War Eagle 44

My frogs came today, all of them look great. I'm going to try and get out for a little "test run" of the new colors tomorrow. Just thought I'd post a pic of the two spittin' wa's with a regular bully wa 65 just so people can kinda get an idea on their size. I've been having a blast fishing the 70 size but the 55's are going to be fun as well.

Shimano Sedona FD 2500 / Scimitar 7' M combo. Purchased both new, the reel was $59.99 and the rod was $39.99. The reel is just "ok" in my opinion, nothing wrong with it at all it just isn't anything special or particularly fun to fish with. It does have a very nice drag and the bottom line is it gets the job done without fail. I'm actually more impressed with the rod, I really really like it, especially for it's price. I use this as my "pond hopping" spinning combo mostly, or when I go with friends on their boats. I keep my better gear for use strictly on my boat. I use it for any lure or technique that calls for spinning gear, and a few that don't. I've got it spooled with PP 20# and usually run a 15# fluoro leader.

I have to disagree with the above post, I have a first gen Cumara 7'7" M reaction rod and it has more than enough backbone for spinnerbaits around weed cover. Now I do agree with Crappiebasser on the point of needing more power for swim jigs in heavy grass. I don't have one but I seem to remember Shimano released a rod in the Cumara line that was around 7'4" that was meant for jigs, frogs, and that sort of thing. I may be off an inch or two on the length but as best I remember that's pretty close. From all reports I've read on the web 99% of the guys who have this rod really like'em, this would be the rod I think I'd be looking for. As a matter of fact if I ever run up on one I'm going to own it. I don't think it was included in the reaction series, I'm thinking it was in the bottom contact group.

Can you elaborate more on the troubles you encountered with the Calcutta DC? I've had mine since the lefties were first available and I've not had any problems in the years since. I mainly use it as a crank reel and love it. Did the DC system just stop functioning?

I agree, that's total BS. Spool that bad boy up with braid. I would also be interested in learning where you heard this.

No, I think you missed my meaning. I highlighted the word "Gamagatsus" from your first post, just messing around with you over how you spelled Gamakatsu.

What brand are these?? No hard feelings, just joking around with you a little. I've not had much trouble with Gammy hooks myself, I do agree however that Owner makes the better hook.

6 R2S Spittin' Wa frogs - 3 of each size 55 & 70 2 Spro Baby Fat John 50 cranks 2 packs of Owner Hyper Wire split rings 1 pack of #6 Gammy EWG trebles

Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a try.

Shimano, for the same reasons lots of other guys have already pointed out. The biggest factor for me in this decision though is their warranty. I basically only fish 3 brands of rods right now as it is, Powell, Loomis, & Shimano so it wouldn't be that big of a deal for me to whittle it down to only Shimano, and technically since Shimano owns Loomis I consider them part of the Shimano brand. I think the rod that would be the hardest to "give up" or replace would be my Powell Max 735C. I've tried a few different frog rods over the years but I haven't found one that I liked better. To be fair I haven't even looked at any new frog rods in 3 or 4 years so there very well may be better ones out there but I've never been let down or unhappy with the Powell so I just haven't felt the need to look. Since frog fishing is such a big part of what I do in the warmer months I've spent a lot of time with that rod in hand and I've just grown accustom to everything about it from its weight to exactly how it fishes with all the different brands and sizes of frog. Even though I have rods that are much nicer and more expensive this is my all time favorite rod that I've owned. I've had more fun fishing with this rod than any of the others. Sorry I got a little carried away there and strayed way off topic.

I've also been satisfied with all the lures I've picked up from R2S. Some of the newer lures I've purchased of theirs are a couple of S-Waver glide baits (both sizes), the Whopper Plopper in the 130 size, and of course the Spittin' Wa's. I've caught a couple good one's on the Whopper Plopper so far but only had a few followers on the S-Wavers. All really nice baits that I plan to continue to fish and learn about though.

Nice, what color'd you get?

I took advantage of the labor day sales and ordered 6 more of these bad boys, 3 of the 70 size and 3 of the 55. I ordered one in each size of Dirty White, Poison, and Bream. They have a great walking action and the "cupped mouth" splashes just enough water to leave a good bubble trail and have a nice fish attracting sound while working them. Also they are capable of making lots of noise and "spitting" good amounts of water when working them like a true popper. I'm just so addicted to these baits right now, I haven't caught a big one yet but over the next few weeks as the water temp starts to fall I'm really going to put my time and effort in and see what happens. Anyone else doing much on one yet?

I'll have to agree with everyone else, jigs catch nice quality bass most of the time. I've had the majority of my bigger fish come on frogs but the jig is definitely a close second. Jig fishing to me is like a lot of other techniques, fantastic when they want'em but not so great when they don't. For some reason though I never get tired of throwing a frog, did it for 3 hours yesterday without a single bite, but I was still happy. Oddly enough my biggest bass came on a shakeyhead, go figure.

