There is no doubt that frog fishing is one of the most fun ways to catch a bass. Something about the blow ups and having to wrestle the fish out and through heavy cover to get it in the boat. As if that wasn’t enough, a frog has become synonymous with catching big bass. Because you are often fishing it where the biggest bass lurk, and the bite is so visual, it has become one of the most fun things in bass fishing. So we thought it appropriate to rundown some of the Best Frog Lures in 2023 for Bass Fishing.
- Best Overall – Jackall Kaera Frog [SEE HERE]
- Best Heavy Cover – Snagproof Bobby’s Perfect Frog [SEE HERE]
- Best Everyday Frog – Booyah Pad Crasher [SEE HERE]
- Best Bluegill – Strike King KVD Popping Perch [SEE HERE]
- Best Walking – SPRO Dean Rojas Bronzeye Poppin Frog 60 [SEE HERE]
- Best Budget – Scum Frog Trophy Series Popper Frog [SEE HERE]
- Best Big – SPRO Dean Rojas Bronzeye Poppin’ Frog 70 [SEE HERE]
- Best Hybrid – Deps Basirisky Frog [SEE HERE]
Best Overall – Jackall Kaera Frog
This frog is an absolute catcher. It’s smaller than a lot of the average sized frogs on the market at around 2 1/4 inches long body without the legs. It’s a small package, but it weighs between 3/8 and 1/2 ounce. So it casts really well for its small package. Now if you want to bomb this frog 100 feet back into a grass mat, this is probably not the frog for you. But if you like to sneak around in the backwaters picking off those bass everyone else overlooks and spooks, this is the frog.
Probably it’s best attribute is how well it walks. Small frogs can be hard to walk. But this frog has some of the best color patterns, walks like a dream, the custom widened hook sticks fish really well and I fish it a lot on smaller tackle like Spinnerbait rods. I can skip it under trees, docks, bushes, I can work it through grass, on mats and more. And it holds up really well.
Pros
- Great walking frog
- Compact size gets bit
- Great hook
- Great colors
- Fishes great on smaller frog rods
Cons
- Not a frog to make long bomb casts with.
Best in Heavy Cover – Snagproof Bobby’s Perfect Frog
Bobby Barrack has forgotten more about getting frogs out of heavy cover and he fishes a frog literally 12 months out of the year. He’s taken bass from heavy matted vegetation equally as well as he has from gnarly laydwon trees and brush with his signature Bobby’s Perfect Frog. This revamped frogs features improved material for better hookups but still the same durable frog that holds up to heavy abuse on super heavy tackle. It walks well, and has a ton of upgrades for this year.
It features a new keel design, new improved material, improved super sharp hooks, a molded in rear weight to get the nose up so it will walk perfectly in open water and hit down on a mat equally well, and finally the water evacuation system that clears the frog of water on every cast.
This is the big slop and open water workhorse designed by one of the biggest names in frog fishing.
Pros
- New keel, rear weight, and water evacuation system
- Great hook
- Softer more collapsible body
- Great newly designed colors
Cons
- Hook points slightly downturned which some frog lovers may not like
BEST EVERYDAY FROG – BOOYAH POPPIN PAD CRASHER
The Booyah Pad Crasher is widely renowned as one of the best hollow bodied frogs for the money. This frog has a coupe key features that really enhance this lures fish catching ability. One of my favorite features this frog has is a super soft body. This soft body allows the frog to collapse and expose the hooks when a bass strikes. This collapsibility greatly enhances your hookup ratio compared to many other frogs on the market.
Another great feature is slightly exposed hooks. The hooks on this frog sit slightly above the frog’s body. This allows the hooks to catch the fish’s mouth as it grazes over to top of the frog. This helps with hook penetration when fish don’t properly eat this bait. This bait also comes equipped with a drain hole to expel water, as well as a V shaped body allowing this bait to run properly and easily come through cover. And it holds up well for such a soft frog. It’s a heck of a bargain in hollow bodied frogs. These are a few of the reasons why this frog has become so popular with anglers.
Read our full Booyah Poppin Pad Crasher review.
Pros
- Affordable
- Soft and collapsable
- Decent colors
Cons
- Can tear up at times.
Best Bluegill Imitator – Strike King Popping Perch
Many of us that have thrown frogs for a long time, believe hollow-bodied frog lures don’t imitate frogs but rather bluegill. If you’ve ever watched small bluegills shark around on the surface after bugs and stuff late in the evening or in shady areas you will see what we mean. The Strike King Popping Perch (review) was developed and tested to produce a body that more resembled a small bodied baby panfish than a frog. So the flared tail, hard fast walking ability and perfectly matched body that hides the 4/0 hook all comes together to make the perfect perch imitating bait.
The original version had some water issues but the new design has a hole on the top to let water escape on the casts and also helps the bait collapse easier on the bite. So now it’s a very durable, great walking, fast fishing and slow slaying frog that comes in a wide range of color and baitfish mimicking options.
Pros
- Great colors
- Unique bluegill profile
- Fishes fast well
- Very durable
Cons
- Original had water issues so some froggers are still jaded
Best Walking – SPRO Dean Rojas Bronzeye Poppin Frog 60
It’s still hard to be the original for day after day performance. While the Bronzeye wasn’t the first frog, it’s hard to argue that Dean Rojas nearly winning the Classic on it when it first came out caused an explosion of new frogs to hit the market and wide expansion of the Bronzeye line in sizes, colors and actions.
