7 Tips for More Effective Frog Fishing

These tricks can help you catch more bass with soft-plastic frog lures throughout the warm months. 

Working a hollow-bodied frog across pads, matted grass and stands of emergent vegetation is among the most fun ways to catch bass during the warm months, with explosive strikes sending grass in every direction. It’s also one of the most effective ways to catch bass this time of year and especially good for producing action from big bass.

In many ways, fishing a frog-style lure like a BOOYAH Pad Crasher is very straightforward, and most bass anglers know the basic technique. However, paying closer attention to a few specific things and making some strategic adjustments can elevate your frog fishing game to the next level, resulting in more fish caught. Let’s take a closer look.

Search for Signs of Life

One of the most challenging things about the fishing at many good frog lakes is that so much stuff looks so good. Even when you find combinations of grass types, contour changes and other features that can set apart the best grass beds, many vast areas still look good. Looking and listening for signs of life can help you discern where forage abounds and where bass are feeding.

If you’ve been around experienced frog fishermen, you might have heard talk of the “Rice Krispies” sound. That’s the sound of bluegills smacking insects in the grass and one of the best signs of a mat that’s likely to produce. Listen also for bass busting baitfish and watch for shad rings near the grass or bluegill beds where you can see into the water. Other important signs are “blow holes,” where bass have blown up on something on the surface, and herons or other birds that feed on fish.

Fish that will attack frogs on top are active. Even if an area has outstanding vegetation and looks right in every other way, if it feels lifeless, fish that are in the area probably aren’t active. Move to another area and keep searching for signs.

Rethink Missed Strike Strategies

Anglers commonly keep working a frog when a bass blows up on the bait but misses. This is a mistake according to veteran fishing guide and tournament pro Jimmy Mason, who spends a lot of time frog fishing on Guntersville and Pickwick. Continuing to work the frog after a missed strike draws the bass away from its ambush position and reduces the likeliness of that fish striking again, Mason has found. They might slap the lure it a time or two, but usually less decisively. And then you don’t know where to try again.

A better strategy is to immediately reel back the frog, cranking as quickly as possible, and cast right back to the spot where the bass hit. More often than not the fish will still be right there and in ready mode and will attack the frog as soon as it lands or as soon as it starts moving again. And the second strike is usually decisive and on-target.

Pick the Right Frog

BOOYAH makes four models of Pad Crasher for good reason. Different situations call for different frogs. While all come through slop, making commotion the surface, and will produce some bass if fished in good areas, each fits a different niche, and choosing the right frog will help you catch more fish.

The original Pad Crasher comes through the thickest stuff better than either popping version and can slide over weeds or walk in open water. It casts farther than either Jr model and makes a bigger impression atop mats or pads to get the fish’s attention.

The Poppin’ Pad Crasher and Poppin’ Pad Crasher Jr work extra well for working through sparse vegetation or even open water, often above submerged grass, because the pop proves extra attraction. These frogs offer the benefits of a hard popper, but in a weedless form that allows you to fish areas you cannot work with open trebles.

The Pad Crasher Jr and Poppin’ Pad Crasher Jr, which are slightly downsized, will often produce more strikes when heavy fishing pressure or conditions make the fish a bit fussier and when smaller prevalent forage has the fish locked in on smaller targets.

Consider Color Choices

Color also can make a significant difference some days, whether that has to do with matching forage or enhancing visibility. Begin with the color that seems to make sense, but don’t be shy about switching if all else seems right and the fish aren’t responding as it seems like they should. If two people are throwing frogs, it’s usually a good game plan to start with two different colors and take note of whether the fish show a preference.

In terms of starting picks a few things warrant consideration. The first is forage. The Pad Crasher comes in several frog-mimicking patterns because frogs do scurry across weedy areas and provide great forage. However, often the bass are relating primarily to bluegills or shad, so consider this when you choose colors. Also consider conditions. Darker colors or very bright tones tend to work best in dark water and on dark days while light colors excel on sunny days.

As a final consideration related to color, use colors that instill confidence in you. Higher confidence in a bait and color almost invariably leads to better focus and more effective presentations.

Don’t Overlook Margin Area

With vegetation like hydrilla and milfoil that grows from the bottom and mats up on the surface, it’s easy to perceive the edge of the surface vegetation as the edge of the useful cover and focus every cast on the thickest stuff. If the depth tapers gradually, though, the vegetation often extends well out from the visible mat, and sometimes those margin areas, where the grass grows to just beneath the surface or only reaches the surface in spots, hold good numbers of feeding bas that get less pressure.

If you go straight to a mat edge, you’re putting the boat directly over any outside fish and almost certainly spooking them. A far better strategy – early in the day, at least – is to start with the boat farther out and work at least a cast’s length of those margin waters with a Poppin’ Pad Crasher before moving tighter with a regular Pad Crasher.

That approach also help you pattern fish and learn how they are positioned. If every strike occurs either over the submerged grass or in the thickest stuff, adjust your strategy as you move from one weed bed to the next.

Get ‘Em Out Quickly

When you’re frog fishing in thick stuff and hook a bass, priority number one is to get that fish to the top of the grass and moving in your direction, with continual tension on the line. Unlike lighter line techniques or using crankbaits with small trebles, you need to gear up heavy and trust your line and hooks. Every inch you give a bass in the grass equates to an added opportunity for that fish to bury in the grass and another chance for it to twist out the hook.

Most frog fishing veterans use stout braid – often 40- to 60-pound-test – with no leader. Bass are attacking through weeds and are not line shy. Strong braid and a heavy or medium-heavy rod with a lot of backbone allow you to keep pressure on the bass. The ideal scenario is to crank the fish straight to the top and skate it across the surface, but often can’t get them all the way to the top that fast, and you’ll haul in the bass and a big wad of grass together.

Keep Moving & Stay Put

Fish commonly school in vegetation, and active fish, especially, tend to stack up in specific areas, often without obvious rhyme or reason. That leaves significant areas where everything seems right but where you just don’t catch fish or where the fish are small or very scattered. As hard as it can to keep moving when everything looks great, that tends to be the best strategy – until you start getting hits.

When you start getting blow-ups, that strategy does an immediate 180. Work that area thoroughly. There could be several other fish nearby that would be willing to bite, and it’s easy to catch a couple and keep moving like you have been and get out of the fish as quickly as you got into them.

More specifically, when you catch a fish, repeat the exact cast (which is easy to execute with many kinds of vegetation because frog paths and blow holes provide paths to follow. Then cross the strike zone from a few other angles before moving on.  While everything can look the same from above the surface, little edges, bottom make-up transitions and pieces of cover can make a very small area a key ambush zone and hold a congregation of feeding bass.

Every Color for Every Frog

BOOYAH Bait Company has made a great move for anglers with recent color expansions that result in all Pad Crasher colors now being available for all four Pad Crasher Models

• Pad Crasher
• Poppin’ Pad Crasher
• Pad Crasher Jr
• Poppin’ Pad Crasher Jr