I don't really think we can blame the line for missing fish on hooksets. I use mono for most stuff, and Miss very few fish on t rigs or jigs. My worst bait for missing fish on hookset are lipless baits. I flipped with 25lb mono yrs ago, just like everyone else. I also remember everyone frogging with mono line too. Did we always miss more fish? No. Fish are missed on hooksets by slow reaction time. Just an opinion. No right or wrong.

Ok, so it's not just me with Toads. What are we doing wrong?

Just now, Michigander said:

Ok, so it's not just me with Toads. What are we doing wrong?

I think it's the way fish hit toads in general? Lots of bass swipe at them.

6 hours ago, A-Jay said:

If I fished stock treble hooks, I'd agree with this.

But I do not, so this is not something I have to deal with.

Once Hooked, I Very rarely lose Crankbait or Jerkbait fish.

 

However, please do not ask me about my hollow body frog hook up ratio - because it's a little embarrassing. 

A-Jay

 

Me too A-Jay. This season, I'm going to try to wait that extra 1 or 2 seconds before I set the hook. I think in the excitement of a frog blowup, I've jerked the bait away from the fish too quickly? Sometimes though, it's hard to force yourself to do that.

Frogs, hands down!

I remember fishing a non pressured farm pond late in the evening with a Jitterbug and had a huge bass blowing up on it 8-10 times on 1 cast without hooking it.......that's a terrible ratio.

Frogs, I try to wait and sometimes I think I do but alas that frog comes flying back at me more often than I want it to.

For frogs, I don't miss many of them but for toads I don't catch many. I mostly use toads to get fish riled up and then toss a Rage Craw in there and haul 'em out since they reveal their location. Would love to just catch them on the toad though, would be so much more efficient.

When I fish Spro or Booyah frogs (hollow bodied) I get lots of misses. I use 40-50 lb Sufix braid and I still don't get the hook-set timing right most of the time. Bass love to "hit and spit" those floating frogs. My fishing buddy has had better "luck" (skill) than I have with those. 

    The Ribbit toads, on the other hand, are a far more consistent catcher for me. The only time I have had problems with the hook-up rate on Ribbit toads is when I used the special Ribbit twin hook system they sell. It was horrible! I went back to a heavy guage #5 wide-gap Gammy hook and my catch rates were very high. We love those Ribbit toads on the edges of pads a weed mats. I may miss one in ten bites on those. Just thinking about that surface bite has me longing for spring! Splash, plop, plop, plop, plop, BLAMM!!

7 minutes ago, Cranks4fun said:

When I fish Spro or Booyah frogs (hollow bodied) I get lots of misses. I use 40-50 lb Sufix braid and I still don't get the hook-set timing right most of the time. Bass love to "hit and spit" those floating frogs. My fishing buddy has had better "luck" (skill) than I have with those. 

    The Ribbit toads, on the other hand, are a far more consistent catcher for me. The only time I have had problems with the hook-up rate on Ribbit toads is when I used the special Ribbit twin hook system they sell. It was horrible! I went back to a heavy guage #5 wide-gap Gammy hook and my catch rates were very high. We love those Ribbit toads on the edges of pads a weed mats. I may miss one in ten bites on those. Just thinking about that surface bite has me longing for spring! Splash, plop, plop, plop, plop, BLAMM!!

I think if we ever meet, a singularity will form because you are basically my opposite. Spro and Booyah frogs are my preferred now because I get nine out of ten fish but a toad is one out of ten. My toad retrieve is splash, plop, plop, plop, splash, plop, plop, splash, splash, plop, *profanity*, repeat.

Michigander, What kind of "toads" do you have problems with? Are the Ribbits or Zooms or something else? Also, tell the trick to success with my Spro frogs if you know one. I love floating those frogs into holes in the pads and I usually get hits but very few catches on those things.

I'm certainly not the best fisherman, nor do I consider myself to be very smart, but I often wonder if their first "strike" if you want to call it that is an attempt to injure the prey to make it easier to eat. Maybe it is more of a thought out approach to feeding as opposed to a moving topwater bite like a buzzbait. Similar to maybe a strike on a jig or soft plastic versus a spinnerbait or crankbait. Could be that I am totally wrong and they don't have the thought process to act in such a manner, just something I have given thought to. 

Definitely frogs for me!  I have hit myself in the face multiple times with a darn frog on a hookset!?

38 minutes ago, Cranks4fun said:

Michigander, What kind of "toads" do you have problems with? Are the Ribbits or Zooms or something else? Also, tell the trick to success with my Spro frogs if you know one. I love floating those frogs into holes in the pads and I usually get hits but very few catches on those things.

Zoom Horny Toads and Rage Toads on all manner of hooks, tell me your secrets. For the frogs, it's the same hookset as jig but at 2x speed, when you see the strike, reel down quick and instead of weighing the fish because you know she's got it already, swing as soon as the line gets taunt. I think most people swing to early or too late. There's a split second sweet spot that once you find it, you can find it again.

1 hour ago, Mobasser said:

I think it's the way fish hit toads in general? Lots of bass swipe at them.

Me too A-Jay. This season, I'm going to try to wait that extra 1 or 2 seconds before I set the hook. I think in the excitement of a frog blowup, I've jerked the bait away from the fish too quickly? Sometimes though, it's hard to force yourself to do that.

Yup ~

It's not that I don't wait - I can do that OK.

