Lately i’ve been fishing a lot of slop with frogs. But I haven’t caught any. They just keep missing!!! 
. When they do get it i can’t set the hook! I keep waiting until i feel the fish to set it (tell me if that’s wrong) but it just won’t set! what do i do? 
What kind of frog are you using, how stiff of a rod and how thick of slop are you fishing?
The new spro bronzeye frog is awesome, you should definatly give it a try. I am personally a fan of darker colors so i would go with the black or the black with char.
i would agree with adloos, i love the spro frogs. ive been usein the same frog all year long. best frog ive ever used.
-Aaron
i’m getting a slop rod soon. But I was fishing a mat of duckweed with 12 lb. mono on a medium heavy. Speeking of new rods, i should get a heavy action rod, baitcaster and superline for slop right?
it was a bobby’s perfect frog.
I used a Spro frog today and it was ruined after the first fish. The 5/8 or 1/2 oz Scum Frog is a far better deal and works great.
I wouldn’t recommend 12 pound mono for fishing slop. I use 20 to 30 pound Fireline or Power Pro with a Med/Heavy baitcaster. I have no drag, it is wrenched as tight as it can go.
You have it correct, you should wait to feel the fish before setting the hook, no counting or other trickery. The only other point is that sometimes the fish slams it and moves toward you, so if the frog is gone then reel as fast as you can and set on load.
You need to pound that hookset, I think 12 pound mono would snap on nearly all of my hooksets. The strech in the line alone would limit a successful hookup percentage.
One other thing you might try is keeping your rod tip high in your retrieve. When you see the blow up, having the rod tip high forces you to drop it back down, reel and then slam it home….Once you get used to the sequence, it’s usually given the bass plenty of time to take the frog under.
i don’t like using the set up i use now, but a slop rod is soon to come.
I fish alot of heavy cover, and find myself setting the hook 2 times, i hit the first one then reel tight and hit it again and keep the rod tip up. most of the time I go with the 2 second rule, but not all like to count because each fish is different. you just have to find one that works for you.
shane 
i’ve ripped out hooks like that, but i guess in heavy cover it helps
I use the new Dean Rojas frog as well. I have it set up on a 7’2 extra heavy GL spinnerbait rod with 40# Tough line. I have used the same frog all summer. It was the natural green but it no longer has the eyes or spots on the back. Still works Wats and FireAsh can confirm that.
The hard part is deciding when to set the hook. I always wait till I feel the line get tight, then punch them right in the mouth. The trick is reeling them fast enough across the top w/o them getting back into their deep cover, but if they are large you will just have to go in after them. Slop is the most exciting way of bass fishing to me, but my catch % is only around 50%. 
Bobby’s Perfect or Spro frog works well for me. 6’10” Quantum PT heavy action rod and 50 lb. Power Pro.
Try the Spro Frogs. Dark colors work best for me. 7′ med heavy to heavy, 50# Power Pro or 20# P-Line Flouro work great. Remember to count to 3 and set the hook.
I find most of the time when you are getting alot of blow ups and not hook ups it is smaller fish. The exception is in real heavy veg, where sometimes they just can’t blow through. The big gals will usually blow through and get a pretty good hold of the bait.
I agree on the Spro frog, best one I’ve ever used. They are a little soft, but that’s one reason why they hook up well.
I am not a firm believer in the wait a few seconds before stting the hook rule for one reason. If they do get the bait and have it well, by the time you set the hook they can already be buried up in the slop. Just make sure you see the frog go down and the line move and let her rip.
IMO braided line THE tool for frog fishing, especially in heavy cover. I use a heavy action rod mostly, but with braid you can use a MH as well as long as it has good backbone. You will actually be able to cast farther and have a more application versitile rod with a MH. Get at least a 7 footer.
try a mann hardnose toad and just throw them in a little ways and bring them out and the fish will hit right on the weed edge all colors work good
ya. Dean Rojas and Spro frogs are very good. I plan on getting some on my next trip to Cabelas.
This topic has come up a few times. Topwater froggin’ has been something that I’ve worked seriously on this summer. Mostly because I have a pond 50 yards from my front door that’s slop from inlet to dam for 5 months out of the year, and it’s totally unfishable by any other method.
