Frogs

[mheichelbech]

So I’m planning to do a lot of frog fishing this year.  The choices available are overwhelming.  So far I have these questions:

 

1) What are the best frogs or frog makers?

 

2) How do you decide whether to use a frog with boottail legs or skirted legs?

 

3) How do you decide between a popper type frog or non-popper?

 

Pretty wel have the equipment down, just need help with bait choices.  Catching a 5 pounder in my first cast with a frog late last year sealed the deal on my love for them.

[NorthernBasser]

Booyah Pad Crasher and SPRO Bronzeye are probably the favorites. Each also comes in a popping version. But there's a lot of good options out there. 

 

The regular version is better in the really thick stuff. It comes through the vegetation better. A popping frog works better in more sparse cover, like sparse pads...and open water. 

 

Regular frogs work great in open water as well, especially around cover. These can also be walked much easier than popping frogs. 

[MN Fisher]

What NB said about where/when

 

Regular frogs - Booyah Pad Crasher

Popping style - River2Sea Spittin' Wa

[Mike L]

Scum Frogs for both. 
 

I use a popping one in dark stained water, through and around scattered grass. 
 

Walking in clearer and open water and of course over topped out surface mat’s 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[the reel ess]

I LOVE frog fishing. Here's my short answer. Buy a regular Booyah Pad Crasher and a Booyah popping Pad Crasher. They'll cover most bases. I usually leave the popping one tied on when the water is warm. 

[Michigander]

Yeah, I've been up and down the frog tech tree. Landed on the Pad Crasher as a daily driver.

 

I would buy a dark and a light version. Then buy a handful of frogs that catch your eye. When you start out, you're the point of failure not the frog. After you develop some personal preferences, then expand your collection.

[throttleplate]

pad crasher is all i buy. I use the regular one and then started to use the popper version and never went back to the regular frog no matter how heavy the cover.

 

I use a solid black, translucent black, and green top white bottom frog. I take a white or black marker and put spots on the bottoms and put a few small glass beads inside the bodies for rattles.

Fish really only see the bottom of the frog so the top colors dont matter to me just the bottoms.

 

Then i cut an inch off of the tails, bend the hooks away from the body which requires a small vicegrip because i pull them a good ways away from the frog body.

 

Look at my frogs and see that i pull the hook an 1/8 inch away from body, i started doing this after many missed hits, i wait a couple seconds after the hit and then set the hook and i feel my hookups has greatly improved.

 

It goes through cover great with the hooks out and very rarely do i get a little piece of something caught on the hook.

 

 

[cheezyridr]

rubber frogs are ok, but nothing beats an actual, live bullfrog

[BBuck]

Booyah has a good lineup of frogs that you can get at most stores for around $5-$7 bucks called the Pad Crasher, Poppin Pad Crasher, and I think a Jr. (smaller version) as well. They work and have popper and non-popper styles. SPRO was the industry standard for years but now there are tons of manufacturers with good frogs, although most of them run around $10 each now. Booyah is the cheapest brand that I've used that I have confidence in. No matter which brand you go with, the tip about bending the hook point up and away from the frog (from throttleplate) does help with getting better hookups but just take care not to damage the hooks in the process. Remember, with frog fishing when you see the strike, count to 1 Mississippi then yank em! Good luck.

[Deleted account]

11 hours ago, the reel ess said:

I LOVE frog fishing. Here's my short answer. Buy a regular Booyah Pad Crasher and a Booyah popping Pad Crasher. They'll cover most bases. I usually leave the popping one tied on when the water is warm. 

 

This^.  The only time I throw something else is when they want a tiny frog, then it's still the pad crasher, and one other one.

[the reel ess]

1 hour ago, BassWhole! said:

 

This^.  The only time I throw something else is when they want a tiny frog, then it's still the pad crasher, and one other one.

I have the junior Booyah too, but it's never been used. I also have an Academy H2O black frog that I wouldn't recommend. It's hard rubber. It looks exactly like the original SPRO. I have the original Snag Proof frog with realistic legs. I had a PB on it at one time. It's light and better for spinning gear. I've got a Scum Frog that's also brand new. Lastly, I have a Live Target hollow body mouse. It's been used once. No bites on the mouse.

[Luke Barnes]

I love the Booyah Pad Crasher! The Road Runner ive gotten bites but terrible hook up ratio. This past year I had really good luck with the SK Pad Perch. 

