Fishing with frogs

It’s well known that many freshwater predators including bass, Murray cod, barramundi, sooty grunter, jungle perch, saratoga and more eat frogs. It’s also well known that angers have been using frog imitation lures in order to fool these same species for years. With the availability of lures on the market these days, there’s no problem finding a few frog look-alikes to toss into the freshwater, but there’s a bit to consider when finding the right frog for the right situation!

Frog lures come in many varieties, but the main ones are hollow body, soft plastic, and hardbody.

Hollow body frogs such as the River2Sea Step WA Frog are generally made from rubber, have a hollowbody, with upward facing hooks, meaning they can be worked over thick cover. Throwing hollow body frogs over the top of heavy weed or lilypads can see some exciting surface blowups, but anglers need to ‘set’ the hook when the frog gets eaten to ensure the well-buried hooks find their mark in the fish’s mouth.

Soft plastic frogs have become very popular in recent years, and once again anglers are spoiled for choice with this variety. A few favourites are the Chasebaits Bobbin Frog, ZMan 4” Hard Leg Frogz, and ZMan Finesse Frogz Soft Plastics. Like soft plastics anywhere, they can be rigged to suit the angler and the situation. Anglers often chose to fish these presentations weedless with a single upward facing hook to allow the plastic to bounce over any snags. Once again, anglers need to set the hook when the frog gets eaten!

With soft plastics and hollow bodies, it helps to fish slightly heavier than you would if fishing more open water. Given that you’re fishing amongst thick cover and need to pull the fish out of there, having a bit of extra stick on your side will help land you more fish. The use of braid is also recommended, because you don’t want to be allowing too much extra stretch!

Hardbody frogs come in many shapes and sizes, and the Tiemco W-Buzz Hard Body Lure and Westin Freddy the Frog Swimbait are about as different as they come. They are, however, both hardbodies and they both imitate frogs. These may not be as useful amongst snaggy territory, but if frogs are on the menu, they’re well worth tying on!

If you spend a lot of time fishing the freshwater, make sure you have a range of frogs ready to go. Freshwater predators will rarely turn down a well-presented frog, and the surface strikes are pretty spectacular too!