Need help "walking the dog" with top water frog

[pauldconyers]

 I've tried (rather unsuccessfully) to walk the dog with a top water Spro frog. Every time I try to emulate the correct wrist motion it doesn't sway back and forth but more up and down like a swimmer doing the breast stroke with it's head popping up and down. I've been told the key is to keep slack in the line and I have tried that. Had another idea and I wanted some feedback to let me know I'm nuts or not. I was thinking about using a small swivel or snap at the end of the line and clip it onto the frog. I figure that will give more "swing" on the end of the line and it would sway back and forth easier. I am not worried about loss of sensitivity as I'm not going to be bumping stuff on the top of the water and would see the bite/explosion and don't need to feel it so much. Thoughts?

[Jar11591]

Can you walk the dog with a spook type lure? If not, its easier to learn on them first. Walking a frog requires a more subtle twitch of the rod, and some brands do it better than others. Your swivel idea may help with walking the frog, but may not be great for when a fish takes your frog and buries in the slop. Practicing in open water, it shouldn't take long to get it down. 

[IndianaFinesse]

Like jar said, start with a spook.  The spook is the easiest lure to walk, and once you can walk one lure, you can walk all of them with slight modification to the cadence and the force of the twitch.

[Cak920]

Agree with the others. Practice with a spook type lure. I like the strike king KVD sexy dawg. Very easy to walk

[BuzzHudson19c]

for learning on a spook first. It's the same motion but with a frog it's much more subtle. One day I was walking a frog and my friend says "How are you doing that, it doesn't even look like you are moving the rod?"

[Angry John]

So step one is to trim the legs.  I pull them to the head loosely and trim them to the length of the frog.  This reduces the drag and the amount of misses.  Some people trim one leg a little shorter.  I dont.  I have both styles but I trim the same.  The popping are easier imo.

[MIbassyaker]

I've never been able to walk a frog with any consistency. Occasionally it happens by accident, but, like you say usually all I achieve is making the frog bob up and down as it goes. Happily, the bass don't seem to care, so I have decided I don't care either.

[bigbill]

I seen a guy killing bass on a ribbit frog by constantly twitching it.

[primetime]

Some frogs are just not born to walk well even if you are using an easy one like say a spro, sometimes they just want to pull to one side more than the other. One thing that helps me when I cant get that side to side barely moving walk going where the frog glides side to side naturally is making sure I have extra slack in the line, then just gently snap the rod and not pull at all.

 

Practice with spooks and also a pencil popper like a chug bug first, once you can walk a walker and a pencil/Popper it will help you get the frogs right but it is not always easy unless you have a good frog and sometimes some are just not made right and need tuning. The Spro Bronzeye shad is probably the easiest to walk, so are the popping frogs, some hollow bodies like a few from scum frog are not meant to walk, so if the nose is high, maybe that frog is more a chugging style. Bigger frogs are also easier to walk at least for me.

 

Keep at it, Walking a frog and getting it right each cast is not easy, I dont care what anyone says, it takes the right rod, feel, and frogs will never perform like a walking bait, I find the goal is to get the frog to just walk/glide slowly while barely moving forward. Focus on not pulling and always snapping the rod with extra slack in line. Slack is key.

 

I used to think walking a frog was over rated, but once I started to get a steady cadence, I have noticed I tend to catch more fish. Also hollow bodies are meant to be fished slow, you can be erratic, change cadence, but I do much better going really slow, You can move a spook fast and catch fish but Frogs are an adjustment for sure. You will get it. all major brands are good from Booyah, KVD,Scum Frog etc. Really cheap frogs fill up with water if you dont perform surgery with glue, once out of balance they wont walk well. some expensive frogs fill up as well but you can seal any frog and fix them.

[BuzzHudson19c]

3 hours ago, primetime said:

I used to think walking a frog was over rated, but once I started to get a steady cadence, I have noticed I tend to catch more fish.

