If you enjoy your frog fishing like we do, then you have probably tried every frog out there except for possibly one—the Jackall Iobee Frog. We first got wind of this product a while ago, but didn’t actually start fishing it until this summer.
Jackall is known, rightly so, for their innovative premium hard baits as well as very effective soft plastics. Everything that we have fished from them has been top-notch in design, quality and performance. With this history, we just had to give the Iobee Frog a shot.
Like their other products, this one did not disappoint. We were blown away by how effective this bait is, and know that you will be too. Make sure to check out our Facebook page for some pictures of fish who decided to eat this thing whole!
Now, to the review…
Construction
The Iobee is 2 1/2 inches long and weighs 1/2 ounce. The construction of this bait uses very soft plastic for the body, a super sharp hook, unique rubber legs that flare differently than traditional silicone and its weighting system allows the angler to make longer casts than you might think for a lure of this weight.
Most frogs make the claim that you can walk the dog with the bait, but as we all know, few really deliver. This one does! You can influence how far to the side the Iobee will go by trimming the legs, or you can leave them the way they come and still have a nice tight side to side action.
Fishing The Iobee
On our first cast with the Iobee, it was apparent that this little frog excels at staying in a small area while creating plenty of surface disturbance. Thanks to its keel designed underbelly, you can work this with short, sharp pops of the rod tip without having to move the bait forward in the water much at all.
You can also kind of yo-yo it along the surface with the nose dipping and rising in a relatively straight line. The actions you can invoke with this bait are varied and plentiful.
Of course the reason you, like us, throw a frog is to catch fish. So how does the Iobee do where it really counts?
In our time fishing the Jackall next to several other hollow-body frogs, it has become our number one go to bait in this category. Here’s why.
Simply The Best
The reasons are simple. First, the action. As we eluded to, this little lure shines in tight places as well as open water. The ease of use for the angler is exceptional as well as the fact that the Iobee has shown no negative tendencies like rolling over, filling with water, landing upside down or other annoying habits that have plagued this segment of lures.
The shape of the Iobee is a little bit different too. You’ll notice that the back is swayed which leaves less plastic in the way as well as aiding the natural hook-set when the time comes to put the wood to a big bass. Our hook-up ratio has been higher with the Jackall than any frog that we have fished to date.
While the colors are limited, they are all well thought out and executed. The reality is that when you’re fishing a frog, the profile and action of the bait are more important and influential to getting strikes than are the color. However, bad colors can have a negative effect by getting fewer bites. In the case of the Iobee Frog, there are no bad colors.
While some frogs out there take some tweaking, tuning, or other “fixes” to work properly, the Jackall requires nothing. Take it out of the package, tie it on and get to work.
If there is any downside to the Iobee it is the flip-side of another feature that makes it so effective. That being that this frog sits a little lower in the water than most of its competitors. Due to this, you can pick up more surface slop with the Iobee.
You have to be aware of the fact that this also greatly increases your hook-up ratio. You’ll see in the pictures that so many of the fish that we have caught on the Jackall have absolutely sucked this bait down. In fact, the majority of our fish had the Iobee completely down their throats when we landed them.
So while we did have to remove some slop from the hooks on occasion, the fact that we landed the vast majority of the fish that hit more than makes up for this in our opinion.
Another interesting thing we’ve noticed since fishing the Iobee is that when we fish it side by side with some other frogs, we get more strikes on the Jackall. When we test a new lure, our first process is to fish it against our current favorite under the same conditions using the same gear. We do this several times so that when we say a new lure outperformed an existing one, we have a history of it, not just a onetime flash in the pan.
The Jackall Iobee Frog retails for about $13. This may seem to be a little on the expensive side but it is well worth the extra coin in our opinion. As we stated, we have gotten and converted more bites on the Iobee Frog than any other bait in this class that we own.
Just an aside before we wrap this up. While Jackall recommends using braid with this bait, we have fished it on braid as well as Yo-Zuri Hybrid. Braid in the thicker stuff, hybrid in more open water. The results have been the same for both. Phenomenal hook-up ratio, more strikes than other frogs and no issues other than having to clean slop off the hooks on occasion.
I know it seems somewhat strange to refer to a hollow-body frog as “premium” tackle, but in the case of the Iobee – it is appropriate!
| Jackall Iobee Frog | |
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |  |
| This will be your number 1 frog! | |
See ya’ on the water …