Hollow body frogs are great baits for catching big bass. These lures work well in open water as well as dense cover. They have great hookup and landing ratios due to their stout, dual hook. And since these hook points tuck in close to the bait, they’re about as snag resistant as any other lure on the market. All of this comes together to create one of the most effective power fishing baits out there.

And while these baits do work well right out of the box, there are a few ways to tweak and modify them to make these frogs even more effective. We’re going to talk about three of them today and why they matter. Two of these are pretty well known and may not come as a surprise to you, but one is a juicy little tip I recently learned myself from one of the greatest bass fishing professionals on tour.

Best Frogs on the Market -

I want to pause here a moment to let you know that MONSTERBASS and I have taken a little of the leg work out for you, when it comes to selecting a quality frog to fish with. We partnered to bring you Shaye Baker's Ultimate Frog Box, which includes a SPRO Dean Rojas Bronzeye Poppin’ Frog 60 as well as a SPRO Dean Rojas Bronzeye Frog 65. These are two of the best hollow body frogs ever made, and they were designed by arguably the best frog fisherman ever—Dean Rojas.

The Ultimate Frog Box also includes some of my favorite toads: two packs of Stanley Ribbits and two packs of Zoom Horny Toads. We also included a pack of 4/0 Mustad Ultra Lock EWG Worm Hooks for the toads. All of this amounts to a value of $64.05, but we have the Ultimate Frog Box priced at only $50.

I’ve also been really impressed with the new Berkley Swamp Lords and the Strike King KVD Sexy Frogs. Each of these are quality baits I feel comfortable recommending as well.

Trim the Legs -

For tip number one, let’s talk about trimming the legs on your frogs. This helps minimize the overall profile of the bait. Since frogs are topwaters, you’ll inevitably have some fish blowup on an bait but not commit to it all the way. Having big bass aggressively roll on your bait but not eat it is heart breaking. Trimming the legs can make this a less frequent occurrence.

The legs on a frog are often longer than the frog itself. This means over half the bait has no hook in it. If you trim these legs down a bit, it makes the profile of the frog smaller and gives the bass less to swat at without getting to the hook. I personally like to trim the legs of my popping frogs fairly short, down to an inch or two. I’ll do the same for any frog that I’m fishing in or over dense cover.

I’ll keep the legs on a walking frog a little longer for open water and sparse cover, about the same length as the frog itself. Dean Rojas has a good way to measure them, by simply folding the legs back up to the line tie of the frog and then trimming them to this length.

 In the past, I did trim my legs different lengths to help the bait walk a little better. But modern frogs are designed to walk extremely well. So you can simply trim them even with one another and you’re good to go. All of the frogs I mentioned earlier walk really well, the SPRO Dean Rojas Bronzeye Frog 65 being the easiest to walk.

Bend Up the Hooks -

The hooks of hollow body frogs are designed to make the baits extremely weedless. The hook points tuck in close to the sides and the back of the bait. This allows the baits to slide right through wood, weeds and other cover without snagging. When the bass bite the bait, the hollow body is designed to compress and expose the hooks. This ingenious design works really well. But, not as well as it could.

 By bending the hook points up a little, you can greatly increase the hookup and landing ratios with most frogs. Some newer frogs actually come with hook points that are already angled up a bit, like the Berkley Swamp Lord and Swamp Lord Popping Frog. So you don’t need to bend those hook points up any more.

 But with most frogs, you’ll notice the hook points run parallel to the back of the bait. You can bend them up a little by actually opening up the bend of the hook. Take a pair of needle nose pliers and grip the hook in the bend, one at a time, and then gently open the hook up a little. You want to do this until the hook point is no longer parallel with the back of the bait, but is instead angled up a bit.

Do this carefully to both hooks, being sure not to open them up too much, which can weaken the hook and will lead to snags and maybe even lost fish. You also want to be careful not to hook yourself in this situation.

Add Rattles, in a New Way -

It’s no big secret that anglers have been adding rattles to frogs for decades now. You can slip a rattle into many frogs through the holes where the hooks exit the lure. And some frogs even come with rattles already in the baits to start with. These rattles help fish find the baits, especially in dense cover.

 Again, not a top secret tip. But, two-time Bassmaster Classic Champ Jordan Lee recently dropped a whole new way of doing this on us when he won the MLF Heavy Hitters event on the Harris Chain. Lee was targeting bass that were positioned under dense mats of topped out hydrilla. In these situations, visibility is limited. So, sound and vibration are critical for helping the bass find the bait.

 Lee grew up fishing this way on Lake Guntersville, so he’s known the importance of adding rattles to frogs all his life. But stuffing a lot of rattles in a bait can make it difficult for the frog to compress, and hurt your hookup ratio.

The champ’s new way around this is ingenious. He removes the legs of his Berkley Swamp Lord Frog and replaces them with two jig rattles, using super glue to secure them. Interestingly enough, this creates a similar profile to a frog with shortly trimmed legs, while also adding a lot of noise to the bait. And, it works. Jordan Lee just cashed a $100,000 check to prove it.

Whether you’re a seasoned frog fisherman or an angler just getting into it, there’s something here to help us all. I’m personally looking forward to trying out Lee’s little rattle legs myself for the first time. And trimming the legs of my frogs and bending the hooks up a bit have no doubt helped me boat dozens of big bass that I would have otherwise missed out on. Take these tips and put them into practice and I’m sure they’ll help you too.