Yesterday I fished a nearby new, large pond that has pretty heavy vegetation. I used a brand new Booyah Pad Crasher frog which is the first time I've fished a frog. In an hour, I missed 5 great hits and went home. I had read about the need to adjust the hooks on new frogs, bending them slightly up and out, but didn't do it.  I adjusted the hooks early this morning and went back out and nailed 6 great fish, from 2 1/2 - 4 lbs., didn't miss a single one. The adjustment caused almost no effect on the frog's weedlessness. I'll definitely do it to every frog I buy from now on.

 

On a side-note, I had watched a Kevin VanDam video on fishing a frog and he suggested no pausing. I did that this morning and didn't have a hit for 30 minutes. I decided in mid-retrieve on one cast to pause and twitch....boom!  Every cast thereafter include pauses and twitching.

 

I'm going out again in the morning, I'm hooked on frogging!

Frogging is a very exciting technique to use for bass fishing. It gets your heart pounding and the hits are just spectacular. As far as modifications go. Many anglers have had good success modifying there frogs. Bending the hooks out is one of them. The frog can be fished in several ways. All those ways can bring you great success at one point or another. Do not limit your ways to fish it because one particular person chooses to fish it a certain way. Best of luck in your frogging adventures. 

Never really had to adjust the hooks on the Pad Crashers I've used.  In fact, if *can* bend the hooks on a frog easily, I wouldn't use it anymore.  It's not a time for bendy hooks.

 

As far as retrieves, go with what gets bit - meaning try different things until you figure out what works best that moment.

_{Yesterday I fished a nearby new, large pond that has pretty heavy vegetation. I used a brand new Booyah Pad Crasher frog which is the first time I've fished a frog. In an hour, I missed 5 great hits and went home. I had read about the need to adjust the hooks on new frogs, bending them slightly up and out, but didn't do it.  I adjusted the hooks early this morning and went back out and nailed 6 great fish, from 2 1/2 - 4 lbs., didn't miss a single one. The adjustment caused almost no effect on the frog's weedlessness. I'll definitely do it to every frog I buy from now on.}

 

_{On a side-note, I had watched a Kevin VanDam video on fishing a frog and he suggested no pausing. I did that this morning and didn't have a hit for 30 minutes. I decided in mid-retrieve on one cast to pause and twitch....boom!  Every cast thereafter include pauses and twitching.}

 

_{I'm going out again in the morning, I'm hooked on frogging!}

 

_{I read of a pro who said to bend them out. How far did you go? Just until the point was off the body?}

As far as retrieve, that's something to experiment with. I've had times where they just wanted one or two small pops followed with a long pause. I've had other times where I'd give it 6-7 twitches and then a short pause. Then there have been times where I'm literally twitching and reeling it back non stop the whole way in. Experiment with retrieves to figure out what the fish want at that time. 

_{I read of a pro who said to bend them out. How far did you go? Just until the point was off the body?}

If you can get a pair of linemans on the bend of the hook squeeze then and it should start to open up the hook. It should be kinda hard to do and quality pliers helps. I have also widened them sometimes for even better hookups.