The other day I was shopping for a frog and trying to decide what color to get and I noticed something that all topwater lures seem to have in common.

From the fishes point of view they are pretty much all the same color on the bottom. The frogs ranged from white to yellow.

Does it even matter what color the top of a frog or topwater lure is? They look great, but the fish is not seeing them from above

Ken

Probably not, but we still have our favorites!

 

most of my topwaters are one of two colors.... white or black

I use black, white, and natural frog, if fishing crystal clear water it may make a difference what the top looks like, but most likely it won't.

I don´t care if the fish sees the lure, I care about I being able to see it, no wonder why all my topwater lures have highly visible colors. 

No matter what kind of topwater I'm using, an orange belly always out performs others.  My waters are stuffed with Mayan Cichlid's that look like their bellies are on fire.  I believe in matching the hatch, or at least that it helps.  No expert documentation, just personal experience.  As always using what you have the most confidence in, trumps everything.

I have a black frog and the rest are natural frog patterns or at least a shade of green. If the bass is looking up at a frog or if it's a low light time, it'll see a silhouette. But if it's open water, a good bit of the frog hangs in the water. Honestly, when's the last time you saw a frog walking across the surface in a place with bass? That's suicidal. A toad will swim on top to land, but I imagine it's rare for a toad to cross a pond by choice. But then I catch bass on hard bait topwaters in frog patterns. It's universal. I guess I don't believe that the bass is thinking "FROG" when it sees one. It's just thinking "there's something in my domain and I am honor-bound to murder it." And as long as it looks like it kinda belongs, he's good-to-go. So, from that POV, it could be a bumblebee, bird or cicada-colored frog and they'd still kill it.

All that said, I buy frog colors.

I like a frog that I can see easily at a distance.  I've even put pink dot stickers on the back, just so I can see it better.  Really big bass tend to slurp a frog, and it can be subtle.  Can't see your frog? Set the hook!

2 minutes ago, J Francho said:

I like a frog that I can see easily at a distance.  I've even put pink dot stickers on the back, just so I can see it better.  Really big bass tend to slurp a frog, and it can be subtle.  Can't see your frog? Set the hook!

But beware, if it's on top it will come at you like a missile.

If I can't see it, it's not on top, lol.  That's the point of the bright dot.

Profile and movement/action are the main things that will draw a fish to a topwater bait.  Like the reel ess said from underwater a fish will just see a silhouette.  Maybe in crystal clear water a dark vs light belly will make a different but for the most part it's the bait profile and the movement/action that will get the fish to strike.

As others have mentioned, almost certainly no, the top color doesn't matter. Same with spooks. BUT, as anglers its fun to have pretty looking lures .

I'm with others, if I had just straight white and straight black (and perhaps a green shade in the middle) for frogs I can pretty much guarantee I'd do just as good as I do with having 20 colors in the box now, since pretty much every one has a black or white bottom anyways.

My two best colors are white and chrome.

I really like the chrome flash on   top water baits like a Spook and Pop R . Or the silver flash in the Bomber Long A Minnow . 

Light or dark is pretty much it. Dark on cloudy, dark days and at night. Light colors during the sunny days. I know topwaters come in many colors but none of that matters. All that matters is what the fish see.

Bone, black and chartreuse. 

black or white

I try to match the bait fish or frogs already found in the area.

On April 21, 2016 at 0:25 PM, the reel ess said:

But beware, if it's on top it will come at you like a missile.

I call them "frog-rockets", and I've bounced more than a few off my body and my boat!

I really want a dark brown belly frog or a crazy change up like a junebug. I have two packs of rare Stanley ribbit I use for white cloudy days. A black and blue ribbit and a chili junebug color (purple w green flk). I really want a live target mouse that is solid grey or solid brown yet all of their bellies are white which I feel is good against blue sky but not overcast white sky.

One more for black and white, all the other colors are there to try and make you think you need all of them for different situations. Thus selling more lures which means mo money mo money.

Black & white.