wanted to fish something bigger that would tear up the surface, get the fish's attention, and create those mini, piscatorial explosions that I crave.

Whenever I encounter a "fishing dilemma", I always seem to go back to my Georgia bass fishing roots for the solution. In this case, the solution took me right back to my hometown of Athens, Georgia where the Zoom Bait Company has been manufacturing some of the top soft plastic bass baits in the industry. I remembered that Zoom had produced a weedless bass frog called, of all things, a Horny Toad, which was perfect for getting strikes in heavy cover and had been tearing up the bass tournaments as of late. I ran my plan by Capt. Tom Smith (whom I share all my hair-brained fishing schemes with), several packs of Horny Toads in various colors were ordered, and as soon as they arrived, I headed out for a day of toadin' it on the flats and mangroves around Cape Coral.

slower, steadier retrieve, the Toad comes through again creating an enticing, burbling, "V" wake with slow, consistent turns of the reel handle.

But the Horny Toad does even more! Stop reeling and the toad sinks to the bottom like a crab, its legs kicking around just like a crab's would. Once underwater, the frog can be worked subsurface, and if that doesn't seem to initiate any strikes, simply raise your rod tip and it comes right back to the surface ready again for top water frog duty. It's versatility for inshore saltwater angling is unmatched to my knowledge.

My favorite place to fish the Horny Toad is in the mangroves. Unlike a saltwater jerk bait, the frog is much heavier, allowing you to propel it deeper into the shrubs. It also makes much more commotion back there; both on landing and as you begin your retrieve. The Horny Toad skips well too, and because it is weedless and uses the same style of hook as a standard jerk bait, the soft plastic angler can adjust easily to froggin' the bushes.

Another scenario in which the frog really shines is redfish tailing in deep turtle grass. Not many lures are weedless enough, sink slowly enough, or are big enough to be noticed without spooking these wary game fish. In the past, jigs rigged weedless

seemed to be the only answer, but the sound of a jig head hitting the water was very unnatural and the jig would have to be cast far away from the fish and retrieved up to the tailing fish where it was allowed to sink. The toad, on the other hand, lands with an enticing splat much like a small baitfish. You still retrieve it up to the tailing fish, but the sound of the legs kicking usually arouse the reds curiosity enough for him to go on the hunt for it. If you still haven't gotten his attention than the wiggling legs and rubbery toad body sinking next to him certainly will. And not once do you ever have to worry about getting caught on the grass.

The hardest thing about fishing the Horny Toad would have to be the hook set. The large plastic body not only shields the hook point very well from heavy cover, but also the jaw of your intended quarry. After an explosive strike, you have to wait until you feel the hook point go from frog to fish before applying pressure and although this takes some practice, I think it really adds to the excitement. If you strike too early and pull the frog from the fish's mouth, you can usually throw it right back and the fish will hit it twice as hard since it never felt the point of the hook. If you are used to circle hooks or are very good at waiting that fraction of a second before setting the hook on a tarpon, then the toad won't give you any troubles. Also, learning to trust the fact that a snook or redfish on the end of your line will hold on to your plastic frog and swim around as happy as can be, can put a lot of slime on your hands - and I don't mean frog slime.

however, has a thick, flexible plastic body and its one hook is well hidden. This odd lure sometimes gets sucked into the fish's mouth with an audible "thud"! Imagine the sound of a marshmallow or a hard-boiled egg getting sucked into that Hoover vacuum and you will have some idea of what I am talking about.

Rigging a Horny Toad

First of all, for fishing any soft plastic, braided lines such as Power Pro or Fins are a distinct advantage. Not only do they allow you to cast these lighter weight lures farther, but they also have much better feel, which really helps with the more critical hook sets associated with fishing any weedless, plastic bait. For a rod you want something that has good backbone, yet a softer tip to help propel lighter soft plastic lures. My personal "frog" rod is a Eupro Diamond 10-17 lb IM8 graphite with a Quantum Boca 40 reel. With this setup, I can handle practically anything in either fresh or salt and launch a frog a country mile.

many braided line manufacturers, I have found that a Slim Beauty knot is far superior in terms of strength and is just as easy to tie. This is a knot I adopted from fly fishing and tying instructions can be found on our Slim Beauty Knot Page.

Although any standard worm hook will work on the Horny Toad, the best for general fishing is the actual Zoom Horny Toad hook. This worm style hook created specifically for the Horny Toad by Zoom has a small, coiled wire attached to the hook eye onto which the toad is threaded. The hook point is then pushed up through the toad's body and then skin hooked into the toad's back like a standard Texas Rig. For bigger game like tarpon and snook in heavy cover, you may want to use one of the new 5/0 Gamakatsu Superline worm hooks. These thick wire hooks have the beef to hold a very big fish, yet will still let the frog do his thing on the surface of the water. One neat trick here is to tie the hook onto your leader first, push the hook point deeper into the frog's nose than you normally would, and then, instead of going through the frog's body, keep the hook on the outside by going between the frog's legs. The knot attaching your hook to your leader should go into the frog's nose where it remains hidden and helps hold the frog in place. Now, skin hook the point into the frog's back as you usually would and you are ready for a salty frog fracas. The bend of the hook behind the frog's body will also help keep him in place on your hook. By the way, if you love fishing top water, but practice catch and release, the single hook is a distinct advantage over the two sets of trebles found on most plugs.

It Ain't Easy Being Green

Although we are discussing a lure designed to imitate a frog, the Horny Toad presently comes in a variety of very "Unfroglike" colors including black, white, yellow, watermelon red pearl, watermelon crawfish, and junebug with chartreuse legs, along with various colors that match different species of toads and frogs for those that choose to take a more traditional approach to their toad tossing.

Ok, so you're still having a problem with the idea of throwing a plastic frog to a saltwater fish. Well, I wouldn't assume most fish make the connection between your lure and its real life amphibious counterpart, but whether they mistake it for a crab, mullet, or just want to try the new mystery menu item, saltwater fish can't seem to resist a big mouthful of rubber toad. But if it is any consolation, I have heard of many old timers catching frogs for late summer snookin'. It's been said that frogs are the best secret snook bait ever. Ooops . . .

"Gettin' Your Frog On" Copyright 2005 by Greg Bowdish. May not be reproduced or redistributed without author's permission. This article first appeared in the Sept 2005 issue of
Onshore - Offshore Magazine. Republished with permission.

Capt. Greg Bowdish is a full time guide, fly casting instructor, and kayak angler who fishes out of Cape Coral, FL. He has also published fishing articles and photographs in both local and national publications. To book a spin kayaking trip call (239) 691-7284 or visit his website at www.yakflyfish.com.

If you want to find out more about fishing the Zoom Horny Toad you can visit our
Zoom Horny Toad In The Salt Homepage