Long before the scum frog surged back into the national focus, California anglers were using it to win hundreds of thousands of dollars in California, Nevada and Arizona.
Eastern anglers began to take notice when the Snag Proof Open, with more than 200 boats, launched on the California Delta in 2001. Anglers in that event could only throw Snag Proof products.
The frog turned the corner in 2004, when Dean Rojas came within 4 pounds of winning the Bassmaster Classic with it. And by that time, an Eastern Snag Proof Open had launched at Lake Guntersville in Alabama.
But from 2004 until spring of this year, the frog was always seen as a gambler's bait. Rojas challenged for several wins with a frog, but inevitably fell short on lost bites.
That started to change earlier this year, when Fred Roumbanis won the Murray Bassmaster Elite Series in South Carolina on a frog. And just 3 weeks ago, Rojas clinched his first frog win at the Oneida Elite Series in New York.
But what happened Sunday will probably come to be the known as the day the frog finally matured. Michael Bennett gambled with an amphibian assault at the Forrest Wood Cup in Columbia, S.C. and used a Snag Proof frog to catch nearly all of his key fish.
Third-place Terry Bolton also threw a frog, and 4th-place Chris Baumgardner threw a toad (a soft-plastic version of a scum frog that can be fished on top or subsurface).
Part of the frog's maturation process has been equipment – better hooks, braided line, better frog bodies that walk the dog and collapse on the strike, and rods that can set the hook hard, then settle back with some give.
Part of the maturation process, too, has been the willingness of young pros like Bennett, Roumbanis and others to throw the frog in high-stakes situations, alongside Rojas who's been doing it for years.
And in the case of Bennett, he chose the frog in the toughest imaginable conditions – peak summer temperatures, clear water, a post-frontal barometer, and beat-up water.
And he dusted legendary pros like Jay Yelas and Dion Hibdon who typically thrive in those conditions.
Bennett banked $1 million for the victory (the second tour-level win of his career) and at 24, became the youngest angler ever to reach the $1 million mark in career earnings.
Here's how the 4-year pro from Lincoln, Calif. did it.
Practice
Conditions throughout the official practice period were stable – hot with lots of sun and mixed clouds. But a massive cold front blew though on Tuesday that dropped air temperatures by 20 degrees and dumped rain throughout the area.
The field rested on Wednesday, as the cold front ripped through, and thus didn't know quite what to expect when they launched on Thursday for day 1 of competition.
The biggest question, by far, was whether to fish shallow or deep. The shallow bite seemed riskiest, since nobody knew how much rain had hit particular parts of the lake.
Bennett practiced both ways. He practiced deep the first day, then split things 50/50 the next. On the third practice day, he fished shallow for the first few hours, then went deep and got bit immediately. He stayed deep for the rest of the day and solidified five spots where he thought he could catch deep fish.
The front arrived on the final practice day, so "it was a little sketchy because of the cloud cover," he said. "In pre-practice I never got bit shallow under clouds, but an hour before I came in, I shook off a 3-pounder (shallow), and ended up catching another one."
Given that last-minute mini-flurry, he decided to start the tournament shallow.
Days 1 & 2
> Day 1: 5, 11-15
> Day 2: 5, 15-05 (10, 27-04)
Bennett started shallow as planned on day 1, but struck out. Then he went and fished deep for 2 hours and never got a bite. He went shallow again, caught a keeper, then went deep for another 2 hours and caught one keeper out there. Then he went shallow again and caught another keeper.
The shallow fish were better than the deep fish, so he stayed shallow the rest of the day.
He started shallow on day 2 and stayed with it the whole day, and the rest of the tournament. That's because he caught a fish that clued him into what he needed to look for.
After knowing what he needed to look for, he ran to a similar-looking stretch and caught a 6-pounder and a 2 1/2. He went looking again, "for other spots that looked good," and finished out his limit.
His biggest fish the first 2 days came on the frog, but he also caught weigh-fish on a dropshot.
The key on day 2, he noted, was he caught his fish from new water. "I caught 15 pounds running all new water I'd never fished," he said. "I felt I had a pattern I could duplicate across the lake. So after I had my 15 pounds, I ran around the lake for an hour and a half looking for similar characteristics.
With a 27-04, 2-day total, he topped the cut in 1st.
