Frog fishing hookup ratios

[Ryanrich11]

Hello, I've been throwing a frog a lot lately and have been missing bite when they blow up on it. I let them take it for 2-3 seconds but I am still having trouble hooking up. Is there anything I can do to improve my hookup ratios? And what frogging setups are you using? Thank you.

[riverbasser]

Always a possibility with a frog. Bend the hooks out slightly. Don't set the hook till you feel them load up the rod

[ga dawg]

Not to make you sound like a noob, but is your rod stiff enough? Also, is your line semi tight when setting the hook? When I was younger I would mess up frog hooklets all the time, but when I switched to a Medium-Heavy weight rod, and started making sure my line wasn't slack my hook up rates grew tremendously. You'll be able to feel when its time to set the hook like the poster above me said. All you need is some practice!

[MassYak85]

It seems to come with the territory of frog fishing. Sometimes the bass will turn the frog in it's mouth, or wrap the line around the cover you are fishing the frog in, creating less than ideal hook-up chances even with ideal equipment. I personally fish frogs on 50lb braid with a 7'6" heavy fast rod. I like the extra length for longer casts over pads. I fish with the rod tip at 11 O'clock so that when I see a blowup I can point it down a little and I start reeling until I feel enough pressure to tell me that the fish has it in it's mouth and didn't just miss it or pull it under and spit it out. If I feel the fish I reel down until the rod just starts to load under it's weight and then I set the hook HARD over my shoulder.  Drag locked down. This is a fairly quick series of events, each blowup is different but it's usually 1-3 seconds after they take it that the hook gets set. I don't count or anything. 

[BiteFiend]

50-60% is about my hook-up ratio (for bass that is ). I feel like shortening the legs up, bending the hooks out from the body and up a little helps. Also as others have mentioned, make sure you feel the fish's weight before setting the hook. Also, a friend of mine walks his frogs with his rod at about the 10 o'clock position. When a fish busts on the frog, he lowers his rod before  and reels up slack before setting the hook. It looks kind of goofy in my mind, but he also hooks up with a little over half of the strikes as well. Might be worth a try as well. 

[clh121787]

My hook up ratio has been pretty horrible this year. Maybe 30 percent

[Bluebasser86]

I hate the suggestion to wait to feel the fish. If the frog is gone, I'm setting the hook. 

Think about, a bass blows up on a frog, and the frog is no longer there, where is it most likely to be? In the bass' mouth! Why give him extra time to wrap up in the cover or spit the frog out? 

Unless I'm being plagued by smaller fish, I'm hooking 70-80 percent of my bites. Bending the hooks a little helps, and so does shortening the legs, but the day I stopped trying to feel the fish, I was hooking and landing way more frog fish.

Having the right combo, and especially using braided line, makes all the difference in the world too. I'm using a 7' 3" H/F Ethos Micro with a 8.0:1 BPS Titanium 8 reel spooled with 50lb braid. 

[BiteFiend]

45 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I hate the suggestion to wait to feel the fish. If the frog is gone, I'm setting the hook. 

Think about, a bass blows up on a frog, and the frog is no longer there, where is it most likely to be? In the bass' mouth! Why give him extra time to wrap up in the cover or spit the frog out? 

Unless I'm being plagued by smaller fish, I'm hooking 70-80 percent of my bites. Bending the hooks a little helps, and so does shortening the legs, but the day I stopped trying to feel the fish, I was hooking and landing way more frog fish.

Having the right combo, and especially using braided line, makes all the difference in the world too. I'm using a 7' 3" H/F Ethos Micro with a 8.0:1 BPS Titanium 8 reel spooled with 50lb braid. 

That's interesting. I might have to try your suggestion. Do you set the hook right when the bass takes it under? I know from an article I read a few years ago that Dean Rojas also sets the hook right away. 

