Hollow Frog vs Soft-Plastic Toad: Where Evers Starts

Edwin Evers’s Use of Soft-Plastic Toads and Hollow Frogs by Water and Cover

Edwin Evers uses soft-plastic toads in waters that include clumpy grass flats, lily pads, and emergent vegetation such as bulrushes and waterwillows. He also fishes toads when sweeping rocky banks. These environments allow long casts that cover large amounts of water. In contrast, Evers reserves hollow frogs for specific bass lairs. These lairs are typically clumps of grass about 3 to 5 feet in diameter, especially matted vegetation covered with a slimy, yellow substance sometimes described as "cheese snot."¹

Differences in Presentation Between Evers’s Hollow Frog and Soft-Plastic Toad

When fishing a hollow frog, Evers plops the frog onto the mat of vegetation and works it with short scoots between pauses that can last as long as 15 seconds. If the frog hops off the edge of the mat, he twitches the bait side to side for a few feet to give the bass one last opportunity to strike. When fishing a soft-plastic toad, Evers uses a steady retrieve that is just fast enough to make the legs kick up bubbles, emphasizing that the slower the retrieve, the better.¹