Top 5 Tournament Baits of 2013, #2 SPRO Bronzeye Frog

Making it's way into my second spot is SPRO's Bronze Frog. I bought my first hollow body frog in early 2013 because I heard that one of the lakes that we were going to have a tournament on was over 50% lily pads. (Kiser Lake) The lake was too far away to prefish, so I decided to pick up a half dozen hollow body frogs and get acquainted with them on some of my home water. My first trip with the frogs didn't go so well, in fact I don't think I had a single bite. I went into the tournament without have ever landed a single fish on a hollow body frog. What did I have tied on you ask? Well of course, a hollow body frog. Within the first 30 minutes I had landed and measured 3 fish that put me just at 40". Unfortunately, I wouldn't advance much further than that throughout the day. With that said, I still flat out wore the fish out. I don't think I have ever had so much fun in my entire life. To be honest there were times that I had completely forgotten that I was even in a tournament. I'd toss the frog up on the bank, quietly pull it into the water, and make a couple quick twitches when all of a sudden the water would explode as the baby 12"-14" bass ate the frog like a shark eating a sea lion. By the end of the tournament I had landed just under 20 bass with my largest at 13.75".  I placed tenth in that tournament, which happened to be my worst performance of the year. I was disappointed at the time but in hindsight I had a blast catching the small bass on topwater and I added another bait to my arsenal of lures.

                                  Top Left: A 16" bass from very thick pads.                       Top Right 21.25" bass on the edge of the pads                                               Bottom Left: 18"er from some thick pads.                  Bottom Right: A 20.25" Pig caught in the rain.

From that day forward I was hooked. I probably spent 90 percent of my time throwing a frog both in and out of tournaments. I even went back to the very same lake where I had discovered the frog on two more separate occasions.. In fact we had a second tournament on that lake because one of our other venues were un-fishable due to high water. I went on to place fifth in that tournament, once again throwing nothing but the hollow body frog. As time passed I found more productive waters and developed a few techniques which helped to make the hollow body frog one of my all time favorite baits to use. I threw the frog over lily pads, on vegetation mats, in and around fallen trees, and in open water. When I could, I always tried to cast the frog onto the bank and then drag it quietly into the water. From there my presentation really depended on what type of cover I was fishing around. If it was semi-open water I would walk the frog back and forth, back and forth, pausing every now and then to entice a bass into taking the frog. If I was working my frog on top of lily pads or thick vegetation I preferred to drag my bait in a straight line at a fairly quick pace until I got into a pocket of open water. At that point I would leave it sit for 10 seconds and then very slowly walk it across the pocket of open water. It took me a while to realize that by moving the bait in a straight line that I was getting reaction strikes. I could cast to a spot 100 times and present my bait slowly in a walk the dog fashion and never get a bite. However, If I drug it across the top of the water i'd sometimes get a very aggressive blow up. In the above picture, the bottom right bass actually came as I was reeling in to make another cast. It was raining pretty steady at the time, I was just working a few fallen trees right off of the bank. I'd cast the frog up into the tree and then walk the frog out into the open water (15 feet off the bank). I would then burn it back to my kayak to make another cast. That fish hit the frog as it was skipping across the water as fast as I could reel with a 7:1:1 gear ratio. (Which is pretty darn quick) It went 20.25", however, to date my biggest bass on a SPRO Bronzeye frog is 21.25"/ 4lbs 8oz....Top Right Picture.

Big bass, a lot of bass, and top water explosions are just a few of the reasons why the hollow body frog made my 2nd spot for tournament baits of 2013.


NOTE:::: I used 3 brands of frogs throughout the year, each of which had its advantages and disadvantages. I chose the SPRO because it was the "do it all" frog of the three brands (It walked well, was fairly snag resistant, super sharp hooks, etc.) It also helped that my largest hollow body frog came off of a SPRO!!!!

Check out the other two brands below.
Live Target Hollow Body Frog  : Harder to walk, larger profile= slightly larger fish, very snag resistant
Jackall IOBEE   : Very easy to walk, smaller profile= more fish, catches pads more than other frogs

Check out my #1 Tournament Bait of 2013
Check out my #3 Tournament Bait of 2013
Check out my #4 Tournament Bait of 2013
Check out my #5 Tournament Bait of 2013