Has anyone seen this pattern or a variation thereof before? Scroll down the page a bit and you'll see the frog.

I really like how the hook is completely exposed and not bent at some weird angle. The body seems to be able to hold the hook away from anything that would snag it until the fish struck.

I don't have any foam cylinders, so I'm going to attempt to reconstruct it with sheet foam.

Nice looking frog. Interesting use of the body as a weed guard. I like those mudbugs too.

Yes, I liked both flies. I have not seen them before.

Oh wow. That is brilliant. I too like the 'dads, as well as the grasshopper. Love me some grasshopper bites from trout.

When you do, please put up a photo tutorial for us novice tiers that can't always look at a fly and figure out how to tie it.

thats pretty neat fly, I think the hard part will be obtaining the right length foam cylinder but I'm gonna try to make one anyway.

Interesting, I am going gather materials and hit the bench!

that is a new idea, for me anyway. Who came up with it? Cole, what book is that out of?

Robyn, not my photo so I dont know, but I am looking to find out!

Found a newer version of the same tie:

The post on the forum I found this in originally says "The ORIGINAL Gutless Frog pattern, a brilliant design by Australian fly tier ROB MAEDE posted in Flyfisher Australia magazine".

Cole those are some interesting variations too.

OK, I don't have any cylindrical foam to play with this frog, but I do have some 2mm Wally World sheet foam. I took the sheet foam and superglued it four layers thick. For one prototype I used the foam flat to form the body of the frog and cut a slit for the hook to pass through. For the other I cut a thin strip of the 4 layer foam and bent it around the hook in the same manner as the cylindrical foam used in the example above.

Please ignore the sloppy thread work on these prototypes as I finished them with only one half hitch and left the thread loose so that I could disassemble them later and make changes. These two were built on Mustad 3366 hooks in size 2/0 that were bent slightly to allow the bodies to align correctly with the hookpoint.

Bottom view:


Side view:


Top view:


A couple of thoughts on these two prototypes: the wrap around version is much easier to build from a preparation perspective. However the wrap around version probably needs to be cut a bit thinner or built from fewer layers of foam to give it the flexibility required for a good hookset. Either version probably needs some superglue along the hookshank before tying them in to prevent rotation about that axis.

Ah, innovation. I love it. Remember too that adding a nice thread base on top of your hookshank where the glue will go allows both the glue and foam to better adhere to the hook, at least in my experience with large crease flies.

TxRR, just eyeballing your picture there I would definitely agree with the "fewer layers of foam" thought. I extrapolate that two layers foam would be enough to float the hook and be effective... the problem of course being that perhaps it will not give enough profile depth/width to give you your froggy look. Not that the bass necessarily care.

Those flies look like they will do the job alrighty. Let us know how they work out for ya!

Wader_noob, I'm all about U&I; utilize and improvise. I actually did have a threadbase on the hookshank, but failed to mention that in my description. Thanks for your comments.

Kelly, I'll definitely let everyone know how it works once I'm actually done with building one.

Upon further reflection, I think I'm going to try cutting a thinner strip of the four layer foam before I go to fewer layers to increase the flexibility of the whole froggy mess. Alternatively, I think I could trim some of the thickness out of the "neck" of the body where it is attached to the hook to make it more flexible and keep the bulk it has right now. The only issue with thinning the neck is going to be durability.