The summer season is eagerly awaited by many carnivorous anglers, as it's the best time of year for surface fishing and frog fishing in particular.
The right season for frog fishing
In addition to the fact that the warm waters of summer encourage many fish, such as black bass, to move close to the surface (more oxygenated water, great source of food...), it's also mating season for many amphibians. Among them are many species of frog. It's a real treat for black bass.
This is the best time for surface fishing with frogs for maximum results.
What is a frog?
The term "frog" refers to an imitation frog, but it's also shorthand for a particular type of lure: hollow body frogs. The term can be translated as "hollow body frog". For this is a category of lure in its own right.
This is a soft lure with a hollow body. This gives the lure buoyancy, allowing it to float on the surface, but to compress during an attack (one or more small holes let air in or out of the hollow body), freeing the hook point. The great advantage of hollow body frogs is that the hook point is barely flush with the inflated hollow body. This prevents accidental hooking and makes frogs truly all-purpose!
Approach
As well as being an attractive imitation, the frog will allow you to surface fish the most difficult and cluttered environments with disconcerting ease.
So don't hesitate to explore the water lily beds, reeds, roots, dense grass beds or dead trees...
As an added bonus, frogs are one of the easiest lures to skipper, i.e. to ricochet. This makes it possible to fish under foliage, bushes, nozzles and culverts with great precision, right down to the very bottom of obstacles.
This is a real plus when searching for deep-seated fish, which are generally less wary under cover.
Equipment for frog-fishing black bass
Frog purists don't use leaders, but fish directly with 4x braid of fairly large diameter. This eliminates the need for connecting knots that can snag weeds. It also cuts through weeds and provides direct contact with the lure without any elasticity, for powerful hooking and authoritative extraction from obstacles. 4x braid is the most resistant to abrasion, which is why it is so popular for this type of fishing.
In France, I recommend a fluorocarbon leader or titanium tip, as pike are also very fond of frogs.
The touch is often very violent and you need to wait until you feel the heaviness before striking energetically to ensure that the black bass has a good grip on the lure and to limit misses.
A high-ratio casting unit is the ideal choice for greater torque and power when casting and fighting in weed beds and obstacles!
