I fished a Basirisky frog all day saturday and couldn't keep anything on the hook. I had roughly 15 bites, 10 hookups, and only put 4 fish in the boat.

On 6 different occasions I had a bass hooked for several seconds only to suddenly have the hook drop out for seemingly no reason. None of these fish jumped and threw the hook or ran towards me and put slack in the line, they just plain came off on a tight line. The hook on the frog was not bent out and was still as sharp as ever so I'm having trouble figuring this out. I was fishing the frog on 50lb braid w/ a 7' MH rod.

Another problem was the steel eye that holds the hook inside the frog bent out after only the second fish I caught, and I had to bend it back with pliers. Had the hook and harness not pulled halfway out of the frog I never would have known it and certainly would have lost the bait on the next fish. I also had to squeeze water out of the frog constantly. If these baits didn't get so many bites I would quit fishing them.

So have any of you had similar problems with this high dollar frog? I know I can't be the only one.

I have one of those frogs, I got it back when they were hard to find. I can't say that I have fished it a whole lot, but I have caught a few fish on it up to about 4 lbs. I do fish frogs a lot, though usually the Spro Bronzeye I see one problem with your setup that will affect any frog. You mentioned that you are using a MH rod, personally that sounds like your biggest weakness in the link. I was using my 7' Heavy flipping stick, but recently stepped up to a Daiwa Tough and Light 7' 4" frog rod. The Daiwa has really helped bring my bite to catch ratio up even higher than it was already. I have noticed that that extra four inches, which doesn't seem like much, really makes a difference in the power of the hookset. I was already doing well with hooksets when I was at the right angle (anywhere from straight in front of me and to the left), but anything on the right of me, setting back towards my left lost a lot of power. The reason I stepped up to the new rod was that I had lost a couple of really big fish (over 6 lbs) on the frog due to not being able to get the hook in them with my 7' heavy. Another thing is the basirisky has a single hook, I haven't had problems with it yet, but i havent fished mine enough to know how bad that single hook is.

ive never heard of it so i did a google search of it and i got a tackle warehouse result. i clicked it and that is the DUMBEST looking frog ive ever seen!!!!!! it doesnt even look like a frog. for 15 dollars i dont know why you dont go buy a snagproof pro frog or a spro bronzeye. they are much cheaper and look much better.

Aside from the rod, those hollow frogs always waterlog, there 's nothing you can do about it.

I 've fished with hollow frogs for many years, most of them have one thing in common which causes low catch ratio, the hook on which the body is mounted has not exactly the right angles to it, even in the most expensive ones. In theory the body collapses when a fish strikes and mouths the bait leaving the hook exposed ....... that 's in theory, in the practice such thing is not always true. Grab your pliers and increase the angle in the middle of both hooks by openning them sideways until the point almost protrudes from the body, it 's still weedless but the body no longer needs to collapse as much to expose the hook. Once you have increased the angle then its time to bend some more, now you are going to to open the gap of the hook by bending the hook upwards until you achieve the same effect you achieved by beding it sideways. Be careful not to over bend or the hook will ride too high on the body redudcing the weedlesness.

When bending the hooks be careful, do it slowly one bend at a time or you can break the hook, if you bend too much, if you exceed the limits you 'll have to rebend to close and you can cause metal fatigue, the hook will break under stress ( been there done that   : ).

Thanks for the tips guys.

I've never had this problem with a frog before which is what really puzzles me. It's one thing to set the hook and have the fish get off right away, but when you have them on for 6 seconds and then they just come off it's really frustrating.

Cullin8s, I might just have to buy a heavier rod. I've used this MH rod for frogs many times before, but I'm willing to do whatever will put a couple more bass in the boat. That frog stick sounds good.

dsaavedra, I agree, the basirisky looks pretty stupid, but the action is what makes it worth the $16.  It "crawls" just like a jitterbug, but it's completely weedless. Also it's much softer than most frogs out there. SPROs and others work too, but I'm willing to pay twice as much if it gets me more bites.

Raul, I thought about that, but the hook on the bait is barely closed enough to be weedless as it is, I'm afraid any more bending will really kill its effectiveness. I really think they need to redesign these frogs with a double hook.

It may be the "dumbest" looking frog out there, but it's an awesome bait.  Besides, it doesn't have to look like a frog, it just has to look like food to a bass.

This bait is an awesome bait, as you have found out btlva.  Yeah, it does get water in it, but you just squeeze it out and go on.  I don't even think about it anymore, I just squeeze it after every fish or every few casts.  Most frogs get water in 'em anyway.

I also agree that a longer rod is better.  I use a 7'6" flipping stick and braid for frog fishing.  The extra 6" has helped a ton.

Also, the Basirisky has a cutting point hook I believe and these can tear a larger hole that needle point hooks.  Helps the fish throw the bait better, especially if you only get the hook under the skin or just barely in the lip.

Also, which size did you get, the 70 or 60?  The 60 is a little smaller and might get eaten better.

Good luck and keep froggin'!

Brad

Brad, I was using the 60. You're exactly right, it doesn't have to look like a real frog to get eaten.

The Basirisky really is a good lure. I think the best thing about them is you can just use a straight, steady retrieve and still get lots of bites. With the other frogs your wrist gets worn out just from working them, and then after a few  hooksets, especially with heavy braid, you almost need to put on an ace bandage. I can throw the Basirisky all day and not feel a thing.

I'm hoping I just had one of those days. Seems like every year I have one day where nothing stays on the hook. Next time I'm using my 7'6 flippin stick.