Frog Fishing for Bass: How to Trigger Explosive Strikes in Summer Slop

I love to catch bass no matter which lure I use. But there still has to be a best way, right? On my way up to a recent Northwoods bass fishing week, a friend asked if there was some specific bite I hoped I would encounter—some specific lure or set of conditions I hoped I’d find.

That got me thinking about my favorite ways to catch bass. Yes, on tournament day my answer would always be whatever way catches the most fish. But for a top-level, memorable day of fun fishing, what would I choose?

I gave my friend a pretty quick answer, but then as I thought more about it, I think I’ve ended up with a three-way tie. What follows is a series of articles covering my three favorite, exciting, cool, memorable ways to catch bass. These aren’t always the best way to catch them every day, but when conditions are right, these are the most fun.

Part one of this series was about the pre-spawn smallmouth jerk bait bite. If you’re not familiar you’ll definitely want to check it out. But now lets look at another one of my tied-for-first, best ways to catch ‘em—the slop frog bite.

An angler on his bass boat with a bass he just caught on a frog lure with tons of thick green vegetation draped over the fish — This is exactly the kind of thick, sloppy vegetation where a lot of bass live during the summer. | Kurt Mazurek

Why the Frog Bite Is the Most Addictive Strike in Bass Fishing

From early summer through fall, if you’re fishing a lake with a canopy of vegetation, whether it’s pads, duckweed, hydrilla or any other matted greens, why wouldn’t you throw a frog?

The frog bite got burned into my young bass fishing mind as one of the first reliable lures I was able to catch multiple fish on. Generally speaking, when conditions are right, it doesn’t take a ton of skill or experience to get them to bite a frog. Now, getting them out of the weeds and into the boat is a different story, but just getting bites on a frog is pretty addictive to a new angler.

The author with a nice bass hea caught on the Jackall Gavacho frog lure. — This bass really wanted that Jackall Gavacho frog lure—hooked solid way back in the top of his mouth. | Craig Mazurek

When to Fish Frogs for Bass: Timing the Summer Slop Bite

The frog bite usually starts just after spawn is over as the fish head into early summer patterns. Generally, that’s just about the same time vegetation has grown and thickened to the point that bass can utilize this ambush opportunity.

Here's a quick video that shows you exactly what the bass sees when you're frog fishing. Very interesting!

Depending on your lake, this can be anywhere from less than one-foot deep, up to about eight-feet deep. Lily pads are about the most iconic bass habitat in the lake, but any other vegetation that creates a little overhead cover for the bass, especially if there are openings and edges for them to dart out into for a quick meal, is worth checking.

Remain aware of specifically which vegetation your bites come from. Many days you’ll notice a pattern that repeats all over the lake. One day it will be where the silver-dollar sized pads meet the regular pads. The next day it will be eel grass. The next day it will be anywhere there are heavy mats of duckweed, but only if there’s a mix of wood cover.

The author holding up a nice bass he caught on the Jackall Kaera frog. — That's the small, but mighty, Jackall Kaera sticking out of that bass' mouth on that high-pressure, blue sky day. | Shane Beisner

My Top 3 Frogs for Bass: The Phat Frog, the Kaera and the Gavacho

There are tons of choices when it comes to hollow-bodied frog lures. And if you study them, you’ll notice they all seem to have their own little variations and strengths. I know lots of people have their personal favorites. That’s great! I own and throw a lot of different makes and models but following are three I’ve really dialed in on that seem to cover just about every frogging situation I encounter.

Snag Proof Phat Frog

I’ve been a fan of the Snag Proof Phat Frog since it came out a long time ago, back when it was called Ish’s Phat Frog. This is my standard, go anywhere, fish anywhere, classic hollow-bodied frog. Most of the time I would pop it on a semi-slack line to get that topwater, side-to-side, walk-the-dog action, but you can also get this one to do kind of a bobbing, porpoising motion, that works better than walking some days. And, I always felt like I got better than average hooking percentage with this frog

Jackall Gavacho

Next, is a pretty unique model from Jackall, called the Gavacho. It has a cupped face like a popper, and three rubber strand legs instead of the standard two. But, it casts great and it walks really easily. This one doesn’t come through really heavy matted weeds very well, but it offers a little extra attracting power if you’re working an area with slightly sparser cover or even wide open holes in the cover.

Jackall Kaera

And finally, I throw the Jackall Kaera whenever the bigger frogs just aren’t getting a lot of bites. The Kaera is half, to maybe two-thirds the size of most normal frogs. But it still casts absolutely great. For pressured lakes, where the pad fish have seen tons of normal frog lures, or maybe on a cold-front, high barometric pressure day, this frog will still produce. I hate to call it a finesse bait because I’m still throwing it on my normal 7’5”, heavy rod with 50-pound braid, but profile-wise it is fairly small and seems to get bites when more traditional frogs can’t.

The Strike That Keeps You Coming Back

I think the number one, most appealing thing about the frog bite, is that you see it happen 99-percent of the time. Heck, you even hear the bite happen most of the time. Unlike many other presentations where you need to stay perfectly focused on your sense of touch to detect a bite, the frog usually disappears in a violent, frothy “sploosh”. You see it, you hear it, and you feel it. All of your senses get to savor a frog bite.

The author holding up a big bass caught on a frog. — Another nice bass on the unique Jackall Gavacho frog. | Kurt Mazurek

Coming Soon: The Other Best Ways to Catch Bass

So now you know the summer slop frog bite and you’ve read my last article about the pre-spawn smallmouth jerk bait bite. But there’s still one more amazing bite to reveal in my three-way tie for the best way to catch bass. Be sure to check back for Part 3 of this series. Catching bass is always fun, but these particular bites always take it to another level.