Do I Need a Froggin' Rod?

[Dorado]

I want to learn how to frog this year and currently own a 7'6" Abu Garcia Veritas casting Rod, medium-heavy action (rated 3/8oz - 1 1/4oz) paired with Lew's Tournament MB Speed Spool casting reel. 

 

I currently have 15# P-Line CXX mono spooled on it and have dedicated that mostly for a jig/swimjig and Carolina rig. Here's my question: With that same set-up, can I use it effectively for froggin? Can I also effectively use it for punching too?

 

I read about guys who use 50-60# braid for froggin. there's froggin rods now and punching rods. The options seem boundless and expensive if you're willing.

 

I'm curious for honest feedback because I'm not trying to go professional and get a rod for all technique-specific situations. I'm wondering if the aforementioned set-up is versatile to cover the froggin and punching bases.........thanks in advance for your responses.  

[IndianaFinesse]

That rod will work for frogs and light to mid punching, but the line won't.  Mono stretches to much and isn't strong enough for winching (and controlling) big bass out of slop and setting beefy frog hooks into their strong jaws.  You're definitely going to have to swap that over to heavy braid in the 50+ range depending on how heavy of slop you will be fishing in. All around line for frogging, punching, c-rigs, and jigs would IMHO be 50 pound braid with or without a leader on jigs and c-rigging.

[Fishin' Fool]

Keep a separate reel with heavy braid (65 to 80 pound test) and you're good to go. If you like froggin' then you might want to get another rod at that point.

[the reel ess]

I used to use a MH 7' rod for frogs until I started using them a lot on lily mats. I found I was always cutting off a frog and tying on a T-rig and vice-versa. Once I got the dedicated frog rod, It was on. I caught more because of better hooksets and got more of them out of the salad.

 

You don't need one, but they're nice to have.

[Dorado]

17 minutes ago, IndianaFinesse said:

That rod will work for frogs and light to mid punching, but the line won't.  Mono stretches to much and isn't strong enough for winching (and controlling) big bass out of slop and setting beefy frog hooks into their strong jaws.  You're definitely going to have to swap that over to heavy braid in the 50+ range depending on how heavy of slop you will be fishing in. All around line for frogging, punching, c-rigs, and jigs would IMHO be 50 pound braid with or without a leader on jigs and c-rigging.

All of my spinning reels have braided line for the main line, so I'm a fan. However, I'm reluctant on using braid for casting reels because I can only imagine the nightmarish task of untangling a birds nest with braid......... is that true?

[the reel ess]

23 minutes ago, Dorado said:

All of my spinning reels have braided line for the main line, so I'm a fan. However, I'm reluctant on using braid for casting reels because I can only imagine the nightmarish task of untangling a birds nest with braid......... is that true?

With the frog, that's not much of an issue. They're heavy enough to bomb a long cast and the braid has excellent manners. I have it on 3 baitcasters now without any problem. And I'm thinking of putting it on the last 2 BC combos.

[BrackishBassin]

I fish my frogs with a MH rod with no issues, but I do throw them on 50lb braid. I don’t think I could get away with throwing them on mono where I fish. 

[Dorado]

8 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

With the frog, that's not much of an issue. They're heavy enough to bomb a long cast and the braid has excellent manners. I have it on 3 baitcasters now without no problem. And I'm thinking of putting it on the last 2 BC combos.

Excellent point. I'll overcome my worries and give it a try this year. 

[BassNJake]

17 minutes ago, Dorado said:

All of my spinning reels have braided line for the main line, so I'm a fan. However, I'm reluctant on using braid for casting reels because I can only imagine the nightmarish task of untangling a birds nest with braid......... is that true?

I'll backlash or have a "professional overrun" from time to time.

Wife gave me a crochet needle and it works better than anything else I've tried at helping get them untangled.

Got some cheap ones from walmart and then the kids got me a wood handled one and put it in my stocking one year

 

 

[the reel ess]

Just now, Dorado said:

Excellent point. I'll overcome my worries and give it a try this year. 

