Francois Malan

South African FROG Fishing Report

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FROGman Francois and the FROGDAWG --- Luke

and Sir-Lands-alot below !

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3/24/2010 FROG Fishing Update

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Hi all.

Currently in SA the water is cooling down as summer is preparing to hibernate.

At my favourite fishing location, It seem that it is almost time to pack the FROG’s away and to look for the bass with some heavy jigs.

I am a die hard FROG fisherman and If I cannot be the FROG, then bass fishing is just not quite the same.

During my last trip I caught close to 20 bass and nothing wanted to bite top water. They were taking Jigs as deep as 20m, which was quite a new experience for me, But not as exciting as FROG fishing.

Although…..

I have this very special place where circumstances “forces” some top water action.

It is a very high “wall” that were created when the quarry was dug out in the past, Various birds have now made this wall their home and it is riddled with nests in the side.

Down below, the water meets this wall and goes down a good 15m and it forms a sort of basin or a bowl that is surrounded with dead timber and right in the middle you have access to cast into this area.

Now, I have noticed over time that the bass is very well aware of the birds up top and that they have a habit of lurking against the side waiting for a delicious snack to fall down from above.

So it seems that the trick is to cast into the side of this wall and let your FROG drop down onto the edge of the water and then you need to HOLD ON and due to the dead timber you need to really horse the fish out of that hole !!!

So during my last visit, being desperate to fish with my FROG I made a cast with “Rufis” who landed very neatly on the edge of the “wall” and not yet in the water.

As I moved Rufis into the water I just heard “snap!!!”

SNAP ???? a bass does NOT go snap !!!!??? I could not ponder this for too long as I just fealt this HUGE weight on my line and it dawned on me that I just crossed swords with the baby Nile Croc we know is lurking around. Luckily my hook broke in the croc’s mouth as he rolled under water and I managed to save Rufis from this very un expected adversary.

Rufis survived with only four puncture marks on his butt and it seems as if the crocs do approve of Capt Ken’s FROG’s !!!

I must admit I was rather disappointed though, but continued to give Rufis some TLC and new weaponry in the form of a shiny new hook.

I looked at the “basin” where the water meets the wall and low and behold what do I see ??? a nice bass swimming on the surface that came out of the timber and was obviously looking what the commotion was about.

I made a cast in haste and got my aiming a little bit out and cast over a log and onto the wall again, I still pondered how to rectify the situation, when the bass took that option away from me ! He leaped out of the water and grabbed my FROG where it was still on the side of the wall and the game was on !!!

He was luckily not a monster and after some stressful moments I managed to land the bugger who clearly were not going to pass on such a good looking chap as “Rufis”.

I reckon the bass thought Rufis was trying to escape up the wall when he decided to intervene.

I just hope that this pattern would last during the winter and that I will at least have some FROG action in between delving the depths !

Greetings for now !

3/5/2010 FROG Fishing Update

After not having fished for a very frustrating three weeks, I eventually got an opportunity to visit my favourite fishing location last night.

As the local Neptune would have it, the weather was pristine with not a breath of wind !

In launching my little blow up boat, I informed my colleague that accompanied me, that the water temperature has definitely dropped and I hope this will not have an adverse influence in our much anticipated adventure.

Knowing my favourite spot, and being almost 100% partial to FROG and top water fishing in general, I know that very late afternoon is the ticket and thus did not anticipate too much before the afternoon was at the point where it would succumb to darkness.

Never knowing that THIS trip would end up being one of the most memorable fishing experiences ever !!!

In wanting to spare my special spot until the time was JUST right, I moved off to a place where I always thought there would be FROG hunting bass, but never had success. This is when the games began….

My first cast produced an explosive strike as " rufis " (my golden leopard frog) landed in the water – Me having been "dry" for three weeks struck way to soon and nearly became rufis’s first catch as the lure zoomed past my head.

I quickly made a cast to the same place under an overhanging tree and actually watched a slow moving wake move closer to my FROG and when it got to it WHAMMO !!!! It engulfed the FROG and the fish was on. Now at this point only about 10 seconds went past from when I missed the first strike and my heart is pounding like a race horse !!! The BASS made a huge jump and I noticed in the almost darkness something flew from his mouth and landed somewhere behind me. I then noticed as the Bass came close to the boat that my FROG is not in or near his mouth, just the hook ! So in the chaos, I just wanted to recover poor Rufis and did not stress too much about the bass, What made it worse was that the hook was in his upper jaw and it was stuck good, So I battled to take the hook out of his mouth and put the +- 2.5KG fish back in the water without much ceremony. I found Rufis and retired him for the night and took "Sir Lands-a lot" (light green signature serious pickerel FROG) out of his nest and put him on my line ready for battle !

