Fishing for bass with top-water frog

Question
I have a question on selecting the correct rod to use for Top-Water Frogs when fishing for bass.  

I've searched the internet quite a bit, trying to find out what people like to use for top-water frogs.  It seems most articles suggest a medium-heavy rod with a fast tip.  

The medium-heavy portion makes complete sense for dragging a bass out of the cabbage.  But, I am questioning the suggestion to use fast-tips.  This is simply based on my experiences and I am by no means an expert.

I seem to miss most of my fish using a top-water frog because I seem to jerk the frog right out of its mouth.  Wouldn't a fast-tip compound the problem?  It seems to me like the perfect rod characteristics for the frog would be a rod with some nice power for towing them out of the weeds, but a soft enough tip to prevent you from jerking it right out of the mouth.  

I guess some would argue that since the Frogs are weedless, it's harder to set the hook well and the fast-tip helps that problem.  BUT...I still seem to miss more fish by jerking it right out of the mouth rather than losing the fish because of a poor hook-up.  

I see Berkley came out with a rod that seemed to me to be a great potential frog-rod.  It's called the Lightning Rod Shock.  It's a heavy rod for good power, but a composite graphite-fiberglass tip to help with over-setting the hook.

What do you think?

Answer
Hi Ryan,

Generally, the guys want the fast tip to help cast the light frogs a long distance.  But they want plenty of power to set the hooks so that's where that combination probably comes from.

Over the years, I have seen two factions of you "froggers".  Most are the heavy pads slop guys.  But there are a group of guys who fish these things in relatively open water like a Zara spook.  For these guys, they don't want a heavy rod.  The want a medium heavy with some tip action to help "walk the frog".  

As far as setting the hook too fast, I think that you will just have to lay back an extra second.

So bottom line, if you are just fishing hand to hand combat in pad fields and slop, that Berkeley may be ok for you.  If you plan on working them more in a "walk the dog" manner, I think you will like the lighter rod with a little more tip action.

The king of frogs, Dean Rojas, has his own rod out now and it has that lighter fast action tip section about 8-10" down from the tip.

Good froggin'!

Marc