I use 50# braid. I've never had a need for any heavier. 50 casts more easily than 65. The neat thing about braid is, when it gets old and dull looking and you want to remove it, you can reel it onto another reel and you'll be using the new end. It doesn't go bad. You can also mitigate the cost by filling half your spool with some cheap heavy mono like Big Game before finishing off with braid.

[IndianaFinesse]

17 minutes ago, Dorado said:

All of my spinning reels have braided line for the main line, so I'm a fan. However, I'm reluctant on using braid for casting reels because I can only imagine the nightmarish task of untangling a birds nest with braid......... is that true?

It isn't to bad, unless I'm skipping I almost never backlash (not including very minor overruns) with frogs.  And 90% of the time, what looks like a bad backlash comes out by just pulling line off of the reel with braid.  Much less likely to damage itself when pulling out a backlash when compared to mono or flouro also.

[Angry John]

Do you need another rod most likely not.  Could you have two rods that split the 4 or more tasks that your trying to accomplish, yes.  One rod with braid for punching and frogs while the other does what you do with it already would make it easier.  It just depends on how much you do these things if it will be worth the added cost.  In my yak i dont like to bring a bunch of rods 3 or less and when in a boat i bring 5.  If you want to run braid to leader for your secondary usages then running 40 or 50 lb braid main line would work the best.  Not a ton of heavy veg where i am at and never need more than 40.  I still have rods with 65 and i can cast a frog a long way even on 65.  The reason i would recommend 40 is for the knot size for your more used techniques.   

[tander]

I would suggest getting another rod for froggin'. I find a 7'6" is too long for me to work a frog. I am using my 7' Falcon Heavy  for my frog fishing and my pitching. I use 50# Power Pro braid. Works for me besides you can never have enough rods.

[CroakHunter]

50Lb braid is what I use most for my mainline. Great castabilityand handling. And it's heavy enough for all applications 

[Finnz922]

Frogging of the most exciting, exhilarating, stressful, disappointing, rewarding technique IMHO. I love it! I personally think your fine like others said. Just change the line to 60+ braid.  It's not about needing 60lb rated line. It's about bone jarring hook sets and being able to rip them out of heavy cover.

 

There are a ton of good frog rods ranging from 7' to 7'10" and you have to find the right rod for you. I like the Irod Genesis II series. Specifically the 754 and 704.

 

Good luck! 

[bx.versatile]

Get a 735 from Dobyns or Powell, it's the perfect blend of power and length, so can you pull out of the slop, have a powerful hook set 50 yards out and can still walk the frog. I throw mine with 65lb on Curado E, still my furthest casting setup when not throwing aerodynamic lures like lip-less or Spook style bait.

[Boomstick]

I use my MH/F rod for frogs. Maybe if I found some more thickly populated weedbeds to throw it in, I would get a heavy rod sooner rather than later, but the MH/F should be fine for what I fish it in.

 

I have fished a frog on 15lb mono before. You could pull one out of open water on mono fairly easily, but the stretch on the line and simply lower line strength makes it harder to pull a fish out of a weed bed. Braid is not only stronger, but it cuts through lily pads like butter as well and has no stretch, which makes it easier to pull a big fish out of the weeds and keep it hooked.

 

I use either 40lb or 50lb braid on my MH/F rod, largely for throwing frogs. 40lb line is fine, but if I expect to be a doing a lot of fishing with a frog I will go to 50lb simply because it casts better.

[Dens228]

Most of my frogging is done in incredibly thick grass mats, weeds, a lily pads.  I use 65 lb braid on a 7-03 H/Fast rod,

 

One day the handle of my rod broke and I used a MH/fast rod for frogs the rest of the day and missed more hook sets. 

I'll stick with the H/Fast but like I said, I fish in some real slop.

[Jaderose]

Rod is fine.  You MUST change lines.  I personally have used as low as 30 lb braid to frog in HEAVY slop and had no issues so I don't necessarily agree with others that are saying 65 lb or whatever.  Use 45-50lb.  15 lb mono will NOT work for frogging, period.  I have actually found braid backlashes to be easier to deal with than mono or fluoro but maybe that's just me.  I can almost guarantee that next year you will want a dedicated frog rod....but it can wait.

