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I like to fish slop with frogs. I use the snagproof hollow body frogs. I get a lot of swirls and blowups but can never seem to hook the fish. Usually when I get a swirl I count to 2 and set. Am I doing something wrong? Also if I were to use a plastic frog(horny toad, ribbit,etc.) would I fish the same way. Thanks!!

Joe

I would suggest using braided line, which has less stretch than mono when you set the hook. As far as your rod and reel combo goes, you need a rod with a lot of backbone and a soft tip for twitching the frog. A reel with a higher gear ratio is needed to take up line quickly, at a minimum a 6:3:1 but I use a 7:1. In my opinion there really isn't a certain amount of time to wait to set the hook. It really depends on how the fish are eating the bait. If they are really on it, I set it quick. If they are just coming up and getting the bait softly, I hesitate a bit. Just make sure you real up enough slack to get a solid hook set. I do suggest setting the hook in a sweeping motion to the side, rather than an up and down hook set. It's just something you have to work at and get comfortable with. When I first started fishing frogs years ago I missed lots of bites, but now that I have the set up right I land most of the fish that bite it. Unfortunately I have found that a lot of times I am getting bites like that in heavy vegetation, it ends up being gar or pickerel. If you're getting that many bites, and they are bass one of them is going to hook itself no matter what you do. If you are fishing the horny toad type baits the same set up will work, but you are going to have to keep your rod tip up and reel the bait. Don't hesitate to let it fall in little holes in the grass, sometimes this will work. Hope this helps.

I also love to fish frogs & completely agree with what treeroots has posted. The only thing I can think of to add is about which Snagproof frog you're using.

If you're not using one of their better frogs, you need to switch or upgrade with better hooks. I like the Pro Series Tournament Frogs, and they come with an Owner hook.

Those Owner hooks make a big difference in hook up's in my opinion. I also use the Spro Bronzeye Frog & have changed the Gamakatsu hooks in favor of the Owners, and feel my hookup rate has improved.

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i use the spro bronzeye frogs and found that if you bend the hook points back slighly you will get more hookups and loose less fish.

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