Topwater Popper/Frog

[younggun]

New to the board and seeing as i dont usually do alot on top, i wanna spark something. What are you styles of fishing poppers and frogs?

[UPS Bassbuster]

Ive had very good success with the rage tail with a #4 or 5 extra wide gap hook they kick up so much water. Or the bigfoot by scumfrog gives good action on top water but you can pause it and let it sit

[fishon]

You also might try the Spro Frog by "Dean Rohas" for mats and the heavy junk. It's very weedless and a durable lure as well.

[hd mossman]

several good topwater baits depending on given conditions,try adding a "trailer" topwater plug off the rear hook of the plug tied to your main line,1-3 ft of leader to rear plug,its a blast!!

[JitterBug84]

I personally have had some real good luck with the black & green ribbit frog doing slow retrieve through the pads but they might be different where your at im in Minnesota

[polywad6963]

I like the SPRO JR frog in bullfrog once water warms up to about 65-70 degrees. Throw it on the bank next to some heavy cover, and three quick twitches and let it sit. Just make sure you feel the weight of the fish before setting the hook.

[papajoe222]

When it comes to poppers, I like the PopR style. I have different brands in both wood and plastic, but they all have one thing in common: they can really spit the water. That's my favorite retrieve. A couple of short pops, pause and a long jerk to get the water to spit. I'll let it sit for a few seconds and then repeat. Sometimes long jerks spaced a few seconds apart will do the trick, but that's my favorite.

[Swimbait Fan]

I've recently purchased the True- Tungsten Mad Maxx frog, and would like to know how durable these hollow bodied frogs are.

[2gunswest]

I bought a few of the TT Mad Maxx frogs a while ago and love them. I trim the legs down to 2". My favorite color Grapes of Wrath. As for durability. I caught numerous bass over 3 lbs on that particular lure, in addition to a few pike and 2 musky! Now then. the last Musky that took the lure, actually took the lure.

They hold up fairly well. I let them sit in the sun on the dashboard of my truck for a while to soften them a bit tho. Remember... feel the fish before the set.

The Spro bronzeeyes are great to. and Snag proof are always worth the money.

I also LOVE the Stanley ribbit frogs. Burn it in over weeds or through slop for awesome reaction fishing.

Back to hollow body frogs, learn to skip these and place them under overhanging structure. I skip them under docks here and catch most of my bass that way directly after the bait stops skipping.

Hope that helps.

[delawarebass]

Catching Big Bass On Frogs





Bass fishing with frogs is one of the best techniques for catching giant largemouth bass all over the country. While most anglers employ a slow twitch and pause technique in either heavy cover or lily pads, and this does catch big bass most of the time, but there are times when you can pass up some of the largest bass in the area by not changing up tactics with these frog baits.

I just finished several new videos on frog fishing where we catch over 40 bass in 3 days, using RAGE TAILS, Tournament frogs, Mad Maxx, and SPRO.




Types of Frogs





There are a lot of frog type baits out on the market right now, but in the lakes and rivers across the country, the top producers for really big bass are the Tournament frogs in half ounce sizes made by Snag Proof, the SPRO frog, and The Swamp Donkey by Reaction Innovations. In soft plastic frog/toad types, nothing beats a RAGE TAIL!!

I use these baits in three basic colors everywhere I go, because I have experimented with every color these manufacturers produce, and I found that regardless of where you fish, you really only need any of them in just black, brown, and green. Yes, I have used a white frog and rat type bait as well, from the time they first came out and were made popular, but these three basic colors consistently produce the biggest bass wherever you fish.





Techniques





As I mentioned, the most popular way to fish these baits is in heavy cover by casting them out, letting them sit for a long while, then twitching the bait ever so slightly, and if it doesn't get smashed , then repeating the twitch and pause and casting again. This does produce bass, but the first time I discovered that this does not always produce the most or the biggest bass was prefishing for a tournament on the Potomac River in Maryland.

