I’ve caught more big bass shallow on a floating frog than any other lure. Period. And September is an awesome month to make it happen. I love football just as much as many of you, but don’t let pigskins get in the way of your chance to whack a bunch of big bass on a nearly snag-free hollow bellied frog lure this month.
The Perfect Froggin’ Day: Really light winds and overcast or partly sunny is ideal, but you can definitely catch bass under sunny skies too. Cloudy days just seem to keep the bass active shallow longer into the day.
Two colors: There are a ton of cool looking colors out there, but don’t make it difficult. If I had to pick just two colors of Booyah Pad Crasher frogs, it would be straight black, and a secondly, a color called “Shad Frog” which has a white belly, orange throat, and a greenish back. Day in and day out, straight black is tough to beat.
Where to cast: Aside from the fact that very few lures in the history of bass fishing catch more big bass shallow, the second best part of hollow bodied frogs is that you can’t hardly snag them – even around thick habitat. If your pond or lake has shoreline vegetation, that’s perfect froggin’ water, but you don’t have to have aquatic vegetation, they’ll eat a frog around shallow docks, and flooded brush, too.
Depth: Obviously, this is a floating lure, but when I say shallow, I mean shallow! This is an “around the shoreline” kinda lure. Most of your best bites on a Pad Crasher frog are gonna take place from the shoreline out to about 3 feet deep.
Rod, Reel and Line: Go Big! Big Bass. Big rod. Big Line. I prefer a 7-foot long and heavy, heavy, action baitcasting rod. I pair it with a 7.2:1 Shimano Chronarch baitcasting reel, and spool up every time with 65-pound PowerPro braided line.
Retrieve: Keep your rod tip pointed downward at the 8 o’clock position toward the water, and twitch it steadily. You want to keep the frog moving across the surface, but you really need to retrieve it slow and steady, not too fast. I may pause for a second or two, but the key is to move it slowly across the surface with nearly non-stop twitches of the rod tip without getting in a hurry.
Lastly … Stay Calm and Set the Hook: It’s kind of a contradiction to say stay calm when a big bass eats your frog off the surface, but truly, try hard to take a deep breath in that nanosecond before you set the hook. If you react instantly, you’re gonna pull the frog out of the fish’s mouth.