[NorthernBasser]

One mod I always do when fishing thicker stuff, or if I'm fishing open, but dirty water, is add some sound to the frog. Also, when fishing matted vegetation, the extra weight pushes down more on the mat, creating more of a disturbance/profile for the bass to hone in on.

 

 I just stick a few bb's and tiny craft bells in the 'butt' section of the frog (where the hook comes out of the body). Some frogs you can't do this with because the cavity hole is sealed. This is the Booyah Pad Crasher. 

 

 

 

[Sphynx]

Ask 10 different guys you'll get 12 different answers on this one lol, great advice on where the problem lies when your first learning to walk a frog, I'd say you should pay attention to the keel shapes of any frogs you look at and how they move and sit in the water, and of the legs and where/how they are attached, how a cupped face effects your walk, do you do better with a flat face? Cupped?  The size is also important, you'll probably find out fairly soon that small bodied frogs are particularly difficult to walk effectively, bigger tends to be a bit easier, colors are varied, I mostly keep it simple, black and white are staples, an occasional use of chartreuse for a bluegill heavy lake, red for springtime use, greens and browns get bit, adding rattles or weight can help, can also modify how well a frog walks if you use too much...personally I like the Teckel Sprinker frog as my first choice, but I fish a lot of other kinds too, Booyah, Spro, River2Sea, Scum, I think it might be in the consideration for one of my favorite and most effective topwater lures.

[Plottman1974]

I fish with frogs 6 months out of the year and have tried everything.  The cheapo, $3 scum frogs are darned hard to beat....they are not pretty, they aren't very good at catching fisherman, but man for some reason fish love them.  

[mheichelbech]

1 hour ago, Plottman1974 said:

I fish with frogs 6 months out of the year and have tried everything.  The cheapo, $3 scum frogs are darned hard to beat....they are not pretty, they aren't very good at catching fisherman, but man for some reason fish love them.  

I’ve heard the same thing but looks like the most popular is the Booyah Pad Crasher.  Don’t often see a particular brand consistently recommended like that.

 

For my birthday I got some BPS “hard” frogs with the rotating choppo style legs.  Anyone tried these or similar?  Appears to be more of a throw it out and crank it in style vs walk the frog type.

 

Appreciate the tip on the hooks!   Good one!

[Mike L]

3 hours ago, Plottman1974 said:

I fish with frogs 6 months out of the year and have tried everything.  The cheapo, $3 scum frogs are darned hard to beat....they are not pretty, they aren't very good at catching fisherman, but man for some reason fish love them.  

Ditto!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[the reel ess]

I would add that I find the popping frogs easier to walk.

[Luke Barnes]

17 hours ago, mheichelbech said:

I’ve heard the same thing but looks like the most popular is the Booyah Pad Crasher.  Don’t often see a particular brand consistently recommended like that.

 

For my birthday I got some BPS “hard” frogs with the rotating choppo style legs.  Anyone tried these or similar?  Appears to be more of a throw it out and crank it in style vs walk the frog type.

 

Appreciate the tip on the hooks!   Good one!

I got a Lunkerhunt Prop Frog that's the same thing it sounds. I haven't thrown it yet but I like the idea and its soft bodied and has an additional stinger hook between the legs which I like too. I plan on trying it this year. 

[12poundbass]

20 hours ago, Sphynx said:

Ask 10 different guys you'll get 12 different answers on this one lol

Looks like the consensus is the Pad Crasher and it usually is when these threads come up. 
 

Another vote for the Pad Crasher! 

[rtwvumtneer6]

17 hours ago, the reel ess said:

I would add that I find the popping frogs easier to walk.

Poppin frogs are very walkable (if that's a word...). I prefer a poppin frog unless I'm fishing over top of thick cover.  My favorite is the spro bronzeye but if I'm around a lot of toothy critters the booyah frogs work fine.  

[jbsoonerfan]

I was a big fan of the Spro Bronzeye and always had good luck with them, but noticed I was missing some fish  here and there which I just chalked up to the nature of the technique. I switched to a Pad Crasher and my hook up ratio went up. 

[optimator]

Another Booyah fan here. I am going to try some of those scum frogs though.

[BigTimeBassin]

Had really good success with the live target frog this past year. Super soft body, only frog I’ve found that rivals it is the scum frog “launch frog” that I picked up recently. Also like the bully wa from river2sea. 

[Bluebasser86]

Popping Pad Crasher and Fish Lab Rattle Toad. Excited for the popping version of the Rattle Toad to come out soon!