Entry 226-5

Fishing the New 2008 Lures with Denny Brauer

Part 5: What About the Rage Toad?

Question: Denny, what’s your take on the new Rage Toad?

Brauer: Toad baits have been around for a while, and they’ve been really popular for the last few years. Most lure companies have their own versions of the toad. Strike King’s Rage Toad is different from other toads because Strike King has enabled the angler to slow down the retrieve of the toad type of baits and keep it in the strike zone of a bass for a longer time. We’ve incorporated the best features of a toad bait and a frog bait into the Rage Toad. A frog bait hops along and sits still, and a toad bait has a swimming action. Strike King’s Rage Toad does both.

The Rage Toad also produces a different sound than any other toad on the market. Most toads make a plop-plop sound as they’re reeled across the surface. A Rage Toad has more of a swimming action, which Strike King has achieved by changing the material of its toads to tough plastic. All the Rage baits are made from a plastic that has the toughness and the density to match the fishing application for which they’ve been designed. In other words, if you’re fishing with a toad made of really-soft plastic, that lure is a one-time fish bait. Then it’s destroyed, or it slides down the hook, making it hard to fish the bait correctly. Strike King’s Rage Toad has all the advantages of the soft plastic, yet it’s a much-tougher bait.

Question: Denny, how do you set the hook when a bass takes the Rage Toad?

Brauer: All fishermen are guilty of setting in the hook too quickly when bass take a top-water bait. When fishing toad baits, it’s critical for your success to fish braided line. A higher percentage of bass that strike the bait are landed with braided line, especially when fishing the bait over and through heavy vegetation where most people fish toads. Because the braided line has no stretch in it, most fishermen will jerk their baits away from the bass before the bass have the baits in their mouths.

For that reason, making sure the rod tip is at the right angle is critical to getting a good hook set and timing the strike correctly. To get the fastest hook sets, most anglers point their rod tips straight at the toads as they retrieve the baits. Instead, I hold my rod at a 45-degree angle to the surface of the water. This way, when the bass takes the toad, the fish can load the rod by pulling the rod tip down and continue to load the rod when I pull the rod tip up and set the hook.

Getting the proper hook set when fishing the toad is a timing issue. Yes, I’ve pulled the toad away from a bass before the fish has the lure in its mouth. But I don’t like to let the bass have the toad too long. If I let the bass have this lure for an extended time, the bass will go down in the vegetation and swim toward the boat to reach deep water. Even though braided line is designed to cut through vegetation, there won’t be nearly as much force in the strike if the bass swims toward the boat as there will be if you strike the bass before it makes the turn and starts swimming toward the boat. If I can feel the fish before I strike it, I know which way the bass is moving and how to set the hook before I actually set the hook.

I also can learn a lot from the way the fish attacks the lure. If there’s a big explosion on the bait, I assume the fish has the toad. If the bass take the bait like this, I can’t react fast enough to take the toad away from the bass. If I start missing strikes, I have to adjust my tactic. I have to slow down and wait to feel the fish before I set the hook. I have to adapt each day to the way the bass take the bait on that day. I’ve seen days when bass won’t blow-up on the toad. They’ll just boil the water and suck in the bait. On those days, I really have to be concentrating on the lure as it comes across the water, give the bass more time to get the bait well in its mouth and almost feed the bass the bait before I set the hook.

Question: You can’t daydream and fish the toad, can you?

Brauer: Yes, you can. On some dayss, you’re better off being almost semi-conscious when fishing this bait. If you concentrate too hard on the lure, you may see the water move, the fish readying to attack the bait, and you may concentrate so hard on the lure and the fish that when the bass comes out of the water to take the bait, you immediately try to set the hook and will end up jerking the bait away from the bass. There are times when daydreaming and being less focused will enable you to catch more bass.

In this situation, you have to know how well you can control your emotions and reflexes when you see a bass approaching or blowing-up on the toad. When you see the bass move, if you can’t slow down your emotions and your reflexes, you’re better off daydreaming and waking up when you feel the fish take the bait. If you can force yourself to not strike the bass when everything in your body and mind tells you to hit it, you can watch the bait, let the bass take the toad and then set the hook. Most people probably are better off daydreaming when they’re fishing the toad.

 

Contents:

• Part 1: Bass Prefer a Cup of Coffee, Too
• Part 2: Let’s Play Football
• Part 3: A Raging Brauer
• Part 4: Chunk It
• Part 5: What About the Rage Toad?