Frogging - The Fun And Frustration

Having pike hit surface lures is exciting stuff. Surfaced fi shed frogs frequently induce takes but hook-ups may be frustratingly low. Peter Newman shares his experiences and offers ways in which the takes to hook-ups ratio might be improved.

- Peter Newman

I get lots of misses on frogs – who doesn’t? But I’d rather be finding lots of pike and landing a few, than finding fewer. I reckon on a typical 2-3 hour frogging session, I might get around 9 hits, and 3 pike landed. Whereas by fishing the less weedy gaps with other lures, maybe 3 hits and 2 landed. I know which is more exciting, and which I prefer!

In fact I had almost given up targeting pike in summer, generally finding it slower work for mainly jacks, compared to winter. I concentrated more on lure fishing for chub and perch. I’d read about frogging here and elsewhere, bought a few, and tried them half-heartedly a couple of times, with no interest. My thoughts were, ‘I see lots of frogs and ducklings on most of my venues but I’ve never seen the classic “pike strike” on any of them.’ Well, I still haven’t – but in recent years, I have seen hundreds of hits on my frog lures. Admittedly, I haven’t yet landed hundreds of those pike – I suspect my overall “landingrate” is about 30%.

I’ll discuss my ideas on improving hook-ups later. Frogs may not be efficient catchers, in terms of proportion of fish landed; but I find them mightily effective at attracting hits.

If you prefer efficiency, you could rig up a deadbait with a buzzer and a bivvy. Don’t bother to read on, but I bet you’ll catch fewer pike in summer, and have a lot less fun.