I finally picked one up when I finally found a color in stock at Bitter’s Baits. I wasn’t really sure before how a hollow bodied frog/slop style bait could win Best Soft Lure at ICast last year. Now that I have used one, I know why.
The lure is a lot of fun to fish in the pads and you can fish it a couple different ways. You can twitch it, walk it or “Hop it”. If you like finesse fishing, this one is a lot of fun to play with. I try manipulating it trying to make it look like as dying panfish as best I can. Granted, that isn’t easy using a 8′ catfish pole set up from the bank, which I have to use if I expect to get a fish out of the pads I fish. I also like that you can manipulate it to get underneath the leaves of the pads.
I was also a little surprised how easily it pulled out of the notches of the lily pads without getting hung up or snagged despite having a broad profile, an important thing when the lure is $14 a pop.
I tried it once and missed 2 strikes, well 3 if you want to include the pesky turtle. But generally this time of year until Sept/Oct gets pretty slow as the bass are swimming in soup.
What has been everyone else’s experience with them? Thoughts?