Above The slop pt. 2

By Danny Delamater

I get a lot of questions regarding what I do to customize my frogs. There are a lot of different ways to make a stock frog better. Even something as simple as changing the hook or trimming the legs. The possibilities are truly endless. I don’t like stock frogs. I won’t throw them directly out of the box without at least trimming the legs first. I never realized how much it made a difference until I went out with The Godfather of frog fishing himself, Bobby Barack. No frog in his boat was stock. Everything was doctored. That started the obsession with modding my frogs.

I like to cut the legs quite a bit. The shorter the legs the less you seem to have short strikes. Another a benefit, is that it allows for you to be able to walk your frog in place a lot easier. When cutting the legs, cut them at an angle so that when the frog sits in the water the legs flare without any effort. I like to spread the skirt out in between my fingers and start by cutting the outer portion shorter while gradually going longer with each cut (How to video further down the page). The legs will flare without the frog even being in motion. A lot of times less is more with working a frog. Fish want to eat it as slow as you could move it.

I like to put my own custom feel to my frogs by drawing natural markings on the belly. There’s a lot of stuff you can do with a sharpie. After a while, the markings will start to fade but to me it makes it look even more natural. Is it a necessity? Probably not but it gives me confidence when I can break up the solid color with some patterns. People get too crazy with their color selections. There’s really only 4 essential colors that you really need to have in your box. Those colors are black, white, chartreuse, and a translucent color that allows sun to penetrate through it. The black and white are really personal preference. The chartreuse is good when the water isn’t all that clear. The translucent color works well when you’re fishing really clear water when the sun is high in the sky. My go to in this situation is an old Snag Proof frog color called smoke. My bread and butter is Fred’s Frog. I throw this color the majority of the time. This color way is white with orange under the throat. The top is pretty irrelevant if you ask me and it catches the fisherman more than the fish even sees it.

Don’t hesitate to change the hooks. Just because it came on the frog doesn’t mean its the right hook. I like more bite on my hooks. I’m not worried as much about being 100% weedless if it means I'm gonna put more fish in the boat without altering the hooks by bending them. It is very easy to remove the hook. Tie on the frog. Pull the harness through the body. Take the hook off the figure 8 clip and put the new one on. Then all you have to do is pull the new hook back through the body.

Last but to me is the most important part is the nose job. The inner harness tends to pull through the bait on hook sets and the nose can only take so much of that before it starts to tear. There is a simple solution to this issue and it will increase the longevity of your frog by a landslide. Tying the nose is a trick that I've used for years. You can tie the nose with braid or thread. Once you have it tight drop some super glue on it to make sure it won’t come apart. Don’t buy more frogs if you don’t have to. It doesn’t matter which frog you throw, this trick will help you get the most out of your frog. I use the Stanford Baits Boom Boom Frog. I love the size and profile.