I fish braid more than any other line type. My favorite currently is PP S8S, I've been using it in 20, 50, & 65#. I also use regular PP but doubt I'll ever buy anymore because IMHO the S8S is a much better line. I've also had really good luck with Sufix Performance braid, good stuff. I haven't fished their 832 yet, I just got a spool of it in 50# Ghost a few weeks back. P-Line braid has never let me down either, I just can't find it locally anymore. As far as mono, fluoro, and copoly goes I only use copoly and fluoro and in both of those cases it's always P-Line. CXX for copoly and Halo or 100% for fluoro.

While I don't have any of these reels myself, a friend does and he loves his. I think if they are in really good condition I'd pick them up and do the upgrades. It would be fun. I don't recall right now ever hearing anything bad about these reels.

Hahaha

What have you seen?

Thanks for the replies guys but I don't think I made myself clear. I'm not asking for frogging advise, though I may need some , I was just wondering if many guys were having success on the Spittin' Wa. The places I fish have plenty of bass big enough to eat this frog I just seem to be having trouble getting them to. I'm catching fish on solid white and Killer Gill Bronzeye's so this is the reason I wasn't as concerned with the "Sexy Shad" color on the Spittin' Wa. It may just be the time of year or I'm just simply not fishing the Spittin' Wa the best way yet. I'll figure it out before to long though, hopefully. Again thanks to the two guys who posted, I just didn't do a good job making my question clear. Yes that's right, it's just their version of Sexy Shad.

I've had one for around a week now but have yet to even have one swirl on it. It's pretty easy to walk and it will really spit a good amount of water when fished like a traditional popper but for some reason I just can't get any fish interested. I have the "I Know It" color, which looks good by the way. It's a fairly wide body frog, when compared to the Bronzeye, so it looks bigger in the water. This may have something to do with my lack of bites so far. One thing I will say, it IS NOT a good frog for fishing mats. Not that I expected it to be I just tried it to see how it would go, not well. Finally to my question, have any of you guys had any success on these baits yet?

I agree, this line (CXX) is great stuff, it's all I use in a mono/copoly type situation. I'm sure I have broken a fish off here or there over the years but I can't remember one right now. I have more confidence in this line than anything else that isn't braid. I'm not exactly sure what the breaking strength of 12# is but it seems like I remember reading a test once where it was like 20#'s, or pretty close. The owner of a tackle shop once told me that it was safe to double whatever it says the rating is, now I'm not sure if this is accurate or not but it's what he told me.

I think you are on the right path here, I use 4 Citica E's for a big portion of my fishing. They are fantastic reels for their price. They are 6.3:1 ratio reels though. You can order Curado/Chronarch E 7:1 gear sets and install them in the Citica to get the higher ratio if that's what you want. I use mine for everything, I've not been disappointed yet. I fished them completely stock for years with the only "mod" being a good spool bearing cleaning. This is something I would STRONGLY recommend you do if you pick up this reel, it's very simple and easy to do. They've been bullet proof for me, easy to fish, comfortable, and that's about all I'm looking for. IMHO you can't go wrong buying these reels.

RC 1.5 in Copper Green Shad

I had previously watched this video, and everyone here is correct, great post. I enjoyed seeing the history of the reel and the company. I only have two Ambassadeurs; a 5601 C4 Navy Blue with Chrome accents and a 6601CB Red with Gray accents. The C4 was my very first casting reel so it kinda holds a special place in my collection. I had all but stopped fishing either of them because my newer reels fish better. I had actually been thinking for a year or so about adding some upgrade parts to the C4 but had never gotten excited enough about the project to actually do it. The next day after watching this video I ordered all the parts I thought I'd need to upgrade my C4 into a real bass catching machine. I got a dual BB level wind kit with ceramic pawl, carbontex drag, dual BB idler gear, machined flat metal top drag plate (helps get the very best drag performance from the carbontex drag), and new line guide. I was going to get a new set of spool bearings but the guy I talked to where I ordered the parts said that Garcia used very good factory spool bearings in the model I have and a good cleaning would get them to very close to the performance of ABEC 5 SS bearings. So that's the direction I went, and he was right, the factory bearings spin very fast, freely, and for a good amount of time after a good cleaning so I'm happy there. I haven't been able to fish it yet because I'm still waiting on the Idler gear, they sent me the wrong gear initially, one for a 7000 size. I have everything else installed and ready to go so as soon as that last part gets to me it won't take very long to put it in and test this thing out. I can't wait!

100% agree with you. In a perfect world where I could choose what the fish would bite I would take a frog most days, no question.