Live and Artificial 
Frogs 
As Bait 
By tO U IS) -R H EAD 
the frog to be a staple food of 
all kinds of game fish. Its deli- 
cate, white flesh is esteemed by man as 
a dainty dish. For mascalonge a good- 
sized fog will rouse it to active feeding 
when a trolling spoon fails. Pike, 
pickerel and bass are equally partial to 
a frog bait in all sections of the coun- 
try. In the western states where the 
rainbow attains to 20 pounds and up 
the natural frog is used with deadly ef- 
fect and I know a great many anglers 
would be satisfied to use frogs exclu- 
sively for all-round game fishing if the 
supply could be kept up. Several years 
ago the writer was fishing the Esopus 
at Big Indian; an angler one day 
startled the hotel guests with a string 
of browns and natives of more than 
ordinary size when all other anglers did 
little or nothing. He told me in confi- 
dence his capture was made on small 
brown frogs with body an inch long. 
His method was to attach each thigh to 
a small No. 8 fly, the twin snells being 
lashed together on his leader. 
A LL experienced anglers well know 
[N the angler’s own words describing 
his method he said, “I just dropped 
the little beggars in a deep pool and let 
them alone to enjoy life,” and he further 
confided to me this method he learned 
from a southern darkey, an expert 
crappie angler. 
Big perch will attack frogs of any 
size; if they cannot gobble the whole 

Appearance of live frog in water (drawn 
from photograph) 
Page 585 

Tribulations of the live-bait angler 
animal they take off a leg at a time 
then go for the body. 
I used to fish with live frogs when 
boys would sell them for 25c a dozen, 
nice little fellows too, but that was 
years ago when boys were boys and not 
Princes. At present we cannot get 
frogs for love or money. 
My original theory that floating na- 
ture lures are the best to use for all 
game fish is still sound judging from 
the satisfaction expressed in their use. 
My floating frog is a success for casting 
on a light trout rod from a boat at 
close quarters. 
B UT fly rod lures still fail to attract 
the “dyed-in-the-wool” short rod 
bait caster who fishes deep in waters 
of the middle western and far western 
states, as also in the south, and judg- 
ing from their repeated requests that 
I construct for their use some weighted 
lures suited to their method of fishing. 
In the south there is a demand for the 
red-finned white roach to capture large 
mouth bass. In the eastern states they 
request a young perch which furnish 
90% of food for pickerel and bass. But 
from many different localities the re- 
peated cry is “Give us a frog, a plug 
frog with a yellow belly and black spots, 
or a young striped pickerel with a long 
nose.” It is an easy matter for an 
artist to carve and paint a frog per- 
fectly true to nature. It is quite an- 
other matter to make it act in the water 
like nature under the influence of the 
angler’s rod. That I have succeeded is 
due to a determined yet patient effort. 
As will be seen by the drawing I have 
eliminated detachable parts, shaping 
out the frog in a carved form with lead 
so placed to make the frog rapidly sink, 
then swim back when reeled in to make 
a perfect wobble to appear like a nat- 
ural frog, with long powerful double 
hooks, painted yellow for the legs, so 
arranged as to be absolutely weedless, 
and have holding power on the first 
grab. Another treble hook is placed 
under the throat in case the fish strikes 
sideways which is usually the case with 
minnows, though I have witnessed both 
a bass and large brown trout take a 
live frog from behind, as fish well know 
the frog has no spines to tickle their 
gullet. 
T is impossible to make the lifelike 
shape by machinery, they must be 
hand-carved and hand-painted. But the 
lure is made perfectly strong and dur- 
able to last for a number of years with 
ordinary care and stout line. It is made 
in three sizes—2%, 3%, and 4 inches 
long—the latter being over an ounce in 
weight and together with its large and 
powerful hooks is intended for masca- 
longe and big pike trolling that requires 
strong tackle. The two smaller sizes 
after being cast should be allowed to 
sink, then reeled in at a moderate pace 
with intermittant jerks of the rod 
which makes it dive downwards at the 
same time to wag its hind quarters 
more rapidly which gives a most un- 
canny lifelike motion in the water. 
AN*® angler who is fairly skilful with 
knife and paintbrush can fabricate 
a frog quite as good and effective to get 
strikes from fish, working on the lines 
of this pattern. The main point is to 
have hooks to effectually resist a strike. 
I do not usually advocate treble hooks, 
but in every instance I find only one 
barb of the three takes hold and they 
are only used because the single hook 
fails to hold fish—bass especially. The 
writer will discuss later the subject of 
hook effectiveness, barbed or otherwise. 

Louis Rhead’s new nature plug frog which 
may be made by anglers 