I was fishing a cove where there were bass by the hundreds in the three to five pound range, with some even larger ones mixed in, feeding on frogs in the pads as the tide came in. These bass did hit the frog worked slowly on occasion, but I was outproduced 5 to 1 by an old guy who came in behind me working the frog as fast as he could. It was ridiculous how fast he was working it! He caught several bass right from where I had been in the 6 and 7 pound range, and several others that were almost as big. Experience had taught him that when the bass were in these pads and the sun was out, by pulling the frog as fast as you could over these large pads, it produced a reaction bite that you couldn't match any other way. When the bait came across the pads the sun produced a image of the bait through the pads and the bass went crazy!

I reproduced this action on several other bodies of water in the following years all over the country using the same tactic.

The other thing that many anglers just don't do is fish the frog in open water. I cast the frog as I would any other topwater bait and work it with an erratic action around cover and over submerged structure in open water. Dean Rojas popularized this technique when he won several tournaments doing this.

I also cast the frogs all the way up onto the shore and then slowly pull them into the water from the banks, producing tremendous strikes when they enter the water at times.





Equipment





I like to use a heavy action frog rod made of a composite material or fiberglass, in 7 to 7 1/2 foot lengths, with a 65 pound braided line. It is really important to be able to muscle these big fish around when they are in or near cover, especially when they exceed 6 pounds. I also use a Shimano Chronarch reel for this, as it has been the most reliable of every brand I have used over the last 20 years.

Try these tips this year and watch the size of the bass you catch in the lakes and rivers increase ten fold!

Note: I didn't list the author on any of the articles I post as I wrote them myself. lol Tight lines, Steve

[delawarebass]

As far as models that produce, there are four, but the TOP "4" out produce the fourth one by such a large percentage that I will only mention it but not get into depth with it.



FOUR MAIN PRODUCERS:



Andre Moores "Swamp Donkey"

"Snag Proof Pro Series" "Tournament Frog" and "Bobby's Perfect Frog" (1/2 ounce only.)
Southern Lures "Bass Rat" (only in certain types of grass and locations)
Spro Bronzeye Frog


Most of the time the frogs mentioned will produce well in heavy cover such as matted vegetation and pads, or all the above with wood or laydowns mixed in. What many anglers don't know is this:



#1.) FROGS WORK IN OPEN WATER! EVERYWHERE!



Walk them just like a Spook and hang on especially if you are doing it in the California Delta like Ish Monroe and Andre Moore do. It is a VERY effective method in just plain laydowns in open water, or over submerged grass beds that don't come all the way to the surface as in a few areas of the Potomac River.



#2.) When bass don't hit the frog in heavy cover by working it slowly as people have told you, just start working the frogs as soon as they hit the water, and pretend it is a spinnerbait or buzzbait and work it real fast with water spitting everywhere! Sometimes, you will get bass exploding on it 2 or 3 times before they get it near the boat. Don't stop moving it, just keep reeling, they will get it! Trust me on this!



Walk the frog like the pros. Heres how:

Point your rod tip down straight to your feet aimed at the frog. Twitch from 8:00 to 6:00 with enough slack at the end of your rod to make a C not a straight line. If the line is straight, the frog will move straight. Repeat this process and the frog will move left and right, left and right. Anglers will now be able to walk the frog like the pros. The big difference is in the elimination of the thighs of the frog. This allows the nose of the frog to move more freely. Believe it or not this frog will walk easier and tighter than any other frog out there.


For open water frog fishing, it's very important that you use 30 to 50 lb. braided line. The smaller the diameter of the line the easier it is to walk the frog. Heavier braided line won't work in open water.


For heavy, matted vegetation, use 50 to 80 lb. braided line.


Thinning and feathering the legs gives the frog, at rest, a bird or dragonfly silhouette. To thin the legs, clip the skirt where it leaves the rubber band inside the frog.

To feather the legs, hold the frog upright, cut straight up the outside of the skirt.

Evaluate the intensity of the strike before you set the hook. If the strike is a subtle slurp, allow the fish to load the rod a bit before you swing. If the strike looks as though someone threw a large boulder in the water, then swing immediately. Grab a stout rod 6'6" to 8'. Get some 30lb.+ braided line and a new Perfect Frog, "Swamp Donkey", or "Spro" in your favorite color. You are now ready to tangle with the biggest bass in the pond.