Top water frog secrets; and what do you do when one of your favorite lures is being discontinued?

It's hot, right? This time of year we fish frogs—a lot. The hotter the weather, the better. When there is no wind, the water is dead calm and it's above 100 degrees, fish frogs. Most of the time we hit the water from about 10:00 a.m till dark.

Hot weather and frogs. YES. 

Yes, it's hot. Very hot. Did I mention the middle of the day is some of the best time to throw frogs?

Now you know.

What's in your frog box?

But don't fish any frog, however. My favorite is the Paycheck Baits Transporter.

Paycheck Transporter frog-style top water bait.

It is a popping frog, but it flat out catches bass. This bait can look like a frog, bird or even a dragon fly, which were very active on the lake the last few weeks. The purple skirt is a great match to dragon-fly colors.

I lost one of these baits the other day when a giant bass inhaled it. The bass went down in the grass and I could feel its head shaking and it was fighting like crazy. Suddenly my 65 lb.-test braid line gave way. I had line draped all over me and the boat. My best guest is the big bass' teeth rubbed on the line enough that it cut the line.

Alas, the big one got away, again.

And, it was the only bait I had left in that color. Fittingly it's called Bruised Ribs. (The Rod Breaker color is shown in the top photo.)

The plan was to throw frogs all day in that tournament. We did that. (Between two of us, we had 11 frogs rigged.) I had seven blow ups, lost the big one and landed four others—good for fourth place in the tournament.

Also, it was 104 degrees that day.

One of the smaller bass of the day.

Now for the purpose of the post.

When I got home I went online to order a few more of the Bruised Ribs color frogs. I had a hard time finding them at my normal outlets, so I went to the Paycheck website where I learned the Transporter is being discontinued.

I began to tremble. Now what? I ordered what I could from the Paycheck website in the colors I wanted (I bought them all). Then the frantic search for other online options began.

A lifetime supply of Transporters? I hope so.

In all, I ordered from five sources. I pretty much wiped them out. Good luck finding some. I paid full retail for all these, which I hardly do. I usually wait for sales.

The bottom line? I now have a lifetime supply of Transporters. (Maybe I'll sell them on EBay next summer for $25 each. Ha. (Actually, they are worth more to me to keep them.)

Oh, one more thing:
We don't fish the frogs as they come out of the box. Shown below is a little modification that will get you more strikes. (Not ideal for heavy slime, but still is recommended.)

Add a spinner blade to the back of your frogs.
Seriously!

Finally, you can't fish this bait too slow. Most of the best strikes come when the bait is not being moved by you. There is enough wave action and movement for the legs to quiver and the small blade to flash. Cast it to your target, twitch it once or twice, and then wait.

Follow this tip and you'll get some "biguns." Send me your success pictures.

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