Finally Caught A Fish On A Hollow Body Frog, But..

[Fun4Me]

I foul hooked it LOL!!

 

The learning curve continues....

[bigbill]

Sometimes they make a pass to stun it. Then turn fast like a PT boat and nail it. Seen it topwater many times. On the miss topwater I freeze. Then turn and hit it. He got hooked on the stun pass.

[Catt]

Works for me

[Senko lover]

I was super excited for the same reasons when I had a fish take my frog under a month ago.....but it was a dang warmouth. 

[papajoe222]

Now who's hooked?

I'm assuming that you set the hook as soon as you saw the fish blow up on it and he didn't have the frog in his mouth. Waiting until you either see your line moving off to the side, or until you can feel the weight of the fish is difficult to do. I'm sure you've heard that before. With frogs a sure way to accomplish hesitating before setting hook, is to retrieve it with your rod tip held high. It takes a little time to reel down and set the hook.

[Mike L]

I've had em hit a frog so hard it knocked it 2 feet in the air!

That will get your juices flowing!

Mike

[Fun4Me]

Now who's hooked?

I'm assuming that you set the hook as soon as you saw the fish blow up on it and he didn't have the frog in his mouth. Waiting until you either see your line moving off to the side, or until you can feel the weight of the fish is difficult to do. I'm sure you've heard that before. With frogs a sure way to accomplish hesitating before setting hook, is to retrieve it with your rod tip held high. It takes a little time to reel down and set the hook.

 Negative. I saw the frog disappear, felt the fish swimming with it, then set the hook. In all cases except this one, the frog eventually floats to the top.   

[Jaderose]

I fell like I've gotten pretty good with a hollow body and to me it reminds me of when I played golf.  I was a terrible golfer but OCCASIONALLY I would hit a nice drive and knew it as soon as I felt the club hit the ball.  It feels right and even sounds different.  I go through a week long training curve every year to get my timing down on the frogs.  It'll click for you and then you'll be hopelessly addicted.

[duckmaster1]

I was getting a ton of hits and the bass taking my frog only to spit it back out or loose it. I then started to look at the frog design, and took some needle nose pliers, and curved the hooks a little more outwards, and a little up some, and even took a little off the legs. Now I use the boohyah pad crasher, and man what a difference it made. I caught more bass by doing this. one morning had a total of 19 strikes hits, and caught 12, as before I would not have had that many bass in the kayak. Still weedlees, but requires less clamping of the bass to set the hooks better.

Just my thoughts on how I improved my landing bass. Sometimes they would take it under water and you could feel them only to see them come off. Try this with the p,liers and see if that helps some. Worked for me, so may help you some.

[Fun4Me]

I was getting a ton of hits and the bass taking my frog only to spit it back out or loose it. I then started to look at the frog design, and took some needle nose pliers, and curved the hooks a little more outwards, and a little up some, and even took a little off the legs. Now I use the boohyah pad crasher, and man what a difference it made. I caught more bass by doing this. one morning had a total of 19 strikes hits, and caught 12, as before I would not have had that many bass in the kayak. Still weedlees, but requires less clamping of the bass to set the hooks better.

Just my thoughts on how I improved my landing bass. Sometimes they would take it under water and you could feel them only to see them come off. Try this with the p,liers and see if that helps some. Worked for me, so may help you some.

 

 

I think you must have read my mind

 

I was bending the hooks on my poppin pad crasher when I clicked to read your response.

 

I will update as soon as I can figure out if it helps or not.

[thirtysixit]

I foul hooked it LOL!!

 

The learning curve continues....