One thing that I have found is that bass often will slap at the frog and take it under. I find this to happen more often on two very highly pressured local lakes that I fish. It is like they take it under to see how the "frog" reacts because they are weary from all the other anglers that hit these lakes- many with frogs. I never feel their weight, but maybe they have it in their mouth after all. 

[Bluebasser86]

37 minutes ago, BiteFiend said:

That's interesting. I might have to try your suggestion. Do you set the hook right when the bass takes it under? I know from an article I read a few years ago that Dean Rojas also sets the hook right away. 

One thing that I have found is that bass often will slap at the frog and take it under. I find this to happen more often on two very highly pressured local lakes that I fish. It is like they take it under to see how the "frog" reacts because they are weary from all the other anglers that hit these lakes- many with frogs. I never feel their weight, but maybe they have it in their mouth after all. 

Immediately when I lose site of the frog, I'm swinging.

Bass will surely slap at or blow up on a frog and never get it, but I've never seen one do that and take the frog under with them unless they just get the legs of the frog. That's just part of the gamble and I'm willing to take it. I'm not going to be able to tell whether it just has the legs or not if I feel for it either. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a single pro that feels for the fish on a frog. 

[Catt]

4 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I hate the suggestion to wait to feel the fish. If the frog is gone, I'm setting the hook. 

Think about, a bass blows up on a frog, and the frog is no longer there, where is it most likely to be? In the bass' mouth! Why give him extra time to wrap up in the cover or spit the frog out? 

Unless I'm being plagued by smaller fish, I'm hooking 70-80 percent of my bites. Bending the hooks a little helps, and so does shortening the legs, but the day I stopped trying to feel the fish, I was hooking and landing way more frog fish.

Having the right combo, and especially using braided line, makes all the difference in the world too. I'm using a 7' 3" H/F Ethos Micro with a 8.0:1 BPS Titanium 8 reel spooled with 50lb braid. 

Learned that throwing Johnson Spoons

[frogflogger]

Smaller bass will blow up and not get hooked - on decent sized fish if the frog is not there set the hook - most of my frog fish have it down inside their mouth - 80% or better -

[Master Bait'r]

There are a ton of reasons it *could* be, but you're going to have to start picking away at variables to find out for sure.  

Bend out or change your hooks first, and then also maybe try following up with a small punch rig or going with a finesse frog to see if you can ascertain what is actually hitting the big frog if that doesn't work.

[Damn Yankee]

Imho, smaller bass blowup on frogs and miss.Bigguns suck iit under with very little commotion. Last one I hooked, the frog just disappeared and I set the hook on a nice 6lber.

[buzzed bait]

7 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Immediately when I lose site of the frog, I'm swinging.

me too, it's why i prefer white or something highly visible when frog fishing.  once that suckers gone, i'm reeling down and setting that hook!

[MassYak85]

10 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I hate the suggestion to wait to feel the fish. If the frog is gone, I'm setting the hook. 

Think about, a bass blows up on a frog, and the frog is no longer there, where is it most likely to be? In the bass' mouth! Why give him extra time to wrap up in the cover or spit the frog out? 

Unless I'm being plagued by smaller fish, I'm hooking 70-80 percent of my bites. Bending the hooks a little helps, and so does shortening the legs, but the day I stopped trying to feel the fish, I was hooking and landing way more frog fish.

Having the right combo, and especially using braided line, makes all the difference in the world too. I'm using a 7' 3" H/F Ethos Micro with a 8.0:1 BPS Titanium 8 reel spooled with 50lb braid. 

I used to do this, but too many times I set the hook and the frog came flying back at me or someone else fishing with me, and one time I set the hook right into a stump, that hurt for a few days. To each their own though.  

 

[papajoe222]

I do three things to a frog before it ever hits the water. Shorten the legs. Bluegill often grab the legs and pull the frog under. 

Sharpen the hooks. Yea, straight out of the box and every time I take it out of my box. 

Slightly bed the hooks out from the body unless it's really soft . 

Like all top waters, I wait until I feel the fish. Take up the slack, feel the fish, swing for the fences