For the most part now, regardless of where you live and bass fish, the temperatures are climbing and the vegetation is growing. This means that the topwater frog bite is in play and bass anglers target big bass up shallow.
One of the first topwater frogs that an angler should be looking to rig up is a popping frog, like the Snag Proof Poppin’ Phattie. The reason this frog is one of the first to get rigged up by myself is that you can work it very slow up shallow giving it short, quick pops and then pause it. Up shallow in the Midwest and Northeast right now, this is a killer technique to entice bedding or cruising bass into biting. Further South, this same technique is an awesome way to mimic bluegills or bream that are up shallow on their beds…an easy meal for bass!
Fishing a topwater frog, like a Snag Proof Bobby’s Perfect around lily pads is quite common and many times, one of the first areas bass will populate following them spawning. When you are looking for bass in lily pads, be sure to listen very closely to the noises coming from those lily pads. What you want to be listening for is the sound of bluegills or other sunfish popping those lily pads; this means there is food there for the bass to eat. Another sound you want to be listening for is there are bullfrogs croaking up near shore. Any time I’m fishing lily pad fields, I like to run my Hydrowave unit on the Active Pad mode, this helps emulate those noises.
The reason I like the Bobby’s Perfect Frog is that is has the needed weight for me to make long casts, while still having a compact profile allowing for bass to engulf the bait with ease. Being able to walk-the-dog with your frog is important as it will trigger a strike from a bass when retrieving your frog back to the boat over open water.
I admit, it can be over whelming deciding what color frog to tie on. One thing that I take into consideration is that the weather conditions are and to get the most up-to-date conditions and now what conditions I’ll be facing throughout the day,
I follow this simple color selection guide:
Sunny and Bright (Midday or Afternoon) – White or Sexy Shad
Overcast (Early Morning or Evening) – Brown Bullfrog
Dark and Stormy – High Switch or Tweety
As the days of June are counting down it is now the time for that topwater frog bite to takeoff, so don’t get caught off guard when you are on the water, be rigged and ready for conditions at hand for some phenomenal topwater bass fishing.
My go to gear for frog fishing includes:
Rod – Witch Doctor Tackle Shaman Series (6’10” Heavy power, extra fast action)
Reel – Wright & McGill Victory Pro Carbon (7.9:1 gear ratio)
Line – Seaguar Smackdown 65-pound
A heavy action rod with a fast to extra fast action is important because you need to have plenty of backbone to hook and haul a bass out of the thickest of cover, while still being able to work your frog back to the boat. The rod I choose is super strong, while still being sensitive and feather lite, meaning I can fish all day with it and not get fatigued and with the shorter grip it allows for easier walking-the-dog.
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