Frogs as Bait?

[salmotrutta]

My tip is to use dead frogs if you want all of the benefits of using real frogs without actually using a live frog.

The only difference is that a dead frog obviously won't swim on its own - but who cares, you can easily imitate that action by twitching your rod.

Back roads are littered with dead frogs on spring and summer evenings after a rain.

Let's say you're fishing somewhere and you spot some frogs. Again, rather than hooking up a live frog that will squirm and squeal in ways that some anglers cannot stand, you can always kill the frog as quickly and humanely as possible, and proceed to catch bass. I've caught more pike on dead minnows than live minnows. With time however, I learned to catch more pike with spinners than minnows.

I would say the same thing for bass - start off using bait if you need to - eventually you'll gain enough experience to do better with fake frogs or lures. Bass are very easy to fool.

 

[Kit]

Minnows are the way to go. I just use frog lures that are just as good, and the frog population stays balanced not go down in dangerous numbers. Just my 0.2. I'm just saying don't want to start some flaming or some crap.

Eric.

 

[reefrunner]

Be careful on using frogs. I'm pretty sure just Northern Leopard Frogs are allowed to be used as bait in Ontario, I'd have to read back into the regs as I dont use them.

There are some lakes just North of Apsley that frogs are the go-to for locals, they swear by and use nothing else. I used a senko, green on top, white bottom and it was just as effective in the same lake.

Edit: Some other frogs are allowed in the regs, but there are a lot of protected species of frogs.

 

[JimCanuck]

Yeah - use artificial. Can people really put a living FROG on a hook just to catch a fish? Why not throw a kitten on a hook while you're at it?

Cause the kitten wont catch any fish? But a frog will. Unless your going for say shark, but that is different and hard to fish for here in Ontario.

A much better question is, why can some people kill fish all day long, and yet have a hard time killing a frog?

Jim

 

[salmotrutta]

I witnessed something interesting a week or so ago while fishing on a river bank that was host to northern leopard frogs.

I was avoiding the frogs because I was casting a spinner. I noticed the biggest northern leopard frog I had ever seen, and decided to dangle my spinner in its face.

Sure enough, it immediately tried to eat it. The frog hooked itself and dangled around for a few seconds, then fell to the ground. Then it proceeded to continue trying to eat the spinner, even though it was getting hooked in the mouth.

I am not condoning the use of live frogs and certainly being cast by the mouth would be more injurious. I guess what I am saying is that wild animals are tough creatures by nature (no pun intended). Likewise, I have caught the same fish twice in a row on more than one occasion.

So if you lip hook a frog and let it swim around to entice bass - it's cruel but maybe not as cruel as some would think. If you hook it by the leg and make long casts and jerk it around heavily - you're probably hurting it more.

I still highly recommend going out after a rainfall and collecting road kill frogs. They're either squashed or half squashed - they're dead so they won't feel pain and they will work just as well as a live frog!

 

[westeyes]

The roadkill frog is a good idea!

A Better post-mortem fate than just rotting in the sun.