Frog Fishing from a Kayak - 4 years of lessons learned - Pt. 1

First let me give you a little background on how I got into frog fishing so you can see why it appeals to me.  About 4 years ago I got into kayak fishing and started exploring new places around the area, and one of those places was a swamp called Blackwell.  It was full of vegetation unlike anything I had previously fished on the main river or in the small creeks I frequented.  Lily pads were basically blanketing the water with various types of grass woven throughout and stumps nearly every 3 feet.  At the time I thought it looked not so much fishy as snakey.  So I fished the open holes I could find just as I had the other places I fished, with a shakey head or a spinnerbait, and had some success.  However, I kept seeing wakes move about in the lily pads on the edges of the holes and felt like I was only presenting my lure to maybe 1% of the fish possible.  So after doing a little research I went back armed with a weedless selection of lures, some  tx rig plastics and a hollow body frog, I don't remember which one exactly but if I had to guess it was probably an h20 or maybe a Booyah Pad crasher.  Well the frog bite was on, nearly every other casts for the first hour of the day resulted in blow up after blow up and zero fish.  Every single one happened the same way, massive explosion, a short jerk, a hookset, and nothing.  So I decided I would let the next one chew on it before setting the hook.  Sure enough he was on the edge of one of the holes I normally fished with a spinnerbait and as I drug it out from the lily pad wall he blew up, I counted to 3 and reel down and set the hook.  Finally a fish on!  I think I was more proud of that dark 16" bass than just about any other fish I had caught in recent memory.  I had no idea that for the next 2 years a frog would be the primary lure that I used to catch fish with and that I would catch several 5+ pound fish, sometimes multiple in the same trip.  First I had to figure out how to increase my hookup ratio, so after a little research I realized the weakness in my setup was mono line.  I had never used anything but mono before and it worked well for every other technique I had tried, but the same stretch that keeps a crankbait fish hooked up in a creek was allowing bass to bury up in the grass and throw my frog.  After spooling up with some 30lb powerpro something awesome happened,  I caught a dozen bass on the frog and only missed about five.  That was an incredible increase from the one out of ten bites on my last trip, the fish were staying hooked and I guess you could say I was too.

So that's the end of the story right? Not quite, it was actually the beginning, I became obsessed with frog fishing and trying out different kinds, brands, styles, rigging, colors, etc.  If it popped, buzzed, walked the dog, or looked any different from what I already had tried, I tried it.  I've been called a frog expert, I wouldn't say I'm an expert at anything fishing, but I was definitely a frog fanatic.  I even had friends that knew I had gone frog crazy sending me emails with new frogs and asking me which ones I had tried.  Live Target, Scum Frog, Stanley Ribbits, Z-man Hard legz, Kahara diving frog, Popping pad crashers, Spro walking shad, etc etc.  They all seemed to have their own style that they brought to frog fishing but I soon had a few favorites.  One was the popping scum frog, it was cheap compared to it's competitors at $2.99 and it's hookup ratio was one of the best.  It was a very soft frog and that meant if a fish pulled it under he almost always stayed hooked up.  However, there were two things that made me look for something better, it wouldn't last for very many fish until it was taking on water, and at 5/16 oz it was a challenge to cast on anything but calm days.  After going through a few brands I finally settled on a frog that I could cast like a bullet that allowed me to target low overhangs but would survive multiple big fish, the popping pad crasher from Booyah.  However, there were times when I would see fish wake up to the bait and turn away or occasionally found grass so thick the frog wasn't able to effectively grab enough water to pop like it should.

