allows me to walk it almost in place without moving it forward in holes or around isolated cover . But if I ’ m chugging a frog ( over a mat ), that butt-down frog may be better . It depends .” He pays attention to leg color , too . “ I don ’ t like bright legs ,” Crane says . “ If a frog has bright strands , I will generally pluck those out because I want a bass totally focused on the body of the frog , not the legs .”
Cox will trim legs to shrink the overall profile of his frog in a pressured stretch of water . If that isn ’ t enough to elicit strikes or get bass to commit , he ’ ll downsize to a smaller frog .
Walk this way
When fishing mats , lily pads or other heavy cover , a chugging presentation — getting the frog to surge in a sporadic , lifelike manner — is the preferred ( if not only ) option .
But open-water areas at the edges of cover give the angler a chance to demonstrate his “ walking ” artistry by imparting to the frog a side-to-side sway reminiscent of a stunned , confused or injured baitfish , frog , or mouse .
A walking frog is most seductive when it sashays annoyingly in an area where a bass has staked a claim . For most anglers , the walk is executed with a downward twitch of the rod tip . Keeping slack in the line is critical . It gives the bait freedom to swing to either side while advancing toward the angler little or not at all .
“ You want a little more slack line than you think you need when you ’ re walking that frog in place ,” advises Crane . “ You don ’ t want to pull it far from cover .”
Roumbanis switches to a slower reel to enhance the effectiveness of a walking retrieve .
“ I like to switch from my usual 7:1 to a 6.5:1 gear ratio reel if I ’ m working that bait in a small area ,” he says . “ It won ’ t pick up line as fast when you are twitching it .”
Pause the bait intermittently during the retrieve . Many strikes come during that pause .
Practice walking a frog so that you can impart that action blindly — literally . A frog is made to skip , so learn to skip it with confidence under willow trees , boat docks or other overhanging cover . Seawalls , flooded buck brush , and rip rap also represent good areas to walk a frog .
true colors
To a bass , a frog is not always a frog . It can be a mouse , a rat or a bird , too . But it is most likely that bass mistake our hollow-bodied offerings for baitfish .
Today ’ s frogs come in an impressive and sometimes wild array of colors . A simple rule of thumb on color selection is to use a dark-bodied frog that silhouettes through a mat
SHOW ‘ EM SHAD The Spro Bronzeye Shad 65 is the perfect tool when bass are eating baitfish and you need a frog that walks effortlessly in the water , completing turns in excess of 180 degrees .
against a bright sky and lighter-colored frogs on dark days .
Beyond that , picking frog colors and patterns is largely a match-the-hatch judgment .
“ Our fish are shad eaters ,” Crane says of bass from the Deep South . “ We always have a shad-color frog tied on . It ’ s not white but a silver color , something that gives flash — more like a shad than a bluegill .”
White frogs have an almost cult-like regional following in scattered pockets of the country . Roumbanis feels that white “ magnifies in the water ,” whereas “ a black one silhouettes .” He has a white frog with sky blue and chartreuse highlights , called Diva , in his Boom Boom line . It can be deadly in early mornings during a shad spawn . For a bluegill imitator , he opts for his Gilly and Fred ’ s Frog patterns . His Kelly Green Boom Boom is an “ old school ” frog color .
Color preferences can differ greatly from region to region . Crane notes that brown colors — particularly reddish browns — are popular in the North , for reasons unknown .
Where bluegill are primary prey , green pumpkin and other bream-type colors prevail .
“ Sometimes I like a light yellow or an orange throat ,” Crane said . “ Light yellow for a female ; orange for a male bluegill . Bass really key in on that throat patch .”
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2023 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM 71