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For a few years now I have fished for bass on and off with wiggle minnows. I always thought they should have worked but the limited success made me wonder if it was all about the shape. Being pretty confident that bass take frogs I decided to modify the wiggle minnow concept so that it would look and swim more like a frog. My preference is still to fish for bass with true surface flies but when that is not working I have found that a wiggle frog stripped just below the surface amongst structure is a great way to get a bass' attention.

You can fish this fly on an intermediate or faster sinking line but my preference is to fish it on a floating line so that it swims just below the surface. Two or three medium paced strips followed by a pause will cause the fly to swim down and then back to the surface with a zig zag motion. Fish sometimes take the fly as it is swimming but more often than not they see the fly as it swims and then don't strike until the fly is just sitting on the surface resting. If you put out a reasonable cast along a bank you can often get three or four swims and rests into a single retrieve. As an alternative if the fish are a bit docile a faster retrieve often elicits a strike.

Side view

View from above

Fish eye view - note the eyes

Materials for three colour variations are below:

Process

A	Cut a piece of closed cell foam. I use 1 layers of 2 mm closed cell foam and cut it just a bit wider than the outside of the gape of the hook and at least one and a half times the length of the hook. I cut my strips of closed foam on a guillotine so that I get nice uniform sides and leading edges and leave them long. It's much easier to trim the rear to length in the final step than to wish you could add some on. Glue a holographic eye on the front corners of the foam.

B	Once the glue has set trim the foam round the front corner of each eye. Pierce the foam with the point of the hook along the centre line and in line with the back of the eyes. Push the foam along to the eye of the hook. Understanding hooks This fly has been designed with the eyes looking down and visible to the fish so make sure you have the eyes looking toward the back of the hook at this stage. Now place the hook loaded with the foam into the vice. Wind the thread in touching turns from behind the foam to the bend of the hook. Cut a length of 2mm closed cell foam about 3 mm wide and tie it in, on top of the hook shank at the bend of the hook with the remaining foam pointing behind the fly like a tail.

C	Tie in a bunch of marabou on top of the hook shank. The tips should extend beyond the back of the fly a distance equal to the hook shank or a little longer. This is more marabou than you would tie in for a woolly bugger type tail because you are going to divide it into 2 bunches to represent the hind legs of the frog. Woolly bugger type tails

D	Divide the marabou into 2 equal bunches and pull the red closed cell foam up between them and tie it down on top of where it was first tied in. Take your thread as far forward as possible and tie in a length of estaz chenille. Take your thread back to the bend of the hook.

E	Wind the estaz chenille back to the bend of the hook in touching turns and tie it off and trim away the excess. If you look carfully you will see that I have put a line of super glue along the body where it will fold onto the estaz chenille as well as a drop of super glue on top of the red foam leg divider.

F	Pull the closed cell foam over the top of the fly and then lock it into position with a couple of firm wraps of thread and then a few multi hitches by hand. Multi hitches by hand Trim the excess thread and apply varnish or super glue the multi hitches and on top of the body where it is tied down at the bend of the hook. Trim the foam off square with the rear edge of the hook. If you have a look at the middle photo at the top of the page you will see that I also split the foam behind where it is tied down.

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