This is still one of the all-time best frogs to hit the market and the bass will never get tired of slurping this frog in. This frog has proven itself to me time and time again as the open water master. I’ve caught so many bass on it over the years, I’ve forgotten many memorable catches. Something I never thought would happen. But after it happens so many times, it’s hard to ever go against this frog.
It’s 2 3/8 inches long and weighs 1/2 ounce. It can be bombed as well as pitched and roll cast into any target. It starts walking on the first pop and lasts through a good number of fish. The plastic will get soft the more you use it. But it still holds up to a lot of abuse.
Pros
- Proven track record
- Great hook
- Best walking action
- Easy to fish
Cons
- Plastic does soften after several uses and becomes more susceptible to tears.
Best Budget Frog – Scum Frog Trophy Series Popper Frog
The Scum Frog Trophy Series Popper Frog is the little frog that could. It’s small 2 1/4 inch size and 1/2 ounce weight make it super easy to fish, cast and hook fish on. It has a unique keel hole design with a heavy weight that makes it sit rear low in the water. In fact this frog can sink if you don’t start working it when it hits the water. Once you start it walking it stays up and pushes a ton of water because of its orientation for such a small frog. The custom Owner frog hook is a tremendous hook that gives you a ton of power and hookup ratio for a small frog. And the unique colors give you a lot of options.
But with a price tag of under $7, you can afford to add a couple to your frog box, and you’ll be glad you did. I often put this on a spinning rod with braid when I take new anglers frog fishing or kids. They have had some of their best fishing experiences with this little setup. But make no mistake, it works just as well on your heavy frog rod too.
Pros
- Small compact size gets eaten
- Casts great
- The hook is tacky sharp
- Very affordable price
Cons
- The unique tail down and open hole in the back freak people out
Best Big – SPRO Dean Rojas Bronzeye Poppin’ Frog 70
The new big frog in the Bronzeye lineup is a popping version. This 3/4 ounce frog casts a mile and gives you more beef in the water. While it’s not as big as the King Daddy frog, it is a popping frog giving it a bit more versatility. So I like that it has a bigger profile without being so big it seems unnatural to the forage size your bass are used to. The King Daddy is great on lakes with big bass but the new Poppin’ Frog 70 will appeal to the larger bass on nearly every reservoir and river.
And you get all the great hooks, colors, durability and proven fish action that the Bronzeye line is synonymous for.
Pros
- Bigger profile
- Walks good for big frog
- Displaces a lot of water
Cons
- A lot of frog to quiet, tight cast around.
Best Hybrid – Deps Basirisky Frog
We consider hybrid frogs to be those frogs that have something additional on them besides just rubber legs that make the hollow bodied frog do something more like other lures, like wobble back and forth, buzz like a buzzbait, or skip and skitter on the surface like a regular topwater.
If you are unfamiliar with the Basirisky Frog you should check it out. While the buzzing frogs seem to be all the rage, this is the frog that still gets me the most bites outside the norm. In the spring around bushes, this is a crazy killer. There is just something about the way it moves that bass hate around the spawn and post spawn. It’s so fun to watch it wobble and gurgle as you retrieve it and it gets crushed by big fish.
It comes in twos sizes weighs 2/3 and 3/4 ounces respectively and has a bunch of great colors. The single hook is strong, sharp and holds fish, I think, better than a double hook.
Pros
- Unique action and sound
- Hook holds better than most frog hooks
- Very durable
Cons
- Can be hard to walk over a lot of cover and still look and act right.
Frog Lure Buying Tips
Before buying a frog, figure out what types of water you fish and choose the frog that best matches it. If you fish a lot of small lakes, with limited cover, you might want a smaller frog that walks really well. If you’re in Texas or Florida and sees of matted vegetation, you might want a big profile frog that the fish can find easily in cover. If you’re fishing a lot of rough trees, you want a really durable frog. If you’re fishing a lot of open water or even clear water. You want a frog that walks side to side well so you can cover water and fish a little faster.
Think about frogs as a topwater you can be fearless with and get into those tight corners you might be afraid to put a lure and get a bass to react to the surface comotion.
Frogging Gear
We fish our frogs on a 6-foot, 10-inch to 7-foot, 3-inch MH to H power rod. We are almost exclusively braided line anglers when it comes to frog fishing. The braid is because you might have to haul the fish in with part of the cover. Or you need to tear through the cover. You won’t be able to do with that with a small diameter mono or fluorocarbon line. If I fish a lot smaller frogs, I will downsize to 40-pound braid (which has like a 14-pound diameter). If I’m fishing bigger frogs or really heavy cover, then it’s almost always 65-pound braid.
I like a shorter rod for target casting in mostly open water like fishing around bushes, laydowns, docks and overhanging trees or banks. I like a longer rod when bombing long casts back into matted vegetation.
Frog Colors
Think about colors that stand out to the fish. Either it looks like a bluegill. Or it’s a color that will be easily identifiable in the cover. Sometimes Black and White are your best options when frogging. But I also have had a lot of success with bluegill patterns, shad patterns and bright colors like yellow or natural colors like brown. Have a few colors, a few sizes, a few profiles and you should cover all your bases easily.
