Froggie
By Tony Spezio, Arkansas

This fly came about when I was shown this method of tying at a bass fly class I attended. It was changed several times and this was the final results.

The Froggie has been a very good fly for bass and panfish, some large trout have also been taken on it.

Bass have come out from under a log in bright sunlight to take it. It may be that the Froggie is translucent when held up to a bright light. The Froggie is tied using sheet Fly Foam for the body, 1/8 to 1/2 inch thick. The tails have been tied with feathers, Krystel Flash, marabou and no tails.

The thread is Flat Waxed Nylon, or Gudebrod "Super G" thread, you can spin the bobbin to the right as you are wrapping, this will flatten the thread and give a smooth wrap on the shank. The eyes are small teardrop or round head colored pins, they can be found in sewing departments or fabric stores.

I generally use a trailer fly on a 18" length of mono tied to the bend of the Froggie hook. It makes for a lot of double hook ups. Make your cast and just let it sit there, then just jiggle the rod tip enough to make the Froggie shimmer. Retrieve in stop and start motion and let it sit again. It makes no sound, just small wakes from the eyes.

Materials for the Froggie

Hook: 3 or 4 X long streamer hook 4-14

Thread: Chartreuse Flat waxed nylon (F.W.N.) or Gudebrod Super "G".

Tails: Chartreuse hen neck or saddle hackle.

Body: Strip of 1/8" X 3/16" white Fly Foam for sz. 12 hook. Wider on large hooks.

Eyes: Small round head pins, yellow or red and Slick Fabric Paint. Black, Yellow, Red

Color: Marking pens, Florescent yellow for the belly and Pantone 283 for the top.

Instructions for the Froggie:

1. Wrap hook shank to the bend with F.W.N. Spin the bobbin to the right to flatten the thread. This gives you a smooth wrap on the hook shank. Hold the tag end up about 45 degrees as you wrap, this lets each wrap slide against the previous wrap. It covers the hook shank without any gaps.

2. Tie in tail, shank length splayed, wrap F.W.N. to the hook eye.

3. Use a straight edge and a sharp razor to cut a strip of Fly Foam, the width will depend on what size hook you will be using. Wider for fat Froggies and Narrow for skinny Froggies.

4. Tie in foam strip with "X" wraps 90 degrees to the shank on top of the hook just behind the eye leaving 1 1/2 shank length of foam strip on the far side of the hook. Wrap F.W.N. back to the tail tie in point.

5. Take the strip that you left on the far side and fold it back (parallel to the shank) against the shank to the tail tie in and tie it off with two wraps.

6. Fold the near side back and tie off with a whip finish.

7. Cut the tag ends of the foam leaving about 1/8" beyond the tie off wrap.

8. Split these extensions vertically to make four little legs.

9. Color the bottom Florescent yellow and the top with the 283 pen.

10. The eyes are made from round head pins found in the fabric department. The size you use will be determined by the size Froggie you tie. For most sizes from 10 to size 6, hook I use size 17. Cut the pin to length as needed.

11. Stick the pins in part way, apply a bit of Super Gel glue on the pin and push them all the way in.

12. To dot the eyes, squeeze a bit of red Tulip "Slick" paint out from the end of the nozzle. Touch the paint to the eye for a nice clean dot.

13. After the red dot sets for about a minute, do the same with a smaller black dot making the pupil.

14. I put black stripes across the top and spots on the bottom, the lines look like ribs in bright sunlight through the foam.

15. The finished Froggie.

After the Froggie is good and dry, dip them in "Rain X", this will help keep the color on longer. Colored foam can be used instead of white. I have used green, yellow, gray (for mini froggies), orange and black. The black has done well in daylight or dark. I tied some for a person to be used in the Amazon using 1/2" green foam for the top glued to 1/2" yellow foam for the bottom tied on a large salt water hook. ~ Tony