(Editor's note: The following is the latest installment in a series of fishing tips presented by The Bass University. Check back each Friday for a new tip.)
MLF Pro Circuit angler Clabion Johns is ultra-serious about his frog fishing, with seven frog rods on the deck of his boat 11 months out of the year and 200 frogs across various brands in the storage compartments at any given time. That addiction has been fed by the fact that the selection has become so much larger in recent years.
“Frogs got better in the late 2000s,” he said. “And then when popping frogs came out it changed the world.” Of course, all of that variety creates confusion and the need to make decisions, but before you get into the particular choices, he said that there’s nothing more important than your gear. “It’s not a 50-percent endeavor… If you’re missing 50 percent of your frog fish, you’re probably throwing the wrong equipment.”
He starts off with a 7’6” extra-heavy rod from Big Bear, which is advertised with a fast action but is really more moderate than that – which means that the rod maintains a bend during the fight, preventing fish from throwing the bait. When he wants to skip a frog, he’ll drop down to the 3/4 heavy model. He pairs them both with a 6.4:1 Abu Garcia Revo STX because he believes that with a faster reel anglers tend to overwork their frogs. Finally, he uses 65-pound Spiderwire Invisi-Braid Superline.
At the end of his line he ties one of three categories of frogs: Traditional “pointy-nose” frogs, popping frogs and reeling frogs. The first one is a staple, and possibly the most popular. “These are what I probably throw the least,” said the contrarian. He also tends not to throw the two most popular colors, black and white. He said that the SPRO Popping Frog is the most versatile amphibian out there, available in the most colors. It’s a go-to. Nevertheless, he also relies on some “hybrid style” popping frogs that have wider bodies, smaller mouths and/or different actions.
When it comes to “reeling frogs,” those meant for a constant or stop-and-go retrieve with paddle or curl-tail feet, he said that they excel around emerging vegetation and in wind.
“It will get bites that you never thought were possible in wind,” he explained. “It will get bites in 2- to 3-foot waves in pads and grass clumps, even in hydrilla.” Perhaps most importantly, due to their double-hook setups, they have much higher hookup and landing percentages than reeling toads.
No matter which frog he’s throwing, Johns is very particular about the colors he uses. He believes that the lures represent a frog only a small percentage of the time. Instead, they’re most likely to mimic some sort of sunfish or other baitfish like shad. During the shad spawn, he’ll get three times as many bites on a shad color than on anything else. When gizzard shad are on the menu, he believes that something with a sheen will greatly outproduce flat white. He’s seen situations where minute changes in the composition of his frog’s legs take him from an empty livewell to 20 pounds in short order.
If you want to learn some of Johns’ frog secrets, including his seasonal patterns to where to throw each one, and how he works them in specific situations, check out his full video, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.
