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How To Make A Zoom Horny Toad Float???

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I tried them without a hook and SOME of them float fine, but once that 4/0 wide gap is set, they sink.  Any ideas how to get them to float?  I googled it and came up with no ideas. Thanks.

I don't use Horny toads so im not much help. I have been trying to figure out how to make a few of my other ones float though. I managed to get a couple trick worms to float (3/0 eagle claw weedless hooks) but it doesn't always work.

Tried using WideGap Eagle Claw (4/0) with this....

028-053.jpg

 

and occasionaly can get it to float. Would be nice to have it stay on top for a while with no action. Maybe smaller hooks will help. Im sure the answer to your problem is the same thing I've been wondering about.

  • Author

There has to be a little bubble that can be pressed in or something to help.  I have googled and youtubed this and nothing.  Someone must have a good idea.

  • Author

I am trying to make the two packs of Zoom Toads I have work.  I want to work on the jerk jerk pause method.

Stanley makes a floating version of the Ribbit frog. It would be easier to buy a pack of those than fiddling with a smaller or lighter hooks. You don't want to go light on a frog hook.

  • Super User

get an injector with a fairly large needle, like you'd use to inject a turkey before smoking it, and you can create little air pockets inside of nearly any bait.  After a strike you might need to re-inject.  My injector is a fairly cheap one that came with a bottle of marinade.

try using braid as it floats better than most lines use the hook size that best fits the bait, and don't let it sit so long to allow it to sink, using it as a topwater it shouldn't sit to long, just a quick pause then jerk it again.

  • Author

Thanks for the advice.  The more I learn, the better.  I took a drill bit, heated it with my heat gun and honed out a hole across the body of the frog.  I then placed a piece of styrofoam (my wife hid my darn ear plugs again!) and I tried it.  Helped a little, but still didn't stay floating.  I think I will just order some damiki air frog types when i find a sale.

 

I will try to injector when I can get a big hypodermic needle.

I had some horny toads that floated.  They may have been a mistake or between batches, whatever.  They had air bubbles in them.  They would float a 5/0 EWG about 1 inch below the surface.  Caught my PB (7 lb) on one.

They were watermelon red/cream.  They were not even all the same shade as if the product wasn't mixed good.  I actually stood in Wal-Mart and sorted the ones that had bubbles and put the ones that didn't have back on the rack.  I've never seen them again.

I wish they would make some, on purpose, like that.

  • Super User

Out of curiosity Mram, why do you want your horny toads to stay floating vs  just using a hollowbody frog? Is it because of the action? 

Check out the Damiki air frog, it's a soft plastic frog that floats.

  • Author

Hey BL,

I just hate to waste the ones I have and I want my frogs to float.  I am new to this, so ask me again next year and I will want them to sink like a rock :)

 

As for the Damiki air frog, does anyone have first hand experience with it?  Good/bad?

  • Super User

Stanley makes a floating version of the Ribbit frog. It would be easier to buy a pack of those than fiddling with a smaller or lighter hooks. You don't want to go light on a frog hook.

I have tried those floating ribbits and in my opinion, they suck.  They are to light to cast effectively and the floating ability isn't that great really.

 

If i want something to float i use a different type of frog like a hollpw body or the dahlberg frog, http://www.river2seausa.com/topwater/483-dahlberg-diver-frog.html  but usually when i want a floating frog presentation i am chucking a deerhair frog on the fly rod.

  • Super User

^^^ fly is right don't I repeat don't buy the Stanley Top Toads unless you like to catch BIG FISH! Lol he's is the ONLY person I have ever heard say that he must be doing something wrong but that's also his personal opinion

I, too, love the Horney Toad but I'll be honest with ya; if they are not hitting it as a buzzbait, that means it's too fast, and I have found I get more hits when I let it sink just under the surface and work it with a jerk/pause instead.

You can fish the horney toad and the Rage Toad both as buzz baits but the hookup rate is much better fishing them slow jerk pause or pulling it off the top of a lily pad.

Not much quite as exciting as one hitting the rage toad when buzzing knowing you got to let her take it "just a little bit longer"

I think zman makes a floating elaztech frog

Personally I have more luck with just reeling and pausing, the kicking "legs" are what trigger the bite.

  • Super User

Try the scumfrog bigfoot. Overlooked bait in my opinion. Snagproof makes a swimming frog but they don't work real well IMO.

  • Author

Thx. I'll check it out.

  • 4 weeks later...

Z mans frogs float and they produce! They are also very durable, I swung a small gar , we call them copels, into the boat and he was only biting the leg. I used the bait the rest of the summer.

You hollow them out enough to insert a Lundy rig float inside. That's what I do for a Caroline rig to keep it off the bottom.

  • Author

Alpha,

Good idea.  I will try that.

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