Real World Test: I'm all about brand on brand mojo, so how could I not sling the Bronzeye Frog 65 on a rod Dean Rojas designed for it? SPRO's Bronzeye Frog SRBEYE-B72H is a seven foot, two inch (7'-2") stick rated as heavy in power and featuring a fast taper. To extend that brand on brand mojo, I looked to Rojas's SPRO teammate Jason Christie and used one of his new Elite MG casting reels. For line, I chose the braid Rojas had a hand in designing as well and that's Sunline's FX2.

At the very back of the bait, right at the bend of the Gamakatsu EWG hook, lies a weight responsible for helping make the bait so easy to cast

Castability : SPRO's Bronzeye Frog is specified as five eighths of an ounce (5/8oz or 0.625oz) and tipped our scales at sixteen grams (16g) which converts to 0.564 oz, so it's a slightly generous round up to refer to this as a 5/8oz bait. Just the same, what counts is the bait is heavy enough to sling with a heavy powered rod. With the SRBEYE-B72H, the rod designed specifically for this bait, getting into that casting rhythm with the entire combo was very therapeutic.

On splash down, the silicone skirt legs fan out

Ease of Actuation : Once in the water, the bait somehow would occasionally land upside down, but quickly and easily corrected itself easily once I began twitching the rod tip. This imparted action, on top of weed clumps, resulted in the bait scooting forward inch by inch. In open water, twitching resulted in a relatively easy walk the dog action. I say relative because best results were with some slack in the line and I had to be conscious of how far I turned the handle on my reel while taking up the unnecessary slack.

Spec'd at 5.8oz, actual weight is 0.562 oz.

Quality of Movement : Once dialed into the proper rhythm, the Bronzeye Frog 65 behaves with the best of them, scooting, walking, even splashing on occasion with all the strike inducing behavior I expect out of a hollow bodied frog. Even better, after several casts, as is my custom fishing these types of baits, the Bronzeye Frog had zero bladder issues when I squeezed the bait in an effort to relieve it. It does not fill with water like many other baits of this type - or at least it did not for me over several trips.

The bait's position at rest is very lifelike

Position at Rest : At rest, floating in open water, the Bronzeye Frog 65 exhibits a slight head up, backside down position mimicking very well, a real frog. Naturally, the skirt material floats and spreads out (note, I did not trim the legs not because it's my preference, I'm just lazy that way) to mimic legs and in all honesty if trimmed, will probably make the bait even easier to walk (because there will be less drag at the back of the bait).

Hookup Ratio : Because frog fishing is a topwater technique able to induce explosions from the most unlikely places, if you're fishing your hollow bodied frog in these places, as a whole, the strike to catch opportunity is inherently bad. Remember, nature is about survival and skill is honed through failure. Just because a bass decides to come crashing up from beneath a pad of weeds to try and eat a creature sitting on top of those weeds, doesn't mean that bass will succeed. How many times, while watching a nature documentary about wild animals, have you seen the prey get away?

When fished over mats, all that gunk a bass has to get through in order to inhale your bait only adds to the unlikely event it will actually get your bait in its mouth

When fished over mats, all that gunk a bass has to get through in order to inhale your bait only adds to the unlikely event it will actually get your bait in its mouth. In fact, because of all that mess, and the fact these frog baits are hollow pieces of rubber, it's more likely your bait will be knocked away like a ping pong ball. That's not a bad hook up. Instances such as that are merely missed strikes. In frog fishing, if you're throwing your bait into the gunk, there are a lot of missed strikes.

To count towards your hook up ratio, the hook has to have a chance to actually bite into the fish's mouth

To count towards your hook up ratio, the hook has to have a chance to actually bite into the fish's mouth. In order for that to happen, the fish has to have successfully inhaled your bait. This is why it's always advised, albeit very hard to do, to pause half a second after the strike to ensure you feel that tug at the end of your line. Once you do, then swing. If, at that point, you pull the bait out of the fish's mouth, you can count that as a missed hook up.

When I could actually feel the fish pulling on the bait before I swung, my hook up ratio was excellent with this bait

I fished the Bronzeye Frog on several trips and had countless more missed strikes than I had actual hook setting opportunities. So many, it was maddening. But that's frog fishing. Best results, really were in open pockets of water or directly adjacent to them. In those instances, the bait was more easily inhaled by the fish below, and when I could actually feel the fish pulling on the bait before I swung, my hook up ratio was excellent with this bait.

Conclusion: Fishing hollow bodied frogs is, at the same time, both one of my favorite and least favorite techniques. I love the ability to throw these baits places where I can't fish anything else. I dislike very much the number of missed strikes I get.

As with any other technique, I'm sure if I put in the time, I'd find the nuanced presentations and approach to decrease the occurrence of missed strikes and increase my chances at a good hookset. Unfortunately, unless we commit an entire year to the effort (Leap Year perhaps?), I'm just not able to make that type of commitment. However, I do know, for future opportunities when testing frog technique pieces of tackle, provided it's not a bait, the likelihood of my reaching for the Bronzeye Frog 65 is very high.