On open water especially. One of my favorite techniques is to cast a frog on the shore parallel with a dock. Drag the frog into the water and walk it the whole way. I have caught some of my best large mouth this way. There are a few lakes that I fish with very little vegetation and I will use a frog all day walking it on open water.

 

Remember kids, a hollow body frog doesn't allows imitate a frog.

[Mike L]

All excellent advise. 

What I found is the hook eye needs to be straight out for me. Too high and it skip's like primetime said, it seems those are designed to be chugged, too low and it will dig in. 

 

What helped me the most when I started was to keep the rod tip off center and twitch parallel to the water. If you twitch it in a downward motion like a jerkbait, or try with a high tip you're gonna stuggle. At least I do. 

 

The only frogs I use now are the original Scum. When you get it right you'll be able to walk that thing in place. 

 

Kkeep at it you'll get it. 

 

 

 

Mike 

[Dtrombly]

49 minutes ago, BaitFinesse said:

What I have found is a frog rod with a softer tip helps to walk some of the more difficult and less cooperative frogs where as a broom hande rod makes it more difficult.

 

 

This ^ 

[Bluebasser86]

Cut the legs down so they're only about an inch long, it will make walking them much easier. 

[Deleted account]

Shorter rod with soft tip, tie to the frog with a snug knot and slide it down the eye so that it comes off the bottom (instead of the front) of it. I find that I don't walk frogs very well, (I'm good with spooks and poppers) but fish prefer other non-walking retrieves better most of the time with a frog. YMMV (but it won't). 

[bagofdonuts]

tie a loop knot instead of using a swivle or snap. loop knot helps alot with walking a frog. also works for helping get a walking motion with popr's. i pretty much use a loop knot with all topwaters except buzz baits.

[RichF]

7'3 rod with a soft tip.  I don't like to cut the legs too short (the subtle action of them moving after the frog stops gets a lot of bites).  Keep a little slack in the line, but not too much.  Always hold your rod tip down just above the surface of the water and twitch with a downward angled motion.  It's all in the wrist.

[boostr]

I just let extra slack line out, then twitch the tip of my rod slightly until the frog starts moving. usually  it will go to one side, and then I repeat to let go to the other side. I usually speed up the cadence from there. Make sure your pointing the tip of your rod at the frog. Now I'm pretty good at it, unless I cant see the frog for some reason like when I have glare in my face, or it's in a 6 lbrs yap.

[Fried Lemons]

Trimming the legs unevenly helped me out. Ease of walking also varies by design. The easiest walking frogs I've found are the terminator frogs.

[boostr]

The Pad Crashers and BPS Kermies are good walkers as well.

[BassnBama]

need a soft but fast rod tip  Jackal Iobee Frog is much easier to walk

[LxVE Bassin]

Some frogs just don't walk as easily as others. Maybe it's the frog or maybe it's me. I have frogs that I walk and the other ones I twitch. An observation that I made was that if the weight is more towards the center of the frog it was make sit horizontally and walks easier.

["The Ghost" fisherman]

On 10/4/2017 at 12:26 PM, bagofdonuts said:

tie a loop knot instead of using a swivle or snap. loop knot helps alot with walking a frog. also works for helping get a walking motion with popr's. i pretty much use a loop knot with all topwaters except buzz baits.

This.

 

I would HIGHLY recommend the Rapala loop knot. It's all I use for topwater and I haven't had one fail me in years. 

[moguy1973]

I've found Ish's Phat Frogs to walk the easiest for me.

[Chris at Tech]

Your description that the frog keeps bobbing up and down tells me that you don't have enough slack in the line.  I face EXACTLY the same issue when I first throw a frog after not throwing one for a while.  Take me a few casts to remember how to make it all work

 

For me, the twitching motion for frogs is shorter and softer than I do with walk-the-dog plugs.  When you twitch the rod tip, make sure you complete the motion by bring the rod towards you, and then returning the tip TOWARDS the frog.

 

I've always heard the recommendations on leg trimming and loops knots, but I've never experienced either of those hacks making a difference for me.