(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.)
Coming off his dominant win at the season-opening Bassmaster Southern Open, Bobby Lane has further cemented his status as one of the top Florida hammers in the game. He’s a flipping fanatic, but another one of his absolute favorite ways to fish heavy weed growth is with a “swimming frog,” also known as a “buzz frog.” He’s worked closely with Berkley to develop the new Rib Toad, a 4 1/2-inch surface-burner that moves tons of water and works not just in Florida, but anywhere bass will strike this style of lure. That includes the weedy bays of New York and Minnesota, as well as open water on desert lakes and bushy flats in Texas.
“The Rib Toad was three years in the making and we finally got it right,” he said. Whether you pick his favorite or another similar lure, there are certain key things to look for and preferred strategies for fishing it.
First, you want to be able to cast it a long way, because it primarily excels in shallow environments where bass can be spooky. Second, it needs to track true. Of the Rib Toad, Lane said, “It comes straight toward me and the legs are kicking the whole time. You don’t want a frog that’s going off right to left.” That’s because he’ll often aim at divots and indentations far beyond the initial weed line, trying to actually put the lure at the far end of the hole and then tracking it back through it. A frog that veers to the side will be tough to steer into the key zones.
He always tries to reel it in with his rod tip down. If your rod tip is up, when the explosion comes you will be out of position to set the hook. It’s also critical to use good polarized sunglasses and to track the lure’s path carefully. When he sees a fish tracking the lure, he’ll often pause it or let it fall at an intersection in the cover. That forces a fish that might otherwise not be likely to commit to react suddenly. If you’re not paying attention, you’re going to miss a lot of opportunities, he stressed.
Lane’s favorite hook for the Rib Toad is a 6/0 Lazer Trokar, and he knows that he has the right combination of color, retrieve and location when they’re getting it in the roof of the mouth, which he described as “between 10 and 2 o’clock.” If they’re not getting it in the snout like that, you might need to start throwing a different lure or color, or there might be some more subtle adjustment that you can make to ensure steel-lock hookups.
If you want to learn some of the other keys to Lane’s swim-frogging success, including when and why he thinks that Berkley’s Powerbait Mascent makes a difference, check out his full video, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.
