the reel ess

Yeah, I saw that Terminator has a junior sized frog in 1/2 oz. as well.

If I'm pitching the T-rig into heavy stuff I use straight 30# braid. If I'm trying to finesse a T-rig in more open water, I use a short leader of 15# Big Game mono. I'm not convinced fish care, but I don't want to chance it. I waffle back an forth on this topic.

I use a Cabela's XH-XF 7-3 frog-specific rod. It's stiff as a pool cue. But I'll still use it for flipping T-rigs when the water is too cool for topwater action. But I mostly frog fish on top of lilies or weed mats. It's nice to have that fast tip and backbone to drag the fish and 5 lbs. of vegetation out of the slop. I recently switched to a Booyah junior size frog because I was missing a lot of bites on the popping Pad Crasher. So I put my jig on my XH-XF frog rod and I put that small frog on my H-F jig rod because it has a better tip. I'm going to experiment with these.

I caught a 6 pounder a while back on the Teckel Sprinker frog. But its hooks are a little too exposed. I got by with it that day, but it caught a lot of lilies. Don't let me discourage you. I've always had great luck with Booyah frogs. This is an anomaly.

Light-Even when conditions are not ideal, I still get most bites early or late. Barometer-High pressure/bluebird skies often = skunk Moon-I just catch more big fish around full/no moon. It doesn't usually mean I'll catch a lot, just bigger.

I only had one color, bullfrog I think. It's the same color as the bait that wore out. That bait caught lots and lots of fish. It saved me from a skunk several times. Color might matter a lot in open water. But I don't know how well fish can distinguish them on top of lilies. It's not like it wasn't getting bitten. I would even feel some fish moving off with it. I do have a couple regular full-size Pad Crashers (not popping) that I'll also give a try.

I'm not new to frog fishing. I have a dedicated combo for it. But my Popping Pad Crasher wore out so I bought a new one. I can't seem to catch anything that bites the new frog. I bent the hooks out, sharpened them and trimmed the legs short all to no avail. I've missed a couple of big bass that blew up on it. I started waiting until I feel the fish moving away with it to set the hook. I just yank the bait away from them. Finally, Saturday I gave up and tied on the regular Pad Crasher, junior size. Instant success. IDK what's wrong with that popping frog. I've always had good a experience with them before. But to the bottom of the box it goes.

I can tell from the other replies this will be an unpopular opinion. I'm not very satisfied with the quality of my Fuego CT. It has been gear noisy since day 1. I've oiled it and it helped, but still makes noise when reeled. It's less than a year old. However, aside from sounding cheap it has held up to some big fish that took drag. All in all, I don't consider it that good of a deal. I would probably go for a Lew's before a Fuego next time. I have 3 Lew's Tournament MB reels that are getting pretty old and they all work like champs. Hell, even my Academy TAC-40 reel seems to be better of quality than my Fuego. But I can tell from customer ratings my experience is not typical.

In my experience the 110 WP is a big bass bait. And it gets more bites for me than a buzzbait. This year alone I have a 4, 5.75, 6 and a 7.93 lb. on the WP. The last one is my biggest this calendar year. But the buzzbait is more weedless and a single hook lure, so the percentage landed would be higher with it. Also, it's a great lure to bump up against docks, laydowns, etc. I have a 5.9 lb on the buzzbait and that's the only fish I caught on it this year. Of course, that's a good average, but the sample size is too small to judge. This could all be a function of where I'm fishing.

In my neck of the woods it's the druggies, usually fresh out of jail, that do most of the burglaries. The cops only have to look at the habitual offenders who are fresh out and narrow it down. They don't usually solve small burglaries, but they get eyes on the person and make a drug case against them. So they usually want to steal smaller, pawnable items like tools. I don't even secure my kayaks, but I do secure my fishing equipment. I can just imagine a junkie running down the street with a 10-12' kayak. There were twin brothers living near us who everyone suspected of every crime. They lost their house because they didn't pay taxes and thefts went to nothing.

Yeah, I found it at an antique shop in the NC mountains. They knew what they had but haggled with me a bit. By the time I've replaced the hooks I'll have more in it than it's worth. But I'm gonna use it!

I got them off by clamping on the hook eye with big side cutters and rocking the hook with another set of pliers until they snapped. I have hooks and split rings ordered.

2 angled flush mount rod holders and a crate with 6 PVC holders. I usually only take 6. But I might take 8 if I'm anticipating a mixed bag.

I use a coated cable that came from a small safe we bought with a keyed Master lock I had lying around when I use anything. That's mostly if I go on vacation and want to leave the kayak in the truck overnight in public places, like at a condo. IMO almost any will do. Whoever gets the idea to take it probably won't be carrying bolt cutters in their boat. And if they are, they're getting it anyway. If you leave it somewhere long-term, I'd take it up to the house for safer storage. I don't want to insult your intelligence, but just don't run the cable or chain through anything on the kayak that can be unscrewed.

One of these days I'll bag several other black bass species and a brook trout.

I have the magnum size Pop R. It casts great, but it doesn't sound the same or get many bites. I like the Chug Bug. It's 3/8 oz. I think. Other than that I have a Hula Popper. But the skirt always deteriorates on those over time.

One tool I do not own. I was thinking hacksaw, but they're not very easy to get to.

OK, I give up. How did you remove the original hooks? I've gone at mine with side cutters to no avail. You can see in the pic They're on loops, not rings.

During spawn, tie one on a T rig. They will not tolerate a lizard in their bed. And really who would tolerate that behavior?

I have never used it so I haven't done any damage with it. We throw a bunch of stuff in the water that rusts. Lead oxidizes.

It looks like a killer way to target bedding bass. I made my own using a big paperclip for the weight.

If you fish for big fish in cover and you don't have a good anchor you need to get good at holding the rod in one hand and operating the paddle with the other. I've had to do it many times. And sometimes I still have to go under trees to get a bass that's wedged itself in. I did this once and had so many spiders in the boat I had to go back to the landing and clean it out. But the fish was worth it. OP says he has an 8' kayak. Chances are it didn't cost as much as a Power Pole. I've always wanted one, but I can't bring myself to spend $600 for the anchor alone when my kayak was only $800. I can really see the need for it in current.

I prefer black and blue. But when I get a wild hair I go with blue and black. ? When I think about it, darker plastics like black or some shade of purple have always worked better for me anywhere in my region.

Whichever you choose, I would go with a wire hook one size larger. The biggest issue I have with the Pop R, besides the fact it's too light, is the hooks are too small. I replaced the front hook on both of mine.

I'm relatively sure I caught the one in my profile pic twice. Look at that gut! I don't catch fish with a gut that big just before spawn. It was 6.9 lb the first time and 7.2 lb the second. This pic was the first. It was December-January so it wasn't full of eggs yet. It's just a glutton. I caught it on a gold shiner War Eagle spinnerbait the first time and a black/blue jig the second, probably 50 yards apart. Aside form these two catches, I've caught a bunch of bass from 5-8 in the same body of water so there's a very good chance I've caught one twice. I also caught one off the same bed two days in a row this spring.