froggy setup whatcha think

[sharkman]

i was fishing all my top waters and frogs last year on a allstar med 6,6 rod paired with a cheaper pflueger baitcaster and had a low hook up rate on fishing frogs. so i just went out and bought the new mojo frog rod a 7, heavy fast tipped rod. i paired it with a pflueger summit reel hoping this will make frog fishing a little more successful . any feed back on the summit reel would be great.

[BARON49_Northern NY]

Can't help you on the Summit reel, but if you go to at least 50 lb Power Pro braid you will find it helps in your hookups to landed fish ratio tremendously when fishing both buzz frogs and floating frogs.

[Big O Tires Angler]

how do you like that frog rod btw? thinking about picking up a couple mojo rods myself

[Gatorbassman]

The Pflueger reels have very light drags. They max out at about 8lbs. This is one application where the Revo Reels shine. With a Max drag of 22lbs you can turn the head of any bass in the thickest cover.

[Catt]

Are you waiting until you feel the weight of the bass before setting hook or are you setting hook visually?  

[BARON49_Northern NY]

Are you waiting until you feel the weight of the bass before setting hook or are you setting hook visually?

This depends on the rod action and line you are using.  If you are using a MH rod, a rod with moderate or moderate fast action, or if you are using heavy mono go ahead and set the hooks as soon as you see the strike.  All these have a delay before you can get the rod to load or get the stretch out of the mono line.

If you are using a H action rod with a fast tip and braided line.  Keep reeling or doing whatever you were doing with the frog before you saw the strike.  Once you FEEL the weight of the fish then set the hooks.  Other wise you will actually pull the frog away from the fish by reacting too fast.  Takes a little practice and nerves of steel, but you will increase the hooked fish dramatically if you take the time to learn this.

[BassinBoy]

Sounds like a great setup to me.

Make sure you use braided line

8-)

[Catt]

With any top water lure regardless of rod or line I will point the rod towards the fish while reeling slack by then you should have felt the weight of the fish then I'll set hook.

[Dan:]

With any top water lure regardless of rod or line I will point the rod towards the fish while reeling slack by then you should have felt the weight of the fish then I'll set hook.

x2

[Simp]

Ya when froging you have to have a 7ft MH with Braid! Like everybody also said wait on the fish. I want to give her time to eat that frog before setting that hook. My biggest fish hit right before dark and all I saw was a small swirl and my lure was gone. I waited 2-3 secs and still couldn't feel the fish or see my lure. I finished reeling down and went ahead and set the hook hard. I sure felt her after that! This type off hook set results in 90% of the time with the fish being hooked in the roof of it's mouth. I usually have one heck of a time getting them unhooked. So the step up on rod size should help you drive that hook home in big thick jawed bass. My dad used mono and a 6'6 rod and he missed 60-70% of his frog fish last year.

[SoFl-native]

My dad used mono and a 6'6 rod and he missed 60-70% of his frog fish last year.

haha that made me laugh. poor dad.

[K.Fox]

I use a 7' med heavy Shimano and 30pd power pro braid. Like SIMP said gotta wait 2-3seconds. Dont get trigger happy.... Zooms Horny toad and Stike Kings Rage...Can't loose.

[warmer]

if its thick cover i like the leverage of a 7'6".

until i started fishing for a certain rod company (dont think i can name them here) and found rods that i prefer i used a 7'6 fenwick techna av medium heavy and a 7'5 mossy back loomis  

having said that, i dont think you hurt yourself much w/ a 7'0"er especially if the action is right.  i do think youll like it much better 6'6".  the great thing to me about more rod length is that it makes up for a lot of my mistakes.  if i dont hit the fish with too much slack the longer rod will make up for it, whereas the shorter rod will leave me climbing back in the opposite side of the boat.

[FD.]

Don't listen to him. Sometimes he falls out of the boat regardless of the length of his rod.

I fish two setups.  7-6 MH with 65 lb braid for the really heavy stuff and 7 MH with 30 lb braid for longer casts in the thinner stuff.

[sharkman]

yeh i usually fish the zooms and the yum toads and like the action of both. i tried the spro and had alot of blowups and a lot less hookups. i do wait most of the time to feel the fish though i sometimes get trigger happy. its hard not to when your watching the pads and a fish blows right up! now the mojo rod I am told is sold out, even though the website I ordered from did not state that. I now have to wait till Febuary to get the rod from st croixs factory. no biggie. the reel says it has 9lbs of drag which i would think it was enough? i was looking into getting the bass pro shops nitro combo and read on some sites that 16lbs of drag is a major over kill? now cant you , if you hooked a large fish and your reels drag starts to fail and the fish starts pulling line , use  your thumb to turn the fish around? if so then the drag would not matter right? If I am wrong mabey i should have got the curado instead of the pflueger!

[Simp]

yeh i usually fish the zooms and the yum toads and like the action of both. i tried the spro and had alot of blowups and a lot less hookups. i do wait most of the time to feel the fish though i sometimes get trigger happy. its hard not to when your watching the pads and a fish blows right up! now the mojo rod I am told is sold out, even though the website I ordered from did not state that. I now have to wait till Febuary to get the rod from st croixs factory. no biggie. the reel says it has 9lbs of drag which i would think it was enough? i was looking into getting the bass pro shops nitro combo and read on some sites that 16lbs of drag is a major over kill? now cant you , if you hooked a large fish and your reels drag starts to fail and the fish starts pulling line , use your thumb to turn the fish around? if so then the drag would not matter right? If I am wrong mabey i should have got the curado instead of the pflueger!

Pulling big fish out of Pads can be very tough. I've broken some smaller fishes jaws (2-3lbers) with the hook set. I personally believe that this happens when the fish gets the frog and then wraps around some cover. I can tell you the one problem my real did have at times was it slipping on 5lb+ fish in the grass. In these conditions you just get some powerful equipment you can afford and do your best. I funnel my football days as a linebacker and fullback when I'm frog fishing. There are a couple of seconds where I take a couple deep breaths, widen my eyes, and ready my muscles otherwise known as loading up or breaking down. Then I set that hook like I'm laying a guy out and I reel fast to get him up. YOU MUST GET THAT FISH UP!! Otherwise be prepared to go swimming or get you boat into some thick stuff.

Also if your fishing with braid. a 7ft rod, and giving the fish those 2 secs before setting the hook, yet still missing tons of fish. You can blame it on two things 100% of the time. First the fish never ate it maybe a color change would help but I usually just blame it on a small fish. This is something to seriously consider. You may be on a location with a crap storm of small guys who just can't get it in there mouth but there big enough to try. So you can either go to a smaller size frog and try to hook some up or a bigger frog to discourage the smaller fish and offer a bigger meal for momma.