Bully Wa 65

Frog fishing is one of those really fun topwater tactics when the bite is on. I recently received an order of new frogs to try out and thought I'd give an update. I picked up a set of 4 River2Sea Bully Wa's in the 65 size. That is the same length and weight as the popular Spro Bronzeye 65 (2.5", 5/8-oz.). This new frog casts just as well, and has the same type belly weight as the Spro. On this particular model, even the same 4/0 BN Gamakatsu hook is used.

After playing with it all weekend, I'd give the nod to the Bully Wa in the skipping category. It also has a softer body than the Spro and my hookup ratio was as good or better. This frog does appear to be a little wider in the body, but that didn't seem to affect anything negatively. It actually helps protect the hooks pretty well from what I could tell. The only negative tendency I had was for the right hook to end up stuck slightly in the right side of the frog's body at times. Oddly enough the left side hasn't done that yet.

One of the advertised benefits of this frog is the little keel that runs down the belly from just under the throat. It is supposed to help this frog walk-the-dog easier/better when in open water. I was able to get it to do so with the right retrieve cadence, but I can also do the same with the Spro, so I'd say they are both very similar in that regard. One thing I did notice with retrieves though is that the keel makes for more of a splash on a quick, straight retrieve, almost like a popper. I thought that was kind of cool. It also has a more pronounced vertical rocking to it when retrieved as mentioned. Here it seems like simply a matter of which action will work best for the given water conditions.

One other neat little modification on this frog is a small rubber O-ring, similar to the piece of rubber most jig skirts are built around, that is placed over the hook shank and situated right where the hooks exit the frogs underbelly. This helps fill up that hole and limits the amount of water that can get into this frog. On regular casts it works quite well, but I found that skipping will frequently push this rubber seal around on the hook and you'll frequently have to adjust it on the fly. The same goes for after hooking and landing a bass.

Price is the same or slightly cheaper than a Spro depending on whose catalog you're looking at. Color options are fairly limited at the moment as I noticed Spro is now up to nearly 2 dozen color versions. The color in the pictures are "copper green". I also got some "lemon lime" frogs at the same time. Fortunately being a topwater bait, color is probably less of a factor than on most other baits, especially when fished over heavily matted vegetation. Much like buzzbaits, if you can get a white, a black and a chartreuse/yellow color you'll probably have 90% of all the water conditions you'll ever encounter covered.

Comments

[jin spears]

have you tried the swamp donkey frog

[Big Indiana Bass]

Got the Swamp Donkey and some Bobby's Perfect frogs. I'll give more updates as I try them.

[Rick]

Nice to know about another frog that has a good hook up percentage. I recently tried the Tru-tungten frog. It had plenty of blow ups, but the hook up ratio was horrible. I switched back to the Spro afterward.

[Big Indiana Bass]

Thanks for the heads up Rick on the TT frog. That will save me some money, not having to buy and test that particular brand :)