Hollow body frogs are easily one of the most exciting bass lures on the market. Not only are they fun to use they really attract big bites. The sight of a big bass inhaling my favorite pad crasher hollow body frog lure is one of the most exciting things you can witness. Even with all that excitement at some point you’re going to want to change things up.
Don’t worry you won’t have to bring out your wallet this time, with a few minor modifications your hollow body frog will be singing a new tune this fishing season. The following modifications should turn your frogs into the bass catching lure they were always meant to be.
My Favorite Frog Lure Modifications
1. Trim The Skirt
Trimming up the skirt is by far the easiest and most influential modification you can make to a frog lure. With a simple snip of it skirt you can take your awkward moving frog in the one that walks like frogs the cost five times as much.
While there are a few frogs marketed with short skirts out-of-the-box you can do with any frog. Simply use scissors to trim your skirt as short as you like. Normally I’ll keep it long and trim it down if that doesn’t increase my bites.
Personally I like my frogs to have one leg slightly longer than the other to increase the side to side movement. With a quick trim you’ll be able to fish this in more places than you ever thought possible. Fish under cover and through heavy weeds with a trimmed up hollow body frog.
2. Superglue The Nose
A frog’s nose is the kryptonite of this extremely versatile lure. As the name suggests it has a hollow body which makes them extremely susceptible to leakage. There’s nothing more frustrating than squeezing out a load of water every time you reel in your lure.
Fortunately it’s an easy fix. Most of the time leaks occur in the nose of the frog and can be quickly fixed with a touch of superglue. Wear and tear caused the nose to open up around the line causes small punctures. Fix your leak by placing a few drops of superglue around the eyes and holding it down until it seals back up. This unfortunately is a permanent fix, you’ll have to do it again after a few months of use.
3. Add Some Noise
There’s one thing you quickly learn from looking at all the major manufacturers product lineups is that bass love little bit of noise. Sound is an important part of most other shallow water fishing presentations so why isn’t it implemented in frog lure designs. This is an easy fix with the help of cheap plastic rattles.
Frog lures are hollow so it’s easy to slip a little plastic rattle inside the end for a little bit of noise. You can buy fishing rattles cheap on amazon if you don’t already have a few inside your tackle box.Just don’t use the glass ones because they’ll quickly be destroyed by the metal hooks inside your frog’s body.
4. Change Up Your Hooks
I don’t know how many old ineffective lures I’ve saved just by swapping out the old rusted up hooks. You’d be surprised just how much sharpening your hooks or bending them out will actually improve your bass game. If you’re fishing mostly in open water and tend to avoid heavy cover try bending out your hooks to increase your chances of a bite.It’s easy, just use pliers to bend out the barb an eighth of an inch to get more bite into the fish.
If your hooks are starting to look like a shell of their former selves you might just wanna swap them out completely. Most frogs on the market today come with some pretty solid hooks, but they tend to dull up quickly and some even rust. Switching to a Gamakatsus Double Frog Hook is the perfect replacement for old worn out hooks. They might cost you a few bucks, but it’s going to be a lot cheaper than buying an all new frog.
5. Find a New Color
You can quickly change up the color of an old frog with the help of a few sharpies. Obviously you can add a few stripes here and there to match the hatch, but you should think much broader.
With a 24 pack of colorful sharpies you can really change up the look of your frog lure. Whether that’s just toning down the color scheme a bit or coming up with your own unique design a pack of colorful sharpies will really go a long way.
6. Add Scent
Just like adding a rattle to a frog make sense adding a little bit of gel scent is extremely easy thanks to the hollow body design. Treat your frog just like any old bait dip tube and add a little bit of scent to your lure.
I’m a huge fan of Liquid Mayhem’s Bass Crawfish scent. The gel is extremely easy to apply and works well on just about any type of fishing lure. Made out of natural crawfish, it’ll really bring in bass.
7. Swap Out The Legs
Instead of skirts a lot of the newer frog lures come with realistic looking legs. These legs obviously work most of the time, but you can really improve your game by swapping them out. Personally I’m not a huge fan of the legs in the first place, because they really tend to get chewed up fast.
After my legs start to get chewed up a bit I swap them out with a traditional skirt. Normally I’ll buy a traditional silicone skirt used for other lures and cut them down to size. Tie a knot in the middle and you’ll be off to your nearest lake to fish. Swapping out your legs is about as easy as you can possibly get.
8. Add a Glowing Touch
After doing a lot of ice fishing throughout Ohio winters I’ve really gotten into using glowing lures. Unfortunately most summer lures don’t come with a glowing option, because they’re not really necessary for open water. That’s a huge oversight because a little bit of glow will really increase your bites when fishing early mornings and after dusk.
To make your own glowing frog lures get some glow in the dark fingernail polish and paint strips on the side of your frogs. You might even want to spruce up the belly a bit to entice those monster topwater strikes.
9. Add a Trailer Hook
Fishing with frogs is a notoriously finnicky technique that’s known for a ton of missed strikes. Companies have been trying to combat this by releasing frog trailer hooks to increase your chances. Adding a trailer hook will really help with hookups, but it will make you much less weedless. So if you’re fishing manicured water you might just want to add one of these Elitelure Frog Trailer Hooks.
