Every summer I hear about what a great bait frogs are for big bass. And every summer I hear the stories about giant blow ups on frogs and missed/lost giants. My question is, has anyone here actually caught a 10+ on a frog? I've looked at hundreds if not thousands of pics of double digit bass and the only fish I can recall on frogs are some of Bobby Barrack's fish. So you tell me, are frogs really a good bait for 10+ bass? Can anyone show me a pic of a bonafide 10+ caught on a frog? Or is it all just a big one that got away story :)

All my big ones got away! :P I've seen some "big" blow ups but I really doubt they pushed the double digit mark. And on that note, I too have never seen someone frog a fish of that size.

matt

My biggest frog fish is about 6, but Ive only fished them for 2 years now. Ive re-adjusted my "big fish frog goal" to wanting one 8 or better this year. Im still waiting for the weather to get right before I start frogging in earnest. Ive never heard of one over ten on a frog. The closest thing to that that Ive done is losing one well over 10 at the Delta on a Trixie, that fish still haunts me I can still see its big ugly head thrashing at the surface.

The problem w/ frogs is that on a good day you will hook about half your blow ups. I know alot of the guy's on western bass have got 10+ fish on them I have herd about it on posts and I think I have seen a few pics in the photo section on there. I know I have had 1 10+ miss my frog twice, but have yet to land one over 5 on a frog.

Hey let that Bass go I wanna catch her some day
http://www.calfishing.com/gallery/v/members/tmcustoms/

I have a picture of my old boss of a 11 (should have been bigger, kinda skinny) that he got on a Sumo frog down here. I'll see if I can find it and e-mail to you. I was there when he caught it.

My biggest is 9 and that was on the Delta. I know a couple of guys up there with 12-13 pound fish on frogs at the Delta. During the week on a good tide they said...

I hear about the big delta frog fish too, the thing that is wierd is that you never see a picture. On TBO there are 50+ pages of double digit fish and I don't think a single one of them is on a frog. Maybe the big bite on frogs is so good that people are keeping it a secret? :D I just wonder about this kind of stuff because for me frog fishing has been a total small fish technique. Instead of closing my mind to it, I'm throwing this post out there to get more information. I'm not asking for spots or times or where the fish were caught, I just would like to see some bonafide 10+ frog fish.

I know when we were out there last my buddy was throwing into the toolies with no grass mat around them. I watched a big girl come out of the water but missed it. All his big bites came in areas like that. I have no idea where we were because I don't know the Delta at all. Somewhere around Franks Track i think? Supposedly July is when it starts to happen, and I know Clear Lake has a good frog bite. You met Fred and he's caught a ton of DD on the frog up there too

One of the biggest problems with Frog-fishing is the frogs themselves. Not many good ones out there. First problem is the double hook. I don't really know why but double hooks are just lousy. Back in my steelhead days I tried double point hook Salmon flies and they were lousy for hooking. Maybe its having to drive two points in instead of one. Whatever they are lousy.
The other thing is that most of the frogs are too light so when bass hit em they bounce into the air instead of the mouth. You can weight em down, but its tricky because then they sink through the slop.
Then there's the problem of getting them to land rightside up. It really pisses me off to make the perfect cast (which I do every now and then) and then having the frog land upside down and get a wad of cheese stuck on it. Some of the Japanese frogs are designed pretty well in that regard (counterbalanced), but they still land upside down too often for me.
The final problem for me is that its pretty much impossible to find and target individual fish. You just gotta go out and pound the cheese. Gets really boring which is really the reason the hits seem so exciting. Just when you're about to fall asleep Kablam! and then you're supposed to not strike until you feel em pull???
Anyway back to the original question. There are guys out there who specialize in it and do pretty good from what I hear. They even catch some 10+, but fishing in CA there are a lot of better ways to consistently catch 10+ bass in my .02.

three weeks ago at the delta, my buddy Tim Wilsterman caught a 10-6 on a Sumo frog. It was an insane blowup! I'll try to post the pic.

Last year at the Delta Open there was a 9.43 weighed in that came on a frog, I know it’s not a 10+ but it is close.

Here is a link to the pic
http://www.bass-n-tubes.com/gallery/album16/tim_crane_2

FIT

Sorry FIT but JRs fish was caught on a Delta Money Reap.
I know this
I was 40 feet from him when all hell broke loose. :)
Nice fish

JC

http://www.bassanglerprofiles.com/joeycastro.htm

You're both wrong!!!! It was a Senko!! Watermelon w/red and black flake 6-inch. The secret was the red cajun line that Jr was using :+ .

