I discovered this quite by accident.

I was fishing a horny toad in the weeds last week when a young man came by and said "try a white one". He had caught several nice bass in the last couple of weeks, at this pond, using a white horny toad. Well, of course, I had no white horny toads. I did have a pack of Yum Buzzfrogs, in green with a white belly. I said to myself, self, that's close enough, so I put one on.

I rig horny toads on a Gammy 5/0 superline hook. This hook is quite a bit bigger than a regular 5/0 EWG. That's the hook I had on, so I rigged the buzzfrog on it.

I was still casting and bringing the toad across the weeds, and was still not catching any fish. Whenever I'm fishing toads with slack line like this, I'll make a cast into open water every now and then just to tighten up the line on the reel, so I don't backlash when trying to hit my spots. Well I did this and got a backlash. Pretty good one too. I'd just started cranking it back after clearing the mess when I noticed one more loop, so I stopped and pulled it out. That's when the fish hit it. On the drop.

I though maybe this is a hint, so I dropped the frog next to me to see how it looked on the drop. Amazing! It had this sweet side to side wiggle as it fell.

I continued to fish this thing like a senko for the rest of the evening, and caught several more fish, the best being a 4 1/2 pounder. I've tried it on two more outings and have proven to myself that the first time wasn't a fluke. I've also discovered that a regular 5/0 hook does not produce that action. It takes the big superline hook. A horny toad does not do it either. The right combination is the Yum Buzzfrog on a Gammy 5/0 EWG Superline hook. It falls slower than a senko, but faster than a fluke. I was fishing it sunday evening in ten feet of water, to great effect. Took about 15 seconds for it to hit the bottom at that depth. If you have the patience, you could fish it deeper. I was pulling it just fast and far enough to get the legs to wiggle, and then letting it drop and sit.

Give it a try. This has been too good not to share.

Cheers,

GK

I always try to stop my frogs in open spots in the vegetation and lilly pads and let it fall. Catch alot of fish this way. When it falls shake your rod tip and this will give the frog action while it is just sitting there!

Thanks, ghoti.  This sounds like a great technique!  I know a lot of guys here talk bad about the buzz frogs.  But I've been on record several times saying that they work better under the surface than on top (though I've never tried it exactly like you describe).  

I like the buzz frogs. However for me they do roll over probably a bit more than they should, but it honestly dosent matter to me. They will still catch fish belly up or down, I just get a little ticked when its belly up on the mats sometimes.

-wm