Spring Frog Fishing Tips | Expert Advice from Dean Rojas

Hey everyone, I'm bass pro Dean Rojas, and you're with BassResource.com. We're gonna talk about frogging. Frogging is one of my favorite things to talk about, you know, and I get lots of questions. What color frogs do you throw? What time of year? What water temperature, clarity, sky conditions? How do you want to know everything about frog fishing?

And so, I'm gonna kind of give you an outline of what I like to do when I'm faced with conditions multiple times of the year. So, we're gonna roll into spring, we're gonna start off with spring. And spring is something that, it took me a long time, years to figure out when is the best time to throw a frog, how early in the season you can do that.

And as you know, I spent like three years on tour. That's all I did was throw a frog, because I wanted to find the limitations of what the bait was all about and learn everything I could that would allow me to use it and be more efficient with it. And that until turned a lot of it to where I was throwing it in the springtime.

And I never really thought about it, you know, until I would just, for the heck of it, I would just throw it when the water temperature was in the 50s. Because a lot of times if you live on a river system or a lake that has a lot of shallow water, those fish live in 1 or 2 feet of water.

And so, what's the difference between them moving up the water column a foot or going down in the water column to grab a bait? It's easier for them to go to the surface as well. So, that was my thought process with that. If they're gonna bite it, it's only shallow. They're up there, they'll come up to the surface and get it. So, let's give it a try. Well, lo and behold, that's when everything opened up my eyes to the whole thing about frog fishing and cold water. You usually think it's a summertime deal.

And so, for me it was a big learning curve on figuring out what and where, and how to work the bait and those same things. And what I've noticed in the springtime, especially in the early spring, you know, it depends on where the country, but it's so based on water temperature that there's this brief window.

You can even probably catching them in the mornings and stuff, maybe first thing. But there's always a window in the springtime from about, about 1 o'clock to like 3 o'clock. It's like a two-hour window there where the sun, if the sun's out or that is the temperature has risen a degree or two in certain areas to where those fish are getting active, that time of the day in... Because in the wintertime, they only feed just brief moments because the water's so cold.

But I learned in the springtime, there's a brief window there from like, you know, it's like 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock in that range, depending on what the water temperature is. But the key to that is finding banks that have like a little bay and maybe something that where a little channel swing, you know, swings up close to the shoreline to where the fish can move from like say 1 feet of water to 3 or 4 feet of water very easily, but also have a lot of shallow water around there.

And at that point it becomes very specific on what you're looking for when you're fishing that type of cover that time of year. They're always on channel swings. They're always on little drop offs when...in the early spring like that, that way they can move up and down very, very quickly. So, that was always my thing.

And so, the bait selection, I mean, you could throw a pop and frog or a regular 65-bronze eye or original. Either one of 'em will work in that aspect. But the key to working the frog at that time of year is slow. And you want to be able to make the presentation up onto the bank. And for me, color-wise is a big thing too. So, this is our new color, it's called sloppy Joe. It's more of a brown with some black in it and some red, like you would have on tomato sauce on a sloppy Joe. But it's that type of color where it's a drab dark color. Not a whole lot of vibrancy to it, but something that that time of year, creatures that are in the wild, there's not a whole lot of foliage in the background. So, the colors are gonna be not as bright as it would be different parts of the year.

So, blacks are always good, brash greens, bronze, browns, something that's dull in color works very, very well that time of year. So, basically it's just a matter of casting the frog up in those areas and working it slow and pausing it and twitching it and moving it around. And that's where it's going to, the fish, if they're there, they're gonna bite it, okay?

Now, it's not something you can go out and win a tournament with, but if it's something that you're just a frogging freak like I am and a geek about it and always trying to get 'em to bite it. And that's half the fun of it is to tricking them into biting a frog when the water temperature's 52 degrees or 53 degrees or 55.

So then you ask, well, what's the coldest I've ever caught one in? The coldest I ever caught was in 44-degree water temperature. And so, I know what they'll bite at certain times, again, the fish are shallow, you know, it's not much for them to come to the surface and grab a bait as it is to go down and get it because they're already there anyways.

And I've caught a range of them in the 50-degree weather, or I'm sorry, water temperature. But like, it really gets going. Like if when you're in the springtime and it's around 56, 57 in the afternoons, man, you could really put a hurting on 'em. Again, short little window that it's gonna be optimum from like 12 to 3 in that range. It could be hit or miss on...in any of that. But anything after 12 o'clock to about 3 o'clock, that sun starts heading back behind the trees, that's the time you're gonna catch 'em for the springtime.

So, the gear that I use, I use a...SPRO made a frog rod for me, and it's something we're gonna be coming out later on with it, but it's a 7-foot medium heavy action. And I pair it up with FX2 Sunline braid. I use 80-pound test line braid, but it's actually like 65, the diameter is 65 pound.

So, I have the distance and the accuracy that I have and the soft suppleness of the FX2 once it gets wet, it's just a joy to work with. It makes me more efficient and it's strong. It doesn't break and it doesn't do anything. It does its job. And it allows me to get good hook sets in them. I recommend a high speed reel on all my frog and 7 to 1 gear ratio is what you need. If you want to go to 8 to 1, that's good too as well, whatever you feel like is gonna help you in that position. But a lot of that is just throwing the frog and learning about it.

And it's a fun bait to learn on it because everything is visual. You can give the bait life and watch what you're doing to the bait on the surface. And it's such a great feeling when you create something and give it life and you get a bite on it, you see that connection, and those things are just, they're awesome. So, in the springtime, if you can get frog bites early on in the spring, you know, it's only gonna get better from there on out.

So, hopefully these tips have helped you on that. So, be close to areas where they're gonna be spawning at and eventually moving up into and give... And don't be shy to throw the frog up there because oftentimes they're chasing bait around as well. And they're liable to come out and eat it on the surface. So, give that a try on your local river, on your lake and see if you can get some results on that. But you'll be surprised on how many frog bites you get.