Doug

of the DD fish caught on the delta how many were caught in open water? I know Barrack has caught way more in open water than in the cheeze. Another thing to concider is that a lot of Delta guys dont post on the internet therfore we dont see or hear about these type's of fish as often.

my personal best is a frog fish, actually a rat to be specific...11.14 lbs.


http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/3834-11lber.jpg

Attachment #1, (.jpg file)

criley - Nice - I remember when you posted that fish. Didn't it hit your bait one day and then you went back and got it the next day or something like that? I asked about frogs though not rats :)

John - you're right about the delta being kept quiet. Too much tournament money on the line out there. This year I logged 14 fish over 10 caught on the delta in tournaments, and I'm sure I missed at least half as many in tournaments whose results I didn't find online. I would have to think that the Delta produces more 10+ fish in tournaments per year than anywhere else, and yet there don't appear to be any strictly trophy guys out there targeting double digit fish, or if there are - those guys are doing an extremely good job of keeping quiet.

So I still haven't seen a pic yet of a 10+ on a frog though :) I hear stories and I believe magmaster and Double Trouble when you guys say you have friends who've caught them, but like the saying goes, "show me the money" :D And Bob - I agree with your last comment, I think there are much better ways to catch dd fish. Maybe not as fun as frog fishing, but to me the odds of catching a 10+ on a frog seem just about as good as catching a 10+ dropshotting a 4" worm. At least I've seen pictures of 10+ fish on drop shot worms... lol

it blew up on the same spot in a bag mat 2 days in a row, the 3rd day it did it again, but a few casts back and it finally connected. rat/frog same thing, there all just something moving when its over a mat.

I know, I'm just being a smart ass ;)
That's amazing that the fish stayed under the same mat in the same area for 3 days. It is a very rare day to get multiple chances on a big bass like that when its not on a bed.

I know it aint no "bonafide 10" but my pb is 9.8 and that was caught on a frog on the delta in open water. I think the frog is a great way to target bigger fish maybe not necessrily trophy's, but then again i dont know squat about trophy hunting. I think if your on the river and you dropshot a 4inch worm all day you certainly have a chance to catch a nice bag, but if you toss a frog all day and get your bites to the boat you'll beat the dropshit any day. I also think your opportunities at catching a giant delta fish is gonna be better on the frog than something else on the river especially right now, but then a guy caught a 17 on a streamer fly fishing for stripers so who knows. I also had an opportunity at a real toad on the delta last summer but she came off in the grass, she was pretty big, I don't know if it was a 10+ or not cause i didnt get to hold her, but she looked a lot bigger than the 6-8lbers I was getting lucky enough to stick with a froggy hook.

cz

If the fish Magmaster is talking about belongs to Bouse, I saw the pics and it's legit- gotta love some of the OC secret spots!! }(

I remeber a seminar or article(ok I dont remember wich)where John Kerr talks about how he rigs his frogs. He ties a peice of braid to the eye of the frog and runs the line through the inside of the body. Each end is then threaded through the legs. He ties a smaller treble hook to each end and hooks them into the end of the legs where the shirts come out. It isnt as weedles but it greatly increases hook ups

www.mattlures.com

that would be weedless if you use single hooks instead of trebles right?
well, assuming it doesnt land upside down or the hooks dont turn, i guess you can super glue the hooks in place.

I do the same thing but clip the bottom hook off the treble to make it a double. If you use a needle to come up through the plastic instead of straight out the back then it puts the hook up and keeps it weedless.

John has caught quite a few double digit fish on frogs. I dont have pictures of my best frog fish, so I won't even mention them.

I always hear that frogs produce big fish too. It does seem to produce alot of fish in the 4-6lb range. I always just figured that the guys who say frogs were a "big fish bait" were speaking from a tournament stand point.

Since we're talking about frogs, I got a question. Does anyone have a favorite color for frogs? Doesn't seem to matter to me, but you look at any company and they have a dozen or more colors in there line up. Is this just a way to get you to buy more? :)

Phil the perfect frog has alot of good colors natural looking ones cicada is a good one. The 2 favorite and IMO best colors on the delta are probably black and yellow headed black bird.

Hey let that Bass go I wanna catch her some day
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White or black pretty much. It doesn't matter in the cheese. And white is good in open water. The only mods I do is add a few glass beads inside the body to rattle a bit and trim the legs. Trimming the legs helps it walk better.