Soft Body Frogs: Everything You Need to Know

"Soft-body Frogs" is such a huge category but is often overshadowed by Hollow-Bodied Frogs. Let's start with why you need them and then I'll give a more detailed definition of what they are.

When you think of soft-body frogs think "soft buzzbait". These are the 4x4, go anywhere, do everything, come back unscathed, topwater bait. You can throw them through tullies, over slop, on timber, in grass, and they will paddle their way back to the boat. When the cover gets nasty, when you get tired of picking grass off hooks, out of blades, or dealing with snags, its time for the soft-body frog.

So what are they? First off, its a plastic bait that is solid-bodied. Second, it has one or more "kicking" feet that help the bait rise to the surface and create action as it is steadily retrieved on the surface. Third, it has no additional appendages or it becomes a "creature bait". Lastly, it has no hook. It will need to be texas-rigged with some sort of  after-market hook.

Most soft plastic brands now produce a soft-bodied frog. So what makes one better than another? It comes down to two variables: Sound and Speed.

From Left to Right: Strike King Rage Tail Toad, Rage Tail Shad, Stanley Ribbit, Zoom Horny Toad, Sizmic Toad

Each frog has a unique sound and action. Its important to explore different "sounding" baits to find what your fish want. As a rule of thumb the baits with thicker feet (Rage Tail for example) will create a louder, more violent sound while those with thin feet (Horny Toad for example) tend to be much more subtle.

Additionally, the thicker the feet on a bait the more quickly they must be retrieved to create the desired sound. If the bait it making a subtle sound it can generally be retrieved much more slowly than a loud bait and still make the proper sound. This is so often overlooked and is CRITICAL to why some baits get bit more than others. We're so keyed on sound and action we don't even notice that one bait has to go nearly twice as fast as the next. No wonder the bass aren't eating all the baits, all the time!

You'll need to explore a few models to find what works best on your waters but a great place to start is the Rage Tail Toad, Zoom Horny Toad, and Stanley Ribbit. These 3 baits will cover the gamut of sound and speed so you can get a feel for what your bass prefer and you won't break the bank trying to dial in the pattern.

Frog Modifications to Land More Bass

The water is warm, the grass is growing, and the bass are shallow, the time has come. If you aren't throwing a frog by now you're missing opportunities for some heart-pounding explosions that you'll never forget! The frog is a key presentation during the summer months that every angler should at least have a familiarity with. Whether you're popping a frog in the shade of docks, walking it along a rocky shoreline, or dragging it on a cheese mat, its a fun way to lure BIG bass out of the depths.

The frog has a reputation for giant bass. Unfortunately it also has a reputation for missed fish and broken hearts. This video is going to cover some of the simple changes you can make to your frogs that will eliminate the heartache and put those big fish in the boat.

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This shows the length comparison between the stock leg and a leg that has been cut down to eliminate short strikes and missed bites

The key to consistent success comes down to two simple changes. In my opinion, every frog should have the legs trimmed and the hook position altered before the bait is ever thrown in the water. There are dozens of other changes that you hear about from time to time but these two are easy and have a huge impact on your success.

When trimming the legs I cut the rubber with scissors until there is approximately 1.5 to 2 inches of material left. This increases the odds that the bass will target the main body of the bait rather than clamping down on just the legs. An added benefit of the trimmed legs is that its also easier to walk a frog once the legs have been cut shorter.

Here you can see a properly modified frog. Both the short legs and increased hook gap are visible

When modifying the hooks I bend them both out and up, away from the body. By doing this I am able to create a larger hook gap. When bass eat the bait with a modified hook they no longer need to fully crush the body of the frog to expose the hook. Doing this makes it much easier to hook the bass, even when an angler has a softer hookset. 

Depending on brand, bending the hooks can take a great deal of force. I generally have to bend the hooks farther than I want, as the steel will spring back part way as soon as the pressure is removed.  Use a stout pair of pliers and exercise caution.  its very easy to slip and end up on the wrong end of a strong hook. If you take your time, you shouldn't have any issues.

We hope you'll take these tips and apply them to your fishing. Once you do, come back and share your experiences. We'd love to hear about the bass you're putting in the boat!

Monster Double Digit Bass Destroys a Swimbait!

If I had to choose just one way to target giant bass day in and day out, it would be the swimbait. Every year a variety of techniques put big bass in the boat but the most consistent option for the giants is the large swimbait.

On this day I had the pleasure of fishing with a close friend. We had put in a few hours already, catching just a few small bass on reaction baits in shallow water around grass. We had the choice of continuing to target those smaller fish or moving out to deeper water to try and get a big bass. We made the decision to move out and target the big females that were lurking on the ledges searching for easy meals.

On this particular day I used a Huddleston Deluxe 8" ROF 12 swimbait in Rainbow trout (there are no trout present in this lake but the bass don't care) and fished it with the stock jig hook. This allows me to work the bait through rocks without getting snagged on every cast.

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On just the 3rd cast, the giant bit. It just goes to show that throwing a big swimbait doesn't mean you're going to have to throw it for hours, waiting for the bite. When big bass are feeding, big baits work. In many circumstances they work BETTER than their smaller counterparts.

This particular fish was sitting on the top of a rocky ledge that transitioned from 6 to 17 feet of water. I set the boat in the shallows and cast off the ledge into the deep water. Wanting to avoid nicking the line in the rocks, I began retrieving the swimbait before it hit the bottom. As the bait came close to the top of the ledge the bass came up out of the rocks and intercepted it, resulting in a very aggressive bite. As you can see, the rest played out very quickly.