It’s that time of year again when those of us who have a fever for frog fishing really start to get excited. Went out tonight to a local lake that just three days ago was chocolate milk in the aftermath of 3 inches of rain…
tonight, water clarity was better than ‘zero’ of a few days ago with 6-8 inches of clarity…normally, this lake has about 1.5-2 feet of visibility (nothing like those lakes up north)…
Tried the SPRO…they didn’t want it…but one did take a swing at it as I was speed reeling it back…which got me to thinking…
Buzzbaits wouldn’t work due to the amount of filamentous type algae…so I tied on a Zoom Horny Toad (Junebug/Chartreuse) and started making long casts with the 7 foot Cabelas XML heavy action rod…and 30# suffix braid…
Ended up the evening with somewhere around 15 bass…the largest might have pushed 18 inches and about 3 pounds…
Key ‘ah HA!’ moment for me was tieing on a Mustad UltraPoint MegaBite 5/0 hook…I’d been trying to use a ‘horny toad hook’ with a barbed insert into the head but just couln’t keep the bait on it…plus, I’d get hits, but couldn’t get the point into the fish (missed to 15+ inchers in a tournament the weekend before 
)…but tonight, just easing around the weedlines, I used the Mustad…rigging the head just like I would a worm/fluke (point in/out, rotate hook)…but due to the length of the hook, the bend was past the leg split…so I couldn’t run it up through the body…what I did do was just set the body inside the hook bend which allowed the hook point to ride parallel to the top of the frog body (I’d lightly skin hook it)…
I’ve tried this set up before, but never with braid…
At any rate, tonight I was 14 for 15 fish. MIssed on small one that couldn’t get it all in it’s mouth under the weeds… that hook up ratio was by far the best I’ve ever had…
I’ve always had a bit of a love hate relationship with the zoom horny toads…I get/got lots of blow ups on them…the fish would have them and be swimming…but I’d set the hook and….nothing.
Not tonight with this set up! Man am I stoked for the weeks to come…gonna ‘get me some of that!’
