I NEED frog help.

[troutnut]

Saturday my brother and I took the boat out to Mildred Island and went for my first frog fishing expedition. I was using Tweety, my brother was using a brown bullfrog Bobby Barrack perfect frog. I also tried a pearl white, a mink and the red head, all as they come out of the box. I either used Kistler frog rod with 65 lb Spiderwire or my kistler flipstick with 30lb flourocarbon.

We had over a hundred (maybe 2 hundred) blow ups and swirls, yet we didn't hook one fish. I only had 3 pull the frog under the weeds. The rest either missed it or bumped it up in the air. Most would swirl directly behind or just in front of the frog. Most of the blow-ups would occur just as I paused on the far side of a open patch in the heavy mats. The holes in the mat that had fish in them were only about the size of a volleyball. The big holes did nothing for me. I could almost predict when they were going to blow up at it but I could never hook up. I threw at some boils out in the open water on the opposite side and I even missed those fish.

I tried crawling the frog super slow, snapping it pretty fast across the cheese, doing a snap,snap pause...nothing improved the hook up rate.

The most blow ups came from crawling the frog across the mat of weeds.

We went to the Rib Factory for lunch, came back about 2 hours later, the tide went out but the fish were still there and I still kept missing them.


It was the most exciting day I have had fishing where I didn't catch a fish.

HOW DO I GET THEM TO EAT IT?

[Rich_Thiel]

I was out Saturday myself running around old and middle river. Throwin Frog has you and had 15-20 blowups with 6-7 fish comin into the boat. Biggiest was around 4 and some change. In my opinion some of the fish JUST DIDN"T WON"T IT but wanted out of their area. Here's your option plan next time you go out. You miss a fish. throw a Senko in the hole, They should eat it.

For the swirls behind and infront of the frog. They may have been Carp. I ran across the same situation. Especially if the water is less than 2ft. Most fish that you get on a frog is 2 1/2, 3ft and down, 3 1/2 to 4ft is primo. I was fish'in hyichtn (sp).

Tight Lines

Rich Thiel

[MasterBassinator]

sharpen your hooks

[troutnut]

even when the frogs are new out-of-the-box?

[Cooch]

That's all part of early season froggin when attempting to fish the heavy cheese. You just ain't gonna git them smaller fish in that stuff to come up through and grab that frog in their mouths.

I fished a big mat in Mildred on Saturday with a client, back in the far SW corner behind the old submerged orchard. We had a dozen blow ups and two boated fish, neither fish was over 2 pounds. We also had some purty monstrous swirls, that to some would appear to be missed strikes, but infact were giant carp that swirled as our baits came over their heads.

So tie in small fish, lottsa carp and the fact we are still having very cool nights, heck we had fog on the river fer two hours in Franks yesterday, theres really nothing you need to do to your frogs to improve yer catch rate based on Saturday's experience.

The topwater bite in general is slow to materialize this year due to the cool nights and low water temps. I'm not only getting slaps and misses on my frogs, but just about every dang topwater lure I toss! It's post spawn/summer transition, this is perfectly normal and the fish strikes tend to be very uncommital at times. I know there's nothing I need to change on my jig or Red Bomber, I'm getting short strikes on these too. As long as ya see that fog blanket over the hills to the west, you can expect the bite to be this way on the river.

Keep fishin buddy, and git off the matt and into some open water. they'll start ta come!

[troutnut]

I think we saw you back there. We were working the northern side.

I can wait a couple of weeks and fish other stuff.

That frog fishing has me so excited I can't stand it. I want to take my prissy little 10 year old neice out, get her addicted to topwater bass fishing, then send her home to her mom (sister in law)!

[Andy Giannini]

Rich and Cooch really hit the nail on the head. Reading what Rich wrote was weird, it was like our psychic link was activated again.

Sometimes, the fish have off days and don't hit round targets well. I don't know what it is, or why. Another idea to try on those days, vs. a follow up bait is just fish a big long worm instead of a frog. Hannon caught many fish this way and it got me to trying it. I just used a ten inch Power Worm weightless. You can cast it pretty far, thump the head on the mat, or add weight to the Texas setup if the mat is really thick. A great big Senko would be a good option too. And look at it this way, if the fish blows up a big hole you don't need to reach for a follow up rod. The Senko is already sinking into the water to do its majic thing and get you that bite. (This can be important if your partner keeps throwing in your blowups catching YOUR FISH! Not just a tournament, but a friendly trip with your brother in law that keeps on doing it can turn unfreindly after a while!) No second cast needed! Big plastic worms,or Sluggo type baits are overlooked mat offerings in this day of high tech toadyness.

.02 A.G.

[kopper_bass]

i was out this past weekend, and finally, finally, got a fish to hook up on my frog. and then again, and again. Where? out in open water! I was amazed 'cause i kept targeting the "expected areas" with all the same results you mentioned, but once I started thowing it in different situations, it started to happen - hookups!

The thing I started understanding last year, and am learning more and more this year is that the guys who are really awesome at frog fishing and have huge hookup success don't really fish the cheeze! They fish around cover, open water, and the edges of things.

When you begin to throw a frog in places other than the cheeze, then you'll also see your hookup ratio and success go way up.

So, next time your own fishing and you go to pick up that spinnerbait to bump thru those grassy patches that are just being exposed with the lower tide, grab your frog instead and work it!