Bennett only lost one frog-fish over the 4 days, something he said was a tribute to his Fenwick Elite Tech Froggin' stick (top). Along with the frog, he caught several weigh-fish on a Berkley Power Hand Pour Finesse worm (bottom, actual color shown).
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Days 3 & 4
> Day 3: 5, 16-01
> Day 4: 4, 8-14 (9, 24-15)
On day 3, Bennett faced only 9 other competitors. But because all weights were zeroed after the cut, his day-2 lead now meant nothing.
Bennett got after it on day 3 and went looking for new frog water again.
"The first thing in the morning on day 3, I pulled into a spot that looked good," he said. "I lost a 3 1/2- or 4-pounder. But I'd found five or six more of those areas (the day before)."
At that point, he decided to gamble once again on new water and whacked 16 pounds.
He carried a strong, but not insurmountable 3-pound lead into day 4.
"The way I was fishing, I was pretty much guaranteed that about 50% of the bites I'd get were solid fish," he noted. "I thought if I could catch five, I'd have about 10 pounds, and that was the plan (on day 4)."
On day 4, he caught his first fish, a frog fish, at 8:30 on used water. He therefore decided to run some of his other used water, and struck out on two of his prior spots.
He then pulled into a new cut "that didn't look right." But as he idled in, it started looking better. He caught two frog fish within 3 minutes of each other there – one was the his biggest of the day, the other was a "solid keeper."
That gave him confidence that he could run new water again, which he did.
He went 3 or 4 hours without a bite, then stopped at a bridge where he'd caught a couple of small keepers in practice and stuck a 3-pounder on a worm with 30 minutes left.
Winning Pattern Notes
> Several factors were key in Bennett's pattern – the first being a lack of any pattern the first 2 days. That allowed him to move around and narrow down what types of cover he wanted to throw the frog to.
> "The last 2 days I wouldn't consider junk-fishing," he said. "I was fishing more specific spots within the area I'd stop on. I was fishing every good-looking piece of structure, regardless if it was grass, rocks, trees. It was more stopping in areas that had the right components and fishing everything in it." But that "everything" stayed the same for the last couple of days, he added.
> He said he fished the mid-lake area, a little south of the State Park, and also a couple miles north of it.
> "Frog-fishing's one of the most gambling things you can do," he said. "It's kind of like throwing a swimbait. When conditions are right, it's great. If conditions are a little off, it can be one of the most frustrating days you can have."
> About the "right" frog conditions, he said: "In California, it's if they're up under the mats. Out here (like in South Carolina), you need a little bit of clouds. That's the biggest thing."
Winning Gear Notes
> Frog gear: 7'2" Fenwick Elite Tech Froggin' Stik, 65-pound Stren Super braid, Abu Garcia Revo casting reel (7:1), Snag Proof Perfect Fred Frog (custom color).
> Shakey gear: 6'9" Fenwick Elite Tech Jig/Worm rod (new), Abu Garcia Cardinal 802i spinning reel (not yet on market), 8-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon, "generic" shakey-head jig, 6" Berkley Power Finesse Hand Pour worm (oxblood/light-red-fleck).
> As noted, he fished the worm on a dropshot the first 2 days.
> The Fred Frog, at least for now, is only available through Roumbanis' site: EliteBass.com. It'll likely be available at SnagProof.com soon.
> The frog is actually a Bobby's Perfect Frog that's custom-colored. "Fred Roumbanis won a Bassmaster event here (at Murray) with it, and he's a good buddy of mine," Bennett said. "I knew what to throw and didn't think much of it (the frog). I practiced with it a little and got a few bites and kept it in the back of my head, (but) it wasn't really until the first day of the tournament that I could catch fish on it."
> He only lost one frog-fish all 4 days and credited his rod with the achievement. "That Elite Tech I throw with is awesome. You set the hook and land pretty much everything that bites."
The Bottom Line
Main factor in his success –"I went 110 miles an hour. I was rushing to the front to put the trolling motor down. I was fishing very hard. I burned both tanks of gas (on day 4). My trolling motor had dead batteries. I was just fishing as much water as I could."
Notable
> Bobby Barrack of Oakley, Calif. is widely regarded as the angler most instrumental in growing the popularity of the frog in the California Delta area, where he terrorized weigh-in stages with the technique. He's the namesake behind the Snag Proof Bobby's Perfect Frog. Coincidentally, he fished the Cup via an FLW Series berth. He finished 39th.