I’d never heard anyone compare fish and felines, but Ray Hanselman had a point as he described one of his key principles for successfully fishing grass mats with topwater frogs.

As we worked our way along a particularly productive mat spotted with numerous well-defined blow-up holes, the FLW pro picked apart the area with what I’d best describe as “educated” casts. Differentiating the naturally-occurring and more randomly shaped holes caused by stumps, logs or rocks; Hanselman said he evaluates his targets with deep discernment.

No doubt, there’s a lot more to frogging mats than casting a hoping. Hanselman and a couple other mat pros offered a handful of tips for more productive frog fishing.