How do you fish topwater frogs on a baitcaster?

[Brikon]

A big mistake alot of people make whenever, they are learning to use a baitcaster, is they dont tighten the line enough whenever they put line onto the baitcaster. They spool up line onto the baitcaster and put hardly any tension, so the line goes on a little bit loose. That is a very common reason why  people get backlashes. 

Try casting out as far as you can and try pinching the line with your fingers as you reel it in that usually helps a bit. 

*Also your line might be a bit to heavy for the size of lure your trying to use .

[Advantage]

9 hours ago, Brett Strohl said:

I was using a quantum escalade (brakes turned all the way up) and 15 lb pline flurocarbon, with a sebile pivot frog, on a 7ft cranking rod.  Obviously the rod isn't "right" for frogs, but my problem was when reeling in the line would poof out b/c there was no tension.  

I tried braid once but shredded it in one outing.  I wasn't super happy with my reel b/c the gear ratio wasn't fast enough, so if I get a different one I'll try braid again.  

I switched to a much flimsier spinning rod and didn't have any trouble hooking fish b/c the pivot frog hook setup seems to be a lot better.  But I'm hoping to have a general "all purpose" setup in the future for frogs, buzz baits, and larger crank baits, since I don't have room for more than two setups in my canoe.  

The problem with using fluoro is that it's heavy and will sink, making it harder to control the frog and get good hooksets. Braid works best cuz it floats. 

I throw mine on a 7'6" XH rod with 65lb braid and can launch it a country mile. But I have a pretty good reel too (Lew's that's @ $160 range).

[new2BC4bass]

I get "fluffing" on many casts.   That is the line wants to loosen and lift outward on the spool because the spool is spinning faster than the line is being pulled out.  I am like others.....I do not understand how line can "poof" on a retrieve even with a light lure.  Sure the line may be a little loose, but....poofed?  Fluorocarbon is normally stiffer than mono so it won't wind as tight.  Try some KVD Line and Lure Conditioner to soften it.  See if that helps.

I've never heard of shredding braid on the retrieve.  I don't care if all you know to do is crank the handle.  I mean you cast lure out, retrieve lure in.  No way is that going to shred braid.  Check the rod's guides with a cotton swab.  There should be grooved or rough spots on at least one of the guides.  I see no other way to destroy braid casting and retrieving a frog.  Unless it is the reel itself causing the problem.  Check the line guide for roughness or grooving.  The problem definitely isn't because you aren't an expert with a baitcast reel.

So you only have room for two rods.  The spinning rod sounds plenty capable of fishing cranks.....even though it seems crankbaits are a waste of your time.  Sell or give away the baitcast cranking rod you have and buy a MHF rod.  You will now have two versatile rods with a wider range of capabilities than the current two you are using.

Let us know if you find any bad spots on the rod or reel.

[Bluebasser86]

You can get a rod and reel that will do a lot of different things for relatively cheap. A 7' MH/F with a 6-7 ratio reel with 40-50 pound braid will fish your frog and buzzbait (along with T-rigs, jigs, hollow belly swimbaits, senkos, bladed jigs, spinnerbaits), just fine. Is it perfect for all those? No, but that setup is about as multipurpose as it gets. 

Then you can use your current setup for cranks, traps, and jerks and you'll be good to go. 

 

[Jaderose]

My froggin set up is an old PQ on a 6'6" MH/F Extreme rod.  Strung up TIGHTLY with 30 lb. PP Slick.  If you couldn't cast that a mile, you need more practice with a BC....which is ok.  Best time to practice with a BC is winter when you don't care about actual fishing.  I think I have the brakes pretty much shut off and the drag turned all the way up.  I want to get those girls outta the muck FAST.

