War Eagle 44

Froggin' season has started on my local lakes and I couldn't be happier as they are my favorite way to catch fish. I was just wondering if any of you guys make any modifications to your frogs before you fish them? By this I'm not really talking about cutting the legs shorter or slightly flexing the hook, I mean like changing the legs altogether or maybe changing hooks. My reason for asking is because I just finished changing the legs on one of my favorite frogs, a Bronzeye in Outback color, in advance of my next trip to the lake. It's a brand new frog, never hit the water. I changed them because in my opinion the legs the frog comes with don't match the body nearly as well as they could. Maybe I'm just OCD about that sort of thing but it's just something I enjoy doing. So lets hear it, you guys change anything?

Agreed

If forced to pick between the two you have listed I'd opt for round. Now having said that, I fish the Owner Ultrahead which doesn't really fall into either category. I haven't looked at any other shakeyheads since discovering the Owner's, they're that good IMHO. My favorite before the Ultrahead was the earlier mentioned Shakedown.

I'll have to agree with the other guys, I've been fishing the D-Bomb for a year now and it's become my "go to" flipping bait. I get 2 bites to every 1 bite I was getting on other beaver baits. I've only fished them two ways, flipping jig trailer and texas rigged for punching grass.

Lately (I'd say the last year) I've really been fishing, with great results, the Spro Fat John. I've got a few different colors but Cell Mate just gets bit so well that's my main color. Also really like the Lucky Craft RC 1.5's in Copper Green Shad. Although I will add that I picked up a couple of Rick's Luck E Strike cranks and they have been good too. KVD 1.5's are of course a very good bait. I picked up a few Spro Baby Fat John's late last year but I haven't fished them much yet. They do "hunt" really well on a nice steady retrieve though.

This rod would more than likely be slightly better for an all around jig rod that could also handle frogs if you will mostly be fishing jigs. My suggestion was going to be a Powell Max 735. I've fished jigs on this rod many times and it works great, I just wouldn't try and fish any jig below a 3/8 oz with it though.

While I don't own any Endurance rods I do own 5 Max series and in my opinion I think you'll want more power than a 3 power Powell rod has. I'd definitely move up to a 4 power for your intended purposes, the 714 sounds like it would be my choice.

It's funny you mention Iron Silk because that, along with Vanish fluoro, was the first thing that popped into my head.

P-Line Spectrex braid or Power pro - I fish them both. P-Line 100% fluorocarbon P-Line CXX copolymer

NICE!! Let us know how you like them after you've had a little time with them.

I, like Bass Junkie, have much more success with these on a small swimbait hook than as a jig trailer. I always have to either cut the skirt on my jig really short or reel it super fast to get the tail to kick. They have great action by themselves though and I've caught a ton of fish on them, especially green pumpkin with 3/4 of the tail dyed chartreuse. I haven't tried flipping them but I will now that these guys have told of their success doing so.

I use spinning gear for many different techniques so I'll just list the few I use the most. First and foremost is the shakeyhead, I really like this technique because I get lots of bites (and quality ones as well). This is usually what I turn to on tough days. I use a 3/16oz Owner Ultrahead rigged with a NetBait T-Mac. I get better distance with much fewer hassles using spinning gear with this technique. Finesse jigs are another lure I feel is best suited to spinning tackle. In addition to Wacky rigs, Slider heads, split shots, Flick shakes, etc. My most used spinning set up is a 683 Powell Max rod with a Symetre FJ 3000 spooled with 20# braid with a 15# fluoro leader. I don't think Powell makes this rod anymore so I'm hoping nothing happens to mine, well they don't make it in the Max line anymore possibly in others though. I always use a fluoro leader, 15# is my most common size but I also sometimes use 10# and 20#. I to used to think I got better feel from casting gear but after using spinning long enough to get good with it they both feel the same sensitivity wise now. Same thing goes for casting accuracy, just takes time and practice. I usually take 5 rods on my boat, 4 casting and 1 spinning. Covers 99% of my needs.