[Dorado]

1 hour ago, Jaderose said:

Rod is fine.  You MUST change lines.  I personally have used as low as 30 lb braid to frog in HEAVY slop and had no issues so I don't necessarily agree with others that are saying 65 lb or whatever.  Use 45-50lb.  15 lb mono will NOT work for frogging, period.  I have actually found braid backlashes to be easier to deal with than mono or fluoro but maybe that's just me.  I can almost guarantee that next year you will want a dedicated frog rod....but it can wait.

Interesting take on the question. Stuff I’ll also all consider. Thanks

[Dorado]

8 hours ago, Angry John said:

Do you need another rod most likely not.  Could you have two rods that split the 4 or more tasks that your trying to accomplish, yes.  One rod with braid for punching and frogs while the other does what you do with it already would make it easier.  It just depends on how much you do these things if it will be worth the added cost.  In my yak i dont like to bring a bunch of rods 3 or less and when in a boat i bring 5.  If you want to run braid to leader for your secondary usages then running 40 or 50 lb braid main line would work the best.  Not a ton of heavy veg where i am at and never need more than 40.  I still have rods with 65 and i can cast a frog a long way even on 65.  The reason i would recommend 40 is for the knot size for your more used techniques.   

After reconciling all of these insight opinions, I’m going to ditch the mono and substitute my main line with #40 PowerPro braid. That knot size comment made a light bulb go off -because it gives me flexibility to switch and tie on a 3/8 oz jig. Plus the type of veg is moderately dense in the summer, but I wouldn’t say heavy by any means.  Flouro leader is always there too for some clear water swim jig situations when I fish those pressured waters. Boom

[the reel ess]

14 hours ago, Jaderose said:

Rod is fine.  You MUST change lines.  I personally have used as low as 30 lb braid to frog in HEAVY slop and had no issues so I don't necessarily agree with others that are saying 65 lb or whatever.  Use 45-50lb.  15 lb mono will NOT work for frogging, period.  I have actually found braid backlashes to be easier to deal with than mono or fluoro but maybe that's just me.  I can almost guarantee that next year you will want a dedicated frog rod....but it can wait.

Yeah, this. Once you get good at it you'll want a rod specifically geared toward it. 

The reason I settled on 50# braid is it has better manners than 65, but it won't dig into the spool as much as 30. Ido love 30 for the other BC rods. Sometimes I have to just yank the frog/fish out of the slop.

[Jaderose]

 

After reconciling all of these insight opinions, I’m going to ditch the mono and substitute my main line with #40 PowerPro braid. That knot size comment made a light bulb go off -because it gives me flexibility to switch and tie on a 3/8 oz jig. Plus the type of veg is moderately dense in the summer, but I wouldn’t say heavy by any means.  Flouro leader is always there too for some clear water swim jig situations when I fish those pressured waters. Boom

40 will be fine and will allow you to tie on some 12 lb fluoro for a leader if you wish but I am going to warn you...if you catch the froggin bug...you WILL be buying a dedicated rod.  It's the crack cocaine of fishing!

[Angry John]

 

40 will be fine and will allow you to tie on some 12 lb fluoro for a leader if you wish but I am going to warn you...if you catch the froggin bug...you WILL be buying a dedicated rod.  It's the crack cocaine of fishing!

Then we can sell him on the xx perfect pitch as the right frog rod

[Dorado]

 

40 will be fine and will allow you to tie on some 12 lb fluoro for a leader if you wish but I am going to warn you...if you catch the froggin bug...you WILL be buying a dedicated rod.  It's the crack cocaine of fishing!

Great..... because I’m already a fishing junkie. Catfishing was a gateway drug to crappie ultralight fishing that led to fly fishing that led to bass fishing that led to kayak angling. Too many pleasures and not enough free time! 

 

Since there is no limit to dumb questions on this forum, last one. In Arizona, I see occastion desert ‘toads’but definitely not frogs. Can a region without a frog population still have potential for a good froggin bite?