Hollow Body Frog Bass Fishing | Key Rods and Frogs

Topwater bass fishing with hollow body frogs requires attention to detail in rod and lure selection. Texas-based bass pro, Lee Livesay, explains what he looks for when bass fishing with frogs in heavy open water cover (think mats) versus shorter-range target casting around the bank.

FROG SETUP #1 (Heavy Cover)

FROG – Snag Proof Bobby’s Perfect Frog
ROD – Halo KS2 Elite Casting Rod, 7’9” Extra-Heavy
LINE – Braid, 65-pound

FROG SETUP #2 (sparse cover and/or target casting)

FROG – Snag Proof Phat Frog
ROD – Halo HFX Casting Rod, 7’3” Medium-Heavy

Fishing expanses of open water bass is best accomplished with long casts. Texas-based bass pro Livesay is a big advocate of using a significantly longer and more powerful rod in this situation. His key reasons are casting distance coupled with the leverage and power to extract fish up and out of the cover. A shorter rod in the medium-heavy range affords better casting accuracy, lightness, and adequate power for getting hooks in close quarters combat.

So what are the essential attributes of a quality frog? For Livesay, it boils down to a tuned hook and optimal frog durometer (hardness). For the hook, the angle needs to be such that you have a slight upward angle for catching and penetrating the mouth, but not so much that you hang in heavy cover. Secondly, it needs to be stiff enough to prevent bending out. For the frog body, seek ones that compress on the hookset but are hard enough to resist compressing against cover and snagging.

Finally, exercise patience when frogging expanses of shallow water cover. It’s common to spook bass in skinny water, so let things settle before ditching a good-looking area. Be thorough, too, because strike windows can be small — fan cast in narrower increments in the thick stuff to avoid missing the treasure trove.