[the reel ess]

Florocarbon is a little stiff for baitcasters. You can use it of course, people do, but you have to put it on with some tension to get it to take the spool's shape. Braid is as limp as you can get. I think that Bama Bass (of the YouTube channel) uses heavy mono for frogs in clearer water. I only use braid for almost all applications that aren't trebles. You'd be better off with 20# mono than 20# floro for 2 reasons. Mono floats and it's less stiff than Floro. You need to learn to walk the frog like a Spook and I can't imagine doing that with florocarbon. Another good reason for the limp quality of braid. On the bright side, if you do spool that rod up with braid, it can double as your jig/T-rig rod, assuming you didn't buy a pool cue (stiff). If you want them to do double duty, get a MH/Fast. I have an dedicated XH/Fast 7'3" Cabela's Frog model now and I'm not sure I like it yet. I liked the tip of the MH better.

 

Being any good at froggin', which I don't claim to be, requires some special hardware. That's just how it is.

[Boonie Vang]

No brakes used on my revolution elite 8, with upgraded abec7 from hawgtech and no backlash, throwing bronze year frog 65, but tighten the tension knob enough so thereal won't be any free spool

[desmobob]

If you're using the cheap (but effective) original Scum Frog, you could help yourself by switching to their "trophy series" (or something like that) frog that is heavier.  Scum Frogs are probably the lightest frogs out there.  That could be part of your problem.

And don't get the wrong idea about this forum!  There are more helpful people here than you can shake a stick at!  :-)

Tight lines,

Bob

[J Francho]

You pretty much can get away with three conbos to cover most anything. A 7'ish MH or H, fast casting rod with braid. A medium extra fast 6' to 6-8 with mono or copolymer, and a medium fast spinner, main spool with fluoro, backup spool with 15-20# braid. No one is saying turn pro, get 20 rods, and unlimited access to lines. Just trying to get new guys over the learning curve. Mea culpa. 

[the reel ess]

16 hours ago, desmobob said:

If you're using the cheap (but effective) original Scum Frog, you could help yourself by switching to their "trophy series" (or something like that) frog that is heavier.  Scum Frogs are probably the lightest frogs out there.  That could be part of your problem.

And don't get the wrong idea about this forum!  There are more helpful people here than you can shake a stick at!  :-)

Tight lines,

Bob

I got all my frogs out and weighed them on a small food scale.

The Pocket L unker Frog was 1/8 oz. I haven't used it, but when I do it'll be on a spinning combo.

The Pad Crasher junior was 3/16 oz. I would have guessed more. I haven't cast it yet.

The Snag Proof Original and the Scum Frog were 1/4 oz. I would have guessed less. 1/4 oz., while not ideal, is heavy enough to cast on BC equipment. I use 3/16 oz bullet weights on the same rod with no problem. But for some reason, these are almost impossible to cast. Probably due to the size and wind resistance (drag) vs weight.

The Pad Crashers and SPRO were 1/2 oz.

The L unker Frog standard size was 5/8 oz. 

 

[pverdugo53]

On May 23, 2016 at 2:22 PM, Brett Strohl said:

I can't keep my baitcaster from backlashing regardless, but I absolutely can't do it with a hollow-bodied topwater frog b/c the lure is so light and there is little to no resistance when I reel it it.  Is there a trick to this kind of stuff, or should I just stick to my spinning rod for this?

You can't. Ask advice from more experienced fishing buddies plus there are a lot of great tutorial videos out there. I'm willing to bet that frogs aren't the only bait giving you trouble. 

[HockeyFishMich]

This is very scary for new people on bait casters, but I've learned from forums and videos to actually keep your spool tension so loose that it's right at the point of the spool sliding (you'll feel it loose and moving) back on forth. 

 

Keep your brakes where you're comfortable, half or even higher.

 

Just make sure you have your thumb ready.

*** Don't throw the bait too hard, especially light baits. --> A gentle toss with loose spool tension and good brakes can send even light baits a long way. But throw too hard and it's backlash city. And at the end of a long day fishing with hundreds of casts, you'll also be less worn out from throwing as hard as you can to overcome the tight spool tension and high brakes.

 

Also, as others said, make sure your line is spooled on tight.