The 100B is a fantastic reel and very capable of doing what you want it to do. These are one of the most durable reels out there, I have one that I fish almost constantly, and hard (locked down drag w/ 50# braid), and I've never had a single issue with it. I fish it more than any other reel in my collection because it's super versatile. I always have mine spooled with braid so I never have to worry about capacity issues. I do run a leader sometimes though, either CXX or 100% fluoro, which is another option you could look into if you ever wanted to go to a higher pound test line without having the added expense of buying another spool. I've done a few "tweaks" to mine but these are very very good reels straight out of the box. At one point I had 2 but I sold one and I've regretted it since. Well good luck with your new reel, I already know you'll be very happy with it though.

Using the KVD Mustad hooks I'd go #4's for the 3, #2's for the 5, and #1's on the 6. I don't have any series 3 cranks but these are the hooks I have on my series 5 & 6 baits and they work beautifully.

Owner Beast is my suggestion as well, best there is right now IMHO. The Mustad's are alright, they're good hooks, just not at the level of the Owner.

I think yours is fine, all mine take on water faster than I'd like them to but it's not nearly bothersome enough to stop fishing them. Mine seem to be fine until I catch the first fish on them then that's when they really start to need a good squeeze about every other cast.

Nice one Diggy.

I absolutely love these, the Spooky Shad color was getting wrecked on my local lakes late last year. I like these much better for weed edges and any type of hard cover (docks, laydowns, etc) as they will "glide" more than any other frog style bait I've tried and that long slow side to side gliding has produced great for me. They aren't nearly as effective over mats or in really thick grass as the Bronzeye frog though, they roll onto their sides therefore the hooks snag and pick up way to much moss and grass. Overall though these things are great, IMHO of course.

The D-Bomb has been my most used flipping bait the last year and it's produced great. I've been buying them in the 25 count bags, well Candy Grass is the only color I've bought in "bulk" but man does this color work well for me. I also really like Zoom Speed Craws in green pumpkin and NetBait Baby Paca Craws and Paca Punch. I've used these in lots of different colors but I'm really excited about their Coosa Special color. Gonna really give these a work out this year.

I was mistaken I've been using 4# PP Micro Braid. 5# isn't considered "micro" it's just listed as the lowest pound test of "regular" PP. I was going through my line the other day and found my other spool of 4# white PP that I bought at the same time so I've been incorrectly saying I've been using 5# when in fact it's been 4# the whole time. Either way all the good things I previously stated still apply, this line is great for UL. In my experience reels will hold more braid than mono/fluoro so I'm not sure what's going on with that situation. The only thing I can think of is maybe you need to spool the braid a little tighter, I've found that you really need to spool braid with a far amount of tension in order to get the best results.

Powell Max 735 with a "tuned" Citica 201E spooled with 65# P-Line Spectrex braid. As far as lures go I have quite a variety but I'm only really using two brands, Spro and River2Sea. I fish Bronzeye & Bronzeye Jr frogs along with the new Bronzeye Shad from Spro and it's either a Bully Wa or Spittin Wa 70 from River2Sea. I fish frog baits much more than I do toad baits but I do fish toads when the conditions call for them. I've got these narrowed down to basically two brands as well, Strike King and Gambler. The Rage Toad is hard to beat when the fish are really aggressive but the Gambler Cane Toad is my number one toad bait. I fish all these baits, in every situation and water condition, on the above setup.

This is a little off topic but I just had to comment on your stance about the Carolina rig. I 100% agree with you. I have a friend who catches tons of fish on'em every summer but I just can't bring myself to fish them. I'd rather give up the sport altogether. I also agree with you about being stubborn. I'm the same way in this regard as well. I do however have to disagree about the bearings, I feel that Boca OS 7's offer enough of an improvement over properly cleaned and oiled stock bearings to justify buying them. I'll also agree that caster skill plays an important factor in just how much gain there is. Also different reels respond better than others to these upgrades in my experience. I've enjoyed the improved ability of my Chronarch 101B for instance with weightless plastics. As others have already pointed out many times maximum distance isn't improved so much but the effort needed to make "ordinary" casts or pitches is really reduced. This to me is where the gains with weightless plastics come into play.

My Calais 201DC on my first gen Cumara Reaction 7'7" M crank rod. Probably spool it with 30# PP.

Well I've not read anything about that but my Cumara hasn't ever. After tightening it down snug it has stayed put so far.

Party Crasher or Baby Bass.