The following chronicles my findings:
My initial hookup percentage was probably somewhere in the 50% range. I was fishing primarily hollow-bodied frogs and mice on 6′ medium action casting gear with 20lb mono. Essentially I did not have a ‘special purpose’ frogging rod and was doing double-duty on a crankbait rod.
With the thick vegetation, I was having problems horsing the fish out with the 20lb mono. IF I could hook up, and IF they could get their head down into the weed mat, they could rapidly spool a hundred pounds of cabbage onto the line and I’d break them off.
I finally decided that if I was to take advantage of a billion largemouths living 50 yards from my front door, a change was in order. Nothing fancy, I probably spent $90 on the whole rig. Medium heavy, stiff as a broomstick rod, 65lb power pro braid, baitcasting reel.
The braid did cut about 10 feet off my casting distance, but what a difference. I could horse the fish out no problem, and hooking percentages went up to around 3/4. Still thinking there was a lot of room to improve, I started concentrating on what I do when a fish whacks at it.
When I’m swimming a frog – I like the Sizmic frogs because I think they make a little more noise than the curly-tail swim frogs – I keep the rod tip high. The rod is probably not 10° off perfectly vertical. When a fish hits, that forces me to drop the rod tip and reel down to the fish before I put it home.
When I’m walking the hollow-bodied frog, I keep the rod down with the tip near the water, and to one side of my body. Same reason, with the rod down & back, I have to bring it out front to get any power behind the set.
THAT BEING SAID: if you’re the kind of person that’s going to snap the rod on a blowup, neither of those things will help you. The key to keeping the rod back or up for me is that I know I want to drive that hook as hard as I can. My hookset is identical regardless of the rod’s starting position. When I see the fish blow up, I bring the rod either up or down until the tip is just below eye level and pointing to the fish, turn the reel a crank, and if I feel the rod start to load, I lay into that fish like there was no tomorrow. My goal with every hookset is to pull drag from that 65lb braid, and after a few months of fishing this way, I honestly feel that a solid “froggy style” hookset should snap 20lb mono.
Waiting for the rod to load was the hardest thing to learn, and to be honest, if I didn’t fish frogs 3-4 times a week, I don’t know that I could have ever learned it. The fact is, as stated above, sometimes the fish just don’t have the frog. There have been a lot of times in the last couple of weeks where a fish will grab one of the legs, or get ahold of the skirt on a hollow frog, and take it under, but when I reel down to it, the frog just floats to the top. I have had three swim frogs each get one leg amputated by bass. I see them grab it, take it under, and bring the rod up, I want to set, want to set, want to set, but wait to feel him, and up comes the frog…. Damn. Twich, twich… maybe he’ll come back??? Or not.
Numbers from last Saturday show marked improvement. In a one-lap walk around the 5-acre pond, 37 fish blew up on ye-olde-Sizmic frog, 4 never had it and didn’t come back for it, 2 missed hooksets, 31 fish caught. A awesome two hours.
So…..
Gianni out.
I question two of your points…
First,
Quote:
The braid did cut about 10 feet off my casting distance
If you went from 20# mono to 65# braid, you should be seeing a major INCREASE in casting didstance since the overall diameter is much less.
Second,
Quote:
I honestly feel that a solid “froggy style” hookset should snap 20lb mono
HOLY SMOKES DUDE! I think that is getting a little carried away… 
Carried away is what it’s all about. I always figured my fishing style should match my personality and be totally over the top. I want to be (and usually am) the guy that everyone’s talking about back at the ramp… “Did you see that lunatic fishing the frog???”
I doubt I could actually snap 20lb mono, but that’s the kind of gusto that I’m working for when I stick ’em. I don’t think it’s necessary just for putting the hook home, but I’m also trying to get them up on top and out of the weeds so that I don’t have to go in after them. When I’m bank fishing a pond, going in after them is not much of an option. Someone made the comment on the last thread that Blue can skip four pounders out of pads, so I doubt I’m alone.