I think you'll be amazed.

Kopper_Bass

[Mark Langner]

Barrack and others have preached open water froggin for a while now. I think westernbasstv has a video by Tony Francheschi (sp?) on the subject that I thought was pretty good. Helped me anyways.....cheers

[Cooch]

to more hook ups and bigger fish. You'll still miss some fish, but that hook up ratio will climb.

For me, during this time of year, I really prefer to stick with topwater baits that have treble hooks on em. When fishing open water, I can put a chugger, popper, Spook, propbait or Jitterbug any place ya wanna toss a frog, and then some. For those fish that are just swiping at the surface prey and missing a frog or single hook buzzer, your gonna git far more hook ups on these treble hook bearing baits. This is one of the reasons why I also prefer to toss a variety of crankbaits at this time of year versus a blade, when they swipe uncommittingly, your odds of hooking them are greater with a treble hook filled bait.

Frogs are purty exciting when the bite is on, but the true reality is, it ain't the only topwater bait that you can catch giants with out on the River. There are plenty of other topwater baits that indeed can be fished and will put just as big of fish in yer boat, and certainly on the average MORE fish in the boat on a more consistant basis than a frog. 20+ pounds won the ABA this weekend, all on poppers in Franks. And when the wind comes up, don't hesitate to tie on a giant chugger like the Megabaits or Creek Chubs, fish em fast and erratic.

There are a lot of options for topwater at this time of year, experiment and you'll find yourself catching topwater fish when others are stuggling to do so.

[Tm Customs]

I thought I would mention that Floro is not good for frog fishin since it sinks

[Guest]

I decided to fish some topwater around Disco Bay last night around the last 3 hours before sunset and the fish that did blow up on the frog were all in open water (some water was 6" deep while others were in 10') and a good 70% of the strikes either didn't take the bait all the way down or were missing the bait all together. The fish are agitated by the topwater bait, but they are not taking it down all the way.

It's been my experience that we you notice quite a bit of blow ups like this it's best to switch over to a bait with treble hooks like a prop bait, pop-r, etc. I eventually switched over to a prop bait and hooked several nice fish from 10" to almost 5lbs all before sunset.

Open water is going to be your best bet along with fishing the outside weed edges or deeper rocks near some sort of current.

[Rich_Thiel]

Top Water baits in a varity of Makers work real well. With the grass com'in on strong and the abundance of large fish on the Delta, there is going to be quite a few fish in the 7 on up range caught.

Cooch and Vince were correct in there open water theorie's. What I found most often is "SPEED" of the bait that can be crucial. Theirs times to pop it slow and theirs times to retrieve it fast. What I do is let the fish dictate in which rythem they prefer. Blades the same way.

Cooch, You talk about a Megabait. Im trying out a topwater bait that weights 2 and 5/16 oz's. LOL... It'll take a 5lb or larger fish just to get its mouth around it. LOL..... It was the Devil in me to buy it.

Rich Thiel

[Steve]

... I only target open water holes in the cheese. Ill throw on the cheese and work the frog quickly to the open hole, then just jump iit in there. Ill let it sit there for as long as I can stand it. I dont want a fish to hit it while in the cheese, I want that fish to follow the bait to the open hole (thats why I work it fast). Also, Ill do the same with the edge of the cheese and open water. My hookup ratio doing this is very high, but its very low for fish that blow up thru the cheese.

I also throw a frog into the tules. However, in true open water there are much better baits to throw, my favorite being the Trixie. And I suppose the horny toad will accomplish the same thing as the Trixies, its the same concept just a different package.

And until we get a good spell of hard, hot weather with (preferably) no wind the froggie thing aint gonna be what I want it to be. For that matter, we need that kinda weather to get the fish out of this funky prespawn/summer transition and into the summer mode. Fishing has been very difficult for me in the last three weeks.

And, I had a flashback to my Humboldt days yesterday when my house in Sac was rocked by that earthquake. Strange weather this year, tornadoes, earthquakes, snow, fish spawning into late June, ......

[massbaster]

I agree with the open water theory also . Although i do have one thing to add. when you Throw back in the open pockets, especially the ones between shore and the weed pacthes. Let your frog sit still for a LONG time I cant count thenumber of times i have tossed my frog up by shore and started to fiddle with my cast settings or picking out a backlash and I had one hammer it . The hook up ratio is good when they hit it like this as long as you dont jerk too fast, you got to let them eat it. Braid is the only way to go with frogs they move alot better with braid and it does not sink like flouro. I also have one of those Kistler frog rods and I like it alot, its also a good flipping/picthing stick.

[Aaron Hart]

when he says that the fish are very uncommitted as I have experienced similar strikes while frog fishing open water next to weeds at Contra Loma over the past 2 weeks. I've had about 10 blowups and only caught one small fish. The other fish were good keepers but seemed to only be taking the frog down by its legs and not eating it. I guess that's an example of the fish not being very committed. However, today I finally got a fish to commit to my white Perfect Frog. It was a good one too....a 5lb. 9oz. that absolutely crushed my frog from the side! That slow, methodical, walking retrieve proved to be the ticket! I also agree with others that open water froggin right now is your best bet until we get some good, hot weather for a few days straight. Good luck with the frog!

Aaron Hart