Oh yeah, frog fishing is an absolute blast! Really, what’s not to like about it?
The reason there are so many hollow body frogs available is that they are, as a bait class, very efficient at drawing strikes from bass that are hiding out in the thick stuff.
Not only do they get lots of attention, they are the quintessential weedless topwater tool that can be thrown on and through just about anything that you can encounter.
So you would think that the market is saturated to the point that there is no room for another iteration in this genre? Not so fast. There is a new kid on the block, the Terminator Walking Frog.
Yes, once again, our curiosity got the best of us and we just had to get some to see for ourselves what the buzz was about.
As is typical with any new lure, the company producing it has a bullet list of features that they highlight to both inform and entice anglers to try their new bait.
In the case of the Walking Frog, there were two stand outs in this list that compelled us to obtain the bait for testing.
The first of those, “The Widest Hook Gap Available,” the next, “Perfect walking action right out of the package, without modifications.”
First Impressions
When you take the bait out of the package and look at it from the top, there are some things that make an immediate impression.
First, its got big bulbous eyes that stick out above the body. Other than the eyes, it is not designed to be an anatomically correct image of a frog.
Moving to the rear of the bait, the hook points, which point slightly upward, are protected by the body in two ways. Because of the shape of this frog, the hooks are below the level of the top of the frog and because the rear of the bait is significantly narrower than the front – 1 1/4” compared to 3/4” – they are also protected on the sides of the frog.
That brings us to our first bullet point, the widest hook gap available. From the side, the Walking Frog measures a full 1 1/8” in height which allows the double VMC hook to have a gap of approximately 7/8”. That’s a pretty hefty bite.
Another interesting design note is that the rear of the bait narrows both in height and width so that the bend in the hook shank is 1/2” in front of the legs. This keeps the rubber strands that comprise the legs from fouling around the hooks.
Reality check
So now you’re thinking, “Man, this sounds like a huge frog!” No, not really. The Terminator is 3” from the tip of the line tie to the furthest point on the body which doesn’t include the legs.
Yes, it’s larger than some or maybe even most of the other frogs out there but, it isn’t by any standards the biggest one nor is it ungainly to fish.
The Walking Frog has a solid weight to it, 11/16. This allows for excellent casting distance. It also influences how it sits in the water but not at all negatively.
Furthermore, the weight itself is in the shape of a trapezoid as opposed to being round and set flush with the bottom of the bait behind the bend in the hook shank.
This frog sits almost horizontally with the rear of the bait just slightly lower than the front. At rest this allows the line tie to be out of the water so that when you begin your retrieve, the nose of the bait makes a slapping sound on the surface of the water.
In designing the Walking Frog, Terminator took steps to seal the line tie to the front of the bait and put a small hole between the legs in the rear so that it would drain easily if it did take on water.
So does all this effort put into designing this frog translate into a superior product that lives up to its claims? Specifically, “Perfect walking action right out of the package, without modifications.”
Ease of Use
Is this bait really ready for live action right out of the box? In a word, the answer is, yes. Pull this frog out of the package, tie it on using either a heavy mono or braid and it will walk without you doing anything to the bait.
No trimming of the legs, no bending the hook points, no modifications whatsoever and the Terminator Walking Frog walks.
The material used for the body is soft and readily collapses on a strike, the hooks are razor sharp and this frog resists taking on water better than the vast majority of its competitors.
Furthermore, this frog is at home in the thickest slop on the lake. It glides through pads, grass, slop and through stick ups without a whimper.
Our hook up percentage has been excellent compared to most other frogs in our tackle box. So good in fact that we have retired some older frogs in favor of these.
The Terminator has also proven to be above average on the durability scale. Considering all the things that the Walking Frog does well, it’s hard to not have one of these tied on whenever the topwater bite is heating up!
| The Terminator Walking Frog | |
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |   |
| An excellent all around frog | |
See ya’ on the water …