It's more like, less than 1/2 of my 'strikes' are more like slaps and the fish isn't really eating the bait.

That's right about the time I need to duck . . . . 

A-Jay

 

You guys are sad.  I never miss a hook up.  Ever. Never ever times ten to the 20th power, lol. 
 

Just kidding. For me, it would probably be treble lures in which the strike was less than ideal or my line was so far away that setting the hook is a bit difficult. 
 

my losses generally occur on the timing of the hook set moreso than the lure type. . 
 

Either I don’t react fast enough or react too fast and am unable to make the right adjustments in the timing is where I tend to lose. 

On the bright side, I’ve never missed a hook set in the winter. Absolutely true. 

 

26 minutes ago, jbsoonerfan said:

I'm certainly not the best fisherman, nor do I consider myself to be very smart, but I often wonder if their first "strike" if you want to call it that is an attempt to injure the prey to make it easier to eat. Maybe it is more of a thought out approach to feeding as opposed to a moving topwater bite like a buzzbait. Similar to maybe a strike on a jig or soft plastic versus a spinnerbait or crankbait. Could be that I am totally wrong and they don't have the thought process to act in such a manner, just something I have given thought to. 

That’s what all the old timers say about the Night walleye bite here in the spring during alewife spawn. If you go out between 2 am and daylight, supposedly the alewives spawn on the surface (you find this by sound) and the walleyes tear through them. The technique is to parallel the bluff walls with a wobbling type jerkbait waking it on the surface. When you hear the first blowup, your instructions are to do nothing. Then when you hear the second blowup you reel in your fish. 

Frogs and some other top water baits.  It's all about timing and the manner in which the fish strike.  AS said and said well, good hooks and the right line and rod and setting the hook is not an issue.

I don't miss many frog bites, and I don't wait after the bite either. If the bait is gone after the blowup, the fish has it. They don't have hands, so unless it landed on top of it, it's in his mouth. IMO, waiting just gives them more time to spit it or bury up in the slop and make getting a solid hook set more difficult. Still going to miss some, it's part of the game, but I hook a vast majority of them since I started swinging as soon as I see the frog is gone.

 

I have the worst luck with tubes getting a solid hook set, especially if I'm fishing a stupid tube rig. It works great to get bites,

I kinda figured the answer would be frogs/toads.  People get all hung up on "you gotta wait this much time", etc.  Frogging is, to me, more about practice, experience, and "feel" than anything else.  It breaks my heart when I see people giving up on frogging because of the terrible hook up rate.  I have spent hour after hour after hour after hour doing nothing but and I have gotten pretty darn good at it.  My hook up rate at the height of the season is somewhere around 90-95%.  It's that 5-10% miss rate that keeps me doing it...that, and the fact that it is by far the most excitement this old feller can have with a rod in his hand.  I love it. 

Hollow bodied frogs are probably my lowest but i am with everyone else that I don't think they always eat it.  Buzz toad type baits I don't miss many.  

 

Being in a kayak I have learned that certain techniques benefit from standing on the hookset.  My guess is the angle of the hookset pulls more up than out.  Other baits once I have them on I don't lose too many unless they shake at the boat on a weak treble hookup or in the slop.

Swimming toads, like ribbett, etc.

I do ok with the hollow body frogs.

 

Probably strange to most of y’all on here, and somewhat off topic, but I have a much reduced hook up rate with ANY bait , using braided line as opposed to mono. 

6 hours ago, Jaderose said:

I kinda figured the answer would be frogs/toads.  People get all hung up on "you gotta wait this much time", etc.  Frogging is, to me, more about practice, experience, and "feel" than anything else.  It breaks my heart when I see people giving up on frogging because of the terrible hook up rate.  I have spent hour after hour after hour after hour doing nothing but and I have gotten pretty darn good at it.  My hook up rate at the height of the season is somewhere around 90-95%.  It's that 5-10% miss rate that keeps me doing it...that, and the fact that it is by far the most excitement this old feller can have with a rod in his hand.  I love it. 

That's about where I am with frogs. I love them, more so than other lures, and have really really practiced with them. I don't have to think about the hookset, I just let my muscle memory do it for me, then it's up to my brain to figure out how to get them back to the boat.

6 hours ago, flyfisher said:

Hollow bodied frogs are probably my lowest but i am with everyone else that I don't think they always eat it.  Buzz toad type baits I don't miss many. 

Based on empirical evidence,  I don't think most people can be good at frogs and toads, it's one or the other...

42 minutes ago, Michigander said:

That's about where I am with frogs. I love them, more so than other lures, and have really really practiced with them. I don't have to think about the hookset, I just let my muscle memory do it for me, then it's up to my brain to figure out how to get them back to the boat.

Based on empirical evidence,  I don't think most people can be good at frogs and toads, it's one or the other...

I did fine last year on them but compared to other techniques it is definitely the worst ratio.  

2 minutes ago, flyfisher said:

I did fine last year on them but compared to other techniques it is definitely the worst ratio.  

I lose more on spinnerbaits than I do frogs. Toads however... 10% strike to hookup to land is a great day for me.

3 minutes ago, Michigander said:

I lose more on spinnerbaits than I do frogs. Toads however... 10% strike to hookup to land is a great day for me.

I usually only throw a toad when i am getting blowups and no hookups on the hollow body.  More often than not, it makes for a better day of frogging.  I figured if they are blowing it up and I am not hooking up that a different type of bait in the same areas will up my chances.