Big Bass on the Spittin' Wa frog

Earlier this spring Tim and I were approached by River2Sea about a new frog they were planning to release at ICAST. At that time the Spittin' Wa didn't even have a name. After seeing the bait, having the opportunity to film with the frog before it hit the market sounded like a great opportunity and the chance to have some fun with a brand new product.I was looking forward to fishing with this unique frog, what I didn't expect was to start catching consistently bigger bass than I had caught on a frog in years past. After spending a few months with the bait I feel that there are a few factors contributing to the increase in fish size.

1) SIZE The Spittin' Wa 70 is a large frog. In fact, the only baits I know that are bigger are the Spro King Daddy, and the Snag Proof Frogzilla The large profile naturally lends itself to big bites.

2) WATER DISPLACEMENT The cupped face moves a lot more water than a traditional frog. As a result I was able to fish the frog out over deeper water and pull up large fish earlier in the spring than I had in the past. The wake that tracks behind this frog in open water is pretty substantial and helps to call fish in frog greater distances.

3) OVERSIZED HOOKS As odd as it sounds, strong hooks make all the difference in frog fishing. For many years a "secret" frog modification has been to reinforce the base of the hook where the shanks come together. The reason for this is that a hook can flex and deflect away from the surface it is supposed to penetrate during a hook set. While this doesn't happen often, it is most likely to happen on the largest fish with the largest hard bone section in their jaw. The hook in the Spittin' Wa 70 is larger and made of a heavier gauge wire than other frogs I have fished in the past. The result is a very stable hook that doesn't deflect when setting in to big fish.

I hope you enjoy the video. This frog is deadly and definitely worth adding to your arsenal. If you don't have the Spittin' Wa in a local shop you can pick them up and support Tactical Bassin at the same time by following this link to tackle warehouse.

I should also add that like most baits, I don't fish these straight out of the package. I shorten the legs and change the hook angle slightly before fishing the baits. I'll be sure to cover those modifications in a future video to clarify any questions. In the meantime, pick a few up and see if the size of fish your catching on a frog increases.

Punchin' and Froggin' on the CA Delta

Can someone explain to me how a $3 frog could work so well? Isn't it common knowledge that you have to spend $20+ on a frog from Japan with a fancy paint job to get fish to bite? I guess not! This particular morning I had headed out to the delta with one thing on my mind; Punching. The plan was to strip the boat of everything but two punch rods, a handful of baits, weights, and hooks, and the Go Pro Camera. I figured I'd spend the day having fun and film a video explaining how stripping the boat of gear helps you commit to a pattern and ultimately helps you put more fish in the boat.

So what went wrong? One word: TIDE.

If it were a guide trip, or even a trip with friends I'd study the tides and make the best decisions possible. When its just me and a camera I didn't even bother to look at the tide charts. Do you know what a "minus tide" does to a shallow punch bite? The big ones go away and the baby bass come out to play! As you'll see in the video my plan quickly unraveled and I was forced to do what any self respecting fisherman would do... I drove to the nearest tackle shop and spent money!

Who would have thought that I would discover a long forgotten bait (at least to me) and begin to hammer the fish? That's exactly what happened! In the following days I kept catching fish and the size got bigger. There will be more videos to follow on this subject.

For those curious about what they're seeing in this video, the punch fish were caught with a 2 oz. punch weight, a Dirty Jigs Punch Skirt, a 4/0 hook, and a Dobyns 766 Savvy Rod (A phenomenal punching rod for the price). The Snag Proof Weed Demon fish were caught with a Dobyns Champion 736, my favorite frog rod.

Topwater Mayhem with a Lunker Punker

Don’t you just love those winter days when the sun comes out, the wind lays down and for a few brief moments it feels like Spring? Despite the ice cold water you can almost imagine fish starting to head for the shallows and begin to feed near the surface. You know the days I’m talking about; you’re in full winter gear all morning but by early afternoon you’re wearing just a sweatshirt and for a few minutes you even give the T-shirt a try. Nearly a month ago now I was enjoying one of those very days. I was with a client and he was on a school of fish that that wouldn’t leave a swimbait alone. During a lull in the mayhem my mind started wandering to warmer places and despite the 50 degree water temps I started digging through the lockers looking for a topwater. Wouldn’t you know it, down in the bottom under all the winter tackle I found a lunker punker. Without a doubt, the punker is my favorite early-spring topwater bait.

I tied it on for kicks and began firing it around the boat haphazardly. What I didn’t expect was that after just a few casts, a fish would roll and miss the bait. As I continued slowly walking the bait to the boat I could see the fish following behind working side to side as she tracked the bait’s movements. It seemed to go on forever but realistically, she was probably behind the bait for 15 to 20 seconds before finally inhaling the bait on the side of the boat. It wasn’t the biggest fish ever but a 5 lb topwater bass in early March is a sight for sore eyes.

As soon as I got home from the lake I started searching for my lunker punker footage that I could share with the Tacticalbassin community. The following video was put together in 2 days of epic fishing on one of my favorite fisheries.

The bass in this area were keyed on large prey and the punker was the perfect tool to do the job. There was a lot of fishing pressure but most anglers missed the opportunity to step up the size of the baits and specifically target the larger fish. Its important to realize that this can be applied to your local waters as well. These larger baits don’t just catch big fish, they catch 1 and 2 lbers as well. Some of these same fish might have eaten a smaller topwater but the bigger fish would have passed them by. By using the right tool for the job I was able to catch more of the fish that were in the area. We were literally catching MORE fish because we were using BIGGER baits. That is a concept that a lot of anglers fail to realize.

There are some simple modifications I make to this bait to help increase my bite to hookup ratio. While I don’t have time to cover them right now, get a punker or two in your hands and in the next couple of weeks I’ll shoot a follow up video to show you exactly what hooks I use to make the bait do what it needs to do as well as the tackle I’m using when fishing the bait.
Though I throw both sizes of the wood punker as well as the full range of injected baits, this video was shot with the 6″ Injected G2 Lunker Punker with Rattles. Here is the direct link to the bait I was using: Injected Lunker Punker