Keep at it. One day you will go out and catch two or three and it will all come together for you. It's incredibly addicting! Good luck

[Felixone]

I am a new addict where hollow body frogs are concerned.  I too just recently started using them consistently.  I caught my first one about a month ago.  This past weekend I actually caught a new PB using a frog (see my profile pic).  I still can't get them every time but I feel like I am getting better at setting the hook.  The funniest blow up I had though didn't result in a hookset.  I had casted my frog between two trees, and ended up with my line over a branch.  Just as I started reeling up away from the water a bass blew up on it.  It managed to come out all the way to the tip of it's tail.  It was really cool to see.  I have had lures get hung up on limbs a bunch of times, and always wondered what would happen if a fish grabbed it in the air, but honestly I never thought I would see it.  Like I said though, now I am completely addicted to frog fishing.  Too bad I had to get "hooked" so late in the summer.  At least the water stays pretty warm around here late into the fall so I should still have a few more weeks of froggin'.

[baxtervol]

I am a new addict where hollow body frogs are concerned.  I too just recently started using them consistently.  I caught my first one about a month ago.  This past weekend I actually caught a new PB using a frog (see my profile pic).  I still can't get them every time but I feel like I am getting better at setting the hook.  The funniest blow up I had though didn't result in a hookset.  I had casted my frog between two trees, and ended up with my line over a branch.  Just as I started reeling up away from the water a bass blew up on it.  It managed to come out all the way to the tip of it's tail.  It was really cool to see.  I have had lures get hung up on limbs a bunch of times, and always wondered what would happen if a fish grabbed it in the air, but honestly I never thought I would see it.  Like I said though, now I am completely addicted to frog fishing.  Too bad I had to get "hooked" so late in the summer.  At least the water stays pretty warm around here late into the fall so I should still have a few more weeks of froggin'.

Great story and it just illustrates how voracious a predator bass are. I never really understood this until I started frog fishing. The power at which they attack the frog is just amazing.

To me, a big blowup and miss on a frog is almost as exciting as catching a dink on a rubber worm.

[Master Bait'r]

Frogs are absolutely my favorite way to fish, but I will admit the learning curve is STEEP!  It takes a lot of finagling and trying to figure out exactly works for you and your setup.  Once you do though- look out!  You're going to be doing it a lot!!  

 

Just a few small pieces of advice:  (I'm just going to assume you're using a heavy rod, locked drag and heavy braid because you should be) 

 

Practice walking the dog until you could do it with your eyes closed.  Its ability to draw strikes is well known and STILL underrated.  I slay with frogs simply because I can squeeze a ton of action out of a tiny break in the pads.  Maximize that as best you can.  You won't regret it.    

 

If it's a missed swipe and the frog doesn't disappear, just leave it right there and twitch it a little.  They may be coming back to hammer it and I've gotten quite a few on the return strike.  

 

Some people say to wait after they take it down but I do not- the second I see it disappear it's WHAM!- Hookset as hard as I can, rod tip up at 12:00 high.  My reason for this is that a bass can spit something they deem to be a non-food item faster than you can blink, so take that little time they give you in a topwater strike to make that hookset. My percentage has gone way up since I stopped waiting for the fish to catch itself.  They rarely keep it in their mouth for very long so make that second count.

 

Bend the hooks out on stiffer frogs.  Don't worry about it getting caught on stuff, that's just going to happen no matter what and what you're REALLY worried about hooking is the fish- you want every advantage when that strike does happen and trailer hooks literally catch every single little thing they touch so I don't use them much.  Just bend out your stock frog hooks a little bit and your hookup percentage should go up.  

 

Also work on your agility.  I don't care who you are- Joe Q Newbie or Dean Rojas- there are going to be times when that frog is coming at you like a bullet.  Try not to let it hit you.  I hear the fish laugh when it does haha   

[Felixone]

This is good info Bait'r.  I have been working on fishing spooks too, and have got to the point that I can actually keep them going consistently.  I haven't really tried this technique with a frog.  Your comment about making the most of that gap in the pads really kind of sunk in for me though.  I am definitely going to work on walking a frog and give it a shot next time I am out.

[FishingPA]

The first time I caught something with a frog was interesting to say the least. I hooked a FROG! I've seen the factsoffishing video on YouTube where Dave Mercer caught one and couldn't believe it when I pulled it in. I must've looked around quickly and did not see the strike but I heard the water splash and I set only to realize it was just a giant frog on the end. Like I said interesting to say the least!