The casting distance could also be the new rod & reel, or lack of practice with them, but the braid just doesn’t seem as casting-friendly. My experience with braid prior to this summer was limited to throwing heavy baits for catfish on a big levelwind, so I’m sure that also plays a role. I don’t expect that I can chuck a hollow frog more than about 70 feet no matter what I’m throwing it on, and 60 is plenty for all the places I’ve fished.
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Someone made the comment on the last thread that Blue can skip four pounders out of pads, so I doubt I’m alone.
Not only can Blue cast a frog 150 yards , he can skip a fish back 150 yards to the boat in about 2.8 seconds. It’s quite an amazing feat.
On the other hand; as Champman usually says to me — Come’On dude—that fish is kickin’ your 
40-50 lb power pro, 7′ Med Hvy baitcasting rod (stiffer the better but not Heavy stiff), spro, perfect frog, trophy scumfrog are all excellent. don’t wait to feel it, wait to see that your bait has disappeared. if you can’t see whether it’s gone, just give it a two or three count. fast and slow action can both manufacture good bites, and sometimes it seems the faster you’re working your bait, the easier they are to stick….so the right equipment is the key to hook the majority of your bites.
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How to hook up with a frog?
Not my cup of tea, but:
Treat it nice even though it is a frog, buy it drinks and maybe dinner and flowers. Whisper sweet nothings in its ear. 
sorry, could not help myself after reading the title. Lots of good advice here though so my smart-aleck comment might not get me banned. 
most of my problems come from the fish not taking it at all though. I’ve probably had 10-15 attacks at my frog and only once did it actuically get taken. I was working it slowly with a 1-2 second pause. Is there a different way of working it that will get them to take it more often?
one, they may not all be bass…
2- try a different retrieve. I find its easier for fish to track it if you don’t pause it so frequently. Sure pause it along holes in the slop, but pausing it makes it harder for the fish to gauge where it is. Hence the missed blow ups. Try working it slowly, but no pauses. Just slowly reeling it in. Or try a new pattern. You don’t have to stick to one pattern for the whole day. Get around and try some different structures like wood and eel grass or rocks or anything different. You might be surprised, there can be better patterns out there. Most importantly do something fun that you have confidence. You’ll catch um.
(there, its an informative post to help you out, now can we please stop the fighting, just let it all go and accept things the way they are. take this how you want, you can get mad at me, but im trying to help. I hope you’re ok with that)
i have two set ups i switch off for my frogs. First off: The spro frog is the best frog on the market, durable, the hooksets are amazing, and the action is amazing. i wont buy anything else. white, brown, and green are my top colors.
My first is a my all purpose stick, a St.Croix 7′ MH witha Quantum Energy PT 7:1 reel, 50 lb PP braid. i can launch frogs out there with this to cover massive amounts of water. when i get to the unproductive areas and i dont decide to “walk the frog” over open water, i can zing it in with the Burner reel.
my other stick is a 7′ H with a Pflueger Trion and 65 pound braid. i usually fish hard nose frogs and horny toads on this because its a little stiffer and i get better hook ups it those on it.
i might get a st.croix legend tourney slop n frog rod, depends if i get that or a Finesse spinning rod. my hooks up are about 80% with topwater frogs and 70% with swim frogs. with topwater frogs, i usually go “one thousand one” and then slam the hook home. its essential to give the fish enough time to get the frog in its mouth. when i first started fishing frogs, i sucked because i would pull the thing away from them way too early. now i’m fairly proficient at it. i got my buddy to switch to braid and the result was a dozen keepers boated on his frog in the TS compared to going 0 for 9 on frogs in the previous TS.
I just got a spro frog today and i can’t wait to use it.
sounds good, cade. (i wasn’t ever really upseat).
normally when I have a blow up and the bass misses the lure, I don’t burn it back into the boat, I just slowly reel and twitch the tip of my rod to made it look wounded. I have picked up more misses doing that then burning in and then casting back out. I also fish heavy cover, I make the frog slash water so the noise helps the fish locate the bait. I am probably a 90% top water and the rest is all experiemental. you might also want to try some plastics in that heavy cover. if you can’t get them fish to bite again, try some plastic under the pads. just a thought.
shane
i’ve also heard of like a 1 oz. jig being tossed into some of that heavy slop. Does it work?
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