surface.  Problem is I've never had good success in getting my frogs to walk well at all (I use the Livetarget frogs).  Would tying a knot similar to the rapala loop knot that I occasionally use on a topwater plug help the frog to walk better?  I only have experience using loop knots in monofilament, and am worried that the knot may tie poorly in braid, especially compared to the palomar which has been rock solid.

 

Anyone have any thoughts on this?  Does anyone use loop knots when fishing hollow bodied frogs? 

[bassin is addicting]

i can't answer the knot question....but i think it would be hard to do a loop knot with braid and it not slip?? 

trim one leg shorter and it will walk easier.  and/or use a popper frog..for more distrubance.

[Mike L]

I use a palomar for all braid applications and never had a slipping problem including all types of top warer baits. Im sure a loop knot of some kind will hold tho, I dont know which but I'm sure someone will be along and post it.

As far as walking a frog is concerned bassin is addicting is right. If you shorten the legs about an inch or so, that will make the frog off balance and it'll walk a lot easier.

However no matter what you do to it, you still have to use the rod to make it walk.

When it comes off the mat into open water, or into open holes in the mat itself, kill it for a few seconds.

Twitch the rod but only on a slack line, only useing the reel to pick line up.

I use Scum frogs mostly, they dont have the 2 long tails hanging off the end, and that thing will walk in place nicely if you wanted to do that also.

Mike

[livetofish28]

I use a Palomar knot for all my frog fishing. i have no problem walking the dog with the knot. Have you tried working it with a lot of slack and subtle rod twitches?

 

    Tight lines 

 

 

            Andrew 

[AK-Jax86]

Palomar knot

[Blues19]

Like others have said, I use the palomar and I am ok with the walking. The key to walking a frog is having slack in the line. If you dont have slack, you will not have much success. You could also trip half an inch off the legs.  I actually just got some of the Bronzeye Shad and those suckers walk crazy easy.  You could look into those for more open water.

[livetofish28]

booyah pad crasher is the best walking forg i have followed by the field mouse 

 

 tight lines 

 

      Andrew 

[ripinit]

Palomar is all you need for braid while frogging. Never needed a loop knot, but if you find your braid slipping with some of the newer coated braids, just do a double palomar. That's just  another loop around, before passing the bait through the open loop...that ain't slipping, and how I tie braid in all applications.

[frogflogger]

palomar and as for walking - it is a great technique but my best frog doesn't walk in the traditional sense - I just chug it or twitch it and it slays bass - slack line after the twitch is the way to go.

[BassinLou]

I use a knot that I have yet to find the name of, it was shown to me. Stick with the palomar if it has been working for you all this time. It's not the knot that is not allowing you to walk the frog its your technique. Even if you would manage a rapala loop knot on braid, i wouldn't advise it. Loops and hard hooksets will lead to disappointment imo. 

[Fishes in trees]

If you feel like you need a looser connection to the frog, to help you walk it better, rather than tie a loop knot, try putting a split ring on the frog hook and tying to that.

[WIGuide]

I use the Palomar knot with all my frogs including the Live Target ones I have. You can get them to walk just fine. Just remember braid has very little stretch and you're using a long rod as well. Don't get over zealous when you twitch it. Another thing to watch is when you twitch your rod tip be sure to move it right back at the bait giving it slack to allow the bait to swing. Just practice a little more and I'm sure you'll get the hang of it!

[MichiganFishing1997]

If you fish really nasty slop like I do, the Double Palomar works even better. Instead of doing one overhandwith the loop, wrap it twice then pull it tight, pull it around the bait and so on. It will give you four strands on the eye of the hook instead of two. You may have yo use pliers on the tag end to pull it tight though.

Christian