frog

[hizzoner]

Merry Christmas Larry..thanks again for your creations..bought a couple of whopper ploppers and wide glides and can't wait until next year to try them out!

Any word on when the frogs will be available?..says they are out at the river2sea site...maybe they are not available yet? I want to order the crayfish and the frog together to save on shipping costs...

BTW..can you recommend a good shimano rod for casting that frog and crayfish to match up with my little curado?

much appreciated

Mark

[Henry Schmidt]

I think tacklewarehouse.com has them, at least according to their site they do, I have hesitated on getting one yet. I believe it weighs an ounce and I dont have a rod that'll handle it yet.

[hizzoner]

I placed an order through tackle warehouse and they say backordered due to arrive to them on 1/21...I'm still interested if there is anything in the compre line of rods will suited for this kind of bait...adios

[dahlberg]

To be honest, literally any of the med heavy to heavy bass rods in any of the series have worked just great for me. The higher end series are lighter and obviously for that reason more pleasant to fish with. If in really super heavy slop I often use a little heavier stick, like a flippin stick or Med to MedH musky rod.
I personally prefer models in the 7 foot or slightly longer range for a couple of reasons. Longer casts when needed, more line pick-up on the hook-set, plus with the frog, like with a crank bait, you can stick the tip down into the water and get the frog to swim down, then actually dig into the bottom just like a real frog that's trying to stay alive. When I feel the frog make bottom contact I keep slight tension on it and just sort of shake it so it kicks up a little dirt, then either swim it back up (lift your tip up to a normal position) or let it float slowly back to the surface.
best,
L

[Henry Schmidt]

Sounds like my MH Cumara 7'2" will work great then! Cant wait to try them frogs! The freshwater snook down here go nuts for soft plastic frogs for some reason. Maybe the kicking legs imitate the rear legs of a crab, I dont know.

[dahlberg]

mmm interesting about the snook and the frog. I bet you're right about the crab. Crabs and the way fish react to them is a very interesting topic.
One time I was anchored up on a blue hole and surrounded by permit; like thousands.
It was totally glass flat calm and I got up on the T top with a bucket of live blue crabs, a fly rod every permit fly known to man at the time, and my box of flytying stuff. I pitched live crabs and watched how they sank, and how they moved in the water. I watched the permit eat them, over and over. Then I began to dismember the crabs hoping to determine what it was about the crab that inspired the fish to eat it. I figured if I gave them parts missing crabs, one part missing at a time there would be a point at which they would no longer eat it. I would then take another crab with the "trigger part" still attached and toss it out to make sure. I had many many crabs and learned a great deal. Including that a dead crab, with all the parts still intact did not get eaten very often or until they had achieved a depth of 25'+.
The key seemed to be the little swimmers, plus a diagonal path, often zig zagging on it descent.
Not one of the flies I had, which was every single pattern, color and size of "local" permit flies got eaten. Not one. They might track it now and then, but never eat it.
I cut a curly tail from a piece of dental dam, secured it in two places so it's leading edge was parallel to the curve of the hook, made a flat body of trimmed brown deer hair with a flat piece of lead around 1/4 oz in weight secured with bone white epoxy to the belly. when I got the tail trimmed to the right length, they bit it immediately and I caught a bunch of them. Actually I made two flies and the people who were with me broke them off after I gave them the fly rod so they could see what it felt like to pull on one. I've not tied any since!
The little flippitys on the frog ain't all that far off a real crab, nor is the profile.
thanks for the post it gives me some ideas!
best
L