So I started looking for something to get a reaction bite and that would be effective in the thickest grass.  Stanley Ribbits seemed to be the obvious answer and I still have a place for them in my box to this day but I couldn't cast them like I needed to and they were too light to make much of a presence in the thickest mats. That being said one of my best days at the swamp was pulling ribbits across lily pads and killing it in the holes, as it fluttered down they would thump it and the hook up ratio on them is fantastic.  Stanley also offers another buzz frog but this one is unique in that is floats even when paused in open water, the Stanley Top Toad.   This lure was catching fish for me unlike any frog I had tried so far, and big fish at that.  At 3/4 oz I could cover water quickly, trigger strikes in the thickest mats, and pause it in the holes when necessary since it floated.  Also with the double take hooks if I didn't pull it away from them too quick I almost never lost a fish after the initial hookup.  I had found the perfect compliment to my popping pad crasher.

So those two frogs will catch everything that swims right?  Not exactly, I could trigger strikes in the thick mat that would blow a 10" hole in the grass but sometimes they would completely miss the frog, I could reel it in and try again but often the buzz would bring them right up to the boat and sometimes spook them.   Well, remember that H20 hollow body frog that I started with?  With a 6'6" mh rod and a 3/8 oz frog I could hit those 10" holes or just barley past them, and when that subtle movement came into the hole, maybe the injured frog the bass just blew up on?  They would hammer it.  This allowed me to capitalize on the missed strikes and not worry about trying to catch every fish that blew up on the top toad.  It was an interesting system because I was literally screaming the top toad across mats just hoping for a blow up, not even trying to catch a fish, just trying to get them to show theirselves, then that's when I started fishing for them.  I could cover 100 yards of mat in 30 minutes and cover every 3 ft.

At first I was scanning random banks without no rhyme or reason, I was basically willing to accept that for every fish caught I was probably making 100 casts.  But soon I realized a pattern, there were hot spots, where I would catch 2 or 3 fish in a small stretch and then nothing for a while and then 2 or 3.  I tried to understand the pattern but it didn't seem obvious to me at first, until I realized this blanket of grass that seemed featureless had points, pockets, seams and structures and if I was able to key in on those structures instead of mindlessly scanning the banks I could maximize my time on the water.  I also realized that almost without exception all of my fish were caught by 9 am.  There were also other variable I could go into that would require another book like post, maybe one day, that determined what lure I started with and colors etc.  But for the moment the most important thing was to start early, fish the hot spots and realize when to adjust these techniques or compliment them.  I often had 3 rods on the deck with 3 different frogs, or 2 frogs and 1 buzzbait.

So after winning a Kayak Angler for a Cause tournament on frogs, and several new PB's on frogs, what have I learned these last 3 years?

1.  Frogs catch big fish.
2. There are a few tips and tricks to increase your hook up ratio, but the biggest is to let the fish have it.  If you set the hook on the blow up you've missed it 9 out of 10 times.  See the explosion reel down and strike up.
3. People have favorite frogs from one brand or another, I haven't seen any catch more than another, I  look for a healthy mix between effective and cheap and the Booyah Pad Crashers have done that for me, as for a buzzing frog I could easily go back and forth between the hardlegz by Z-man and the Top Toad, they both work well.
4. Braided line is a must, if not for it I would have given up on frog fishing a long time ago a medium heavy or heavy rod also helps a lot as well.
5. Fish early or fish late, I have caught fish on a frog on a sunny day at noon, but it's not ideal.

I think the most important thing with a frog is being willing to give it the time to be comfortable with letting them chew on it, learn where the ambush points are in a sea of grass, and realize how versatile a frog can be.  Just the other day I started throwing frogs in a small clear creek for smallmouth after seeing Chad Hoover using one to target smallmouth in Tennessee.  You know what?  Alabama smallies like frogs just like they do up north.  I have caught more smallmouth this past month on a frog than anything else.  And I haven't completely settled on which frog I'll always use for what, when a new product comes along I like to see if I can add something to my arsenal I don't have, for example my last two big fish have come from a new frog from Academy, their H20 popping frog.

So go throw a frog, if you're just starting out grab a couple of the cheap scum frogs to ensure a good hookup ratio to help you gain confidence.  Fish them around overhangs and holes in the grass early and hold on, it's a technique that you'll not soon put down after your first few frog fish, at least not until November.