How to work a hollow body frog

[Justinostrander91]

I don't have enough line strength to do Lilly pads but live on a very weedy lake so the frog is nice for that. My question is, how can I work a frog in open water, or do they only really work in Lilly pad areas? 

[Bluebasser86]

They work in open water. Best way is to walk them. There's really no reason to fish a frog in open water when you would use a treble hooked bait though.

 You can get some cheaper braid like Power Pro for around $10. It's not just for the line strength in the weeds, but also because it floats and makes it easier to work the frog. Braid makes hookset percentages with frogs go way up too. 

 

 

[Ratherbfishing]

While yes, you CAN fish them in open water and can SOMETIMES catch a fish this way, there are other baits with better action that can/will serve this purpose better.  Hollow body frogs are primarily designed to fish in slop/moss/weeds where NO other bait can be fished effectively.

[WIGuide]

They will work in open water. As blue said walking them is the best presentation for that. I would look at adding some braid and fish them in the pads too. Otherwise if you're only going to throw it in open water, adding a rattle inside of some sort might give it more drawing power. 

[JayKumar]

Ish Monroe, one of the best frog fishermen period, only walks his frogs and fishes them wherever he would fish any topwater, pads/weeds or no pads/weeds. If you're having trouble walking it, cut one side of the legs shorter.

[Catt]

When I throw a frog in open water it's going to be a popping frog!

[burrows]

When I first started fishing a frog I didn't know really how to walk the frog correctly or nothing. I just started throwing the frog and tried to mimic a frog on the water this is how I got my first frog fish. I know how to walk a frog or use a popping frog but just mimicking a frog still works. Keep it simple focus on your hook set.?

 

 

[MIbassyaker]

I have never been able to properly walk a frog. The fish do not seem concerned about this.

[Justinostrander91]

Well the lake I live on has heavy weeds and a ton of boats stirring it around. There really aren't very many Lilly pads around so I don't want to mess with my line just for the occasional Lilly area I see. But back to the weeds. When I fish a spinner or rapala or tube or whatever else I always end up getting stuck in the weeds because they are throughout most of the lake(and I only shore fish). My idea with the frog was that I could avoid the weeds even in open water. Btw it is a popping frog. 

I have thrown it in areas that just had floating that boats had torn up and they drifted to shore. I just jumped through them like they were Lilly pads. On both occasions that I did this I got a hit but didn't get the set.

[MassYak85]

I sometimes walk it and it does work. 

But for some damned reason, my most effective method, has literally just been reeling it in rod pointed 11 O'Clock. No action other than the wake it leaves. Of course I pause it in prime locations and will twitch or walk it some, especially if a fish misses it, but the straight retrieve just seems to work a lot of the time. My best guess it it kind of mimics a mouse more-so than a frog at that point (mice swim very straight through the water, not "walking" back and forth)

[soflabasser]

On 6/30/2016 at 0:34 AM, Justinostrander91 said:

I don't have enough line strength to do Lilly pads but live on a very weedy lake so the frog is nice for that. My question is, how can I work a frog in open water, or do they only really work in Lilly pad areas? 

Hollow body frogs work both in open water and Lilly pad areas. Here's a couple ways you can fish it; 

Cast it,let it rest,pop it 1-5 times, wait for the ripples to die and pop again,repeat.

Cast it,let it rest, pop it slowly all the way back to you.

Cast it,let it rest,reel slowly with a occasional pop in the retrieve.

I use 30 pound test braid and so far it has helped me land several +8 pound bass.You can use heavier braid if you want. 

 

[BassB8Caster]

I went to 30lb braid on one of my 2 baitcasters this year. The confidence I have with the braid anywhere I fish it is tremendous. Most times I wish I had braid on both. It is interesting the opinions we get regarding frogs, between which people prefer to how to use them. Ish Monroe is considered the frog guy by many. Yet I haven't seen anyone mention liking his frog. No mention of not liking it easier. I've watched a couple videos of him frogging and it's quite interesting. 

[Topwaterdude]

I dont walk a frog I cast it out there let it sit for a few seconds twitch it a couple times let it sit,reel it in a little,let it sit,twitch,repeat,kinda of like how Glenn did in his hollow body frog video, bass will tell u how they want it.

 

PS I throw in heavy Vegetation

[ratherbfishin1]

While you can throw a frog in open water, there doesn’t seem like too much of a reason too... I would use something that has better hookups instead.