Being so flustered in all these events I managed to duff my cast and my line was caught in the overhanging tree.

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What did I see when my FROG landed in the water ? … An oncoming wake – Now I REALLY don’t want to lose Sir Lands-a lot so I removed him from the water by pulling him up into the branch, The bass below followed this and stayed below the branch and I would swear he was contemplating jumping for it !!!!

My FROG came loose from the tree and landed 1m away from the boat, Immediately the Bass that was waiting under the tree came charging for it. (Now try and imagine being in this situation)

I have never seen BASS so ignorant to disturbance or being so aggressive in an almost collective manner – Chasing the FROG no matter what !

I noticed that my line was twisted around my rod tip after I pulled my line free and had to pull my lure from the water.

I took a breather to collect myself and planned my next cast carefully. I executed it right and guess what I saw ? A slow moving wake approaching it…. Now it is important to note that I am fishing 7m away from the boat, having made quite a commotion that I am not proud to admit, and yet the fish (of which there seemed to be plenty of, kept on chasing the lures with wreckless abandon !!!)

The fish swallowed Mr Pickerell FROG and the game was on ! I proceeded to manage to land the fish in the below photo.

After the photo, I noticed a strange figure in the water close to us – I asked my friend to shine the torch on it and as a result we ended up staring at a Crocodile !!!

Now Luke, My usual fishing partner and jack russel, makes a habit of it to swim in this quarry, chasing the birds. and the fact that the quarry is situated in a residential area where there is no such wildlife made it quite a shocking find !!!

So from suicidal FROG lurking bass to a very much lost Croc, we had it all that evening !

Now we will plan a mission to catch & re-locate the Croc that was obviously introduced into the body of water by a reckless individual who had no more space for his quick growing pet.

But if I can give some advice – Fishing with Capt Ken’s designer Bass FROG’s is the most exciting form of BASS fishing there is. There is no product anywhere that can compete with these FROG’s and it will fool the most suspicious bass! It is also a privilege to fish with something of such high quality that was handcrafted with care and love. Thanks Capt Ken !

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2/15/2010

It took exactly a week and a day for me to receive my own two Designer Bass Frog’s in South Africa.

Meet the team :

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The critter on the left is an Original Light green pickerel and a registered chap aptly named : “Sir Lands-a lot”

The one on the right is a a golden southern leopard FROG of the Replicant series and is named: “Rufis”

As any passionate FROG fisherman would understand, Once you receive a FROG from Capt Ken, then families, work & other priorities take a bit of a back stance and your blood only boils for one thing and one thing only, and that is to introduce your FROG’s to your favourite bassing location.

This being said, We experienced very topsy turvy weather and eventually I got a break on a Saturday. The weather looked superb and I arrived early with a game plan of fishing deep before starting the afternoon’s top water fishing.

This is a picture of the lovely day on arrival :

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Absolutely wind still and pristine.

With vigour, I unpacked the van & got the light blow up dingy in the water. Luke (my jack russel) and I were on our way ! In the first half an hour I realized something is wrong and the fish is not biting L I pondered the cause of this since the water & weather is perfect, Or so I thought. Without warning the wind came up with a vengeance and soon after it started drizzling. This is typical to our area which has sub tropical weather due to the location “relatively” close to the equator. I thought of toughing it out since the normal modus operandi would be that it would rain for an hour and then the weather would return to pristine to the extent that many would not believe you if you told them it was “stoming” an hour ago – And the fact that I was DESPERATE to fish my FROGs obviously had a role to play!

The next moment the water came down in buckets and I was on the far side of the “lake” with the water coming down so hard that I cannot see as the spray is rising over the water. This forced me to duck for cover under some trees against the sharp rising slopes.

At this moment Luke was not a happy chap and was sitting below my bench howling, To our mutual dismay, the weather had another trick up it’s sleeve…. It started to hail.

Leaves and little twigs were raining down and me and the boat was filling with this and ice water – I was very glad for my large rim hat at that point in time, And must admit that I was becoming a bit fearful. Should the hail change from marble size to golf ball size, I would have a serious problem, and as it were it was already rather nightmarish.

Needless to say, Luke was making guttural groans and I held the chap on my lap and covered him in my arms as the hail were pelting down on us. At some point the hail stopped for a second and I had the boat half filled with ice water. I decided to make a run for it just in order to get to safety ! Half way to the launching area the hail started again and to make a long story short, I luckily made it safe to shore, between the lightning and subsequently looking like the cover of a smartie box. No care was taken to just get everything packed and loaded to get home – Got into a bath immediately and defrosted for an hour.

An hour and a half later… the weather cleared up and you be the judge of this one,

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This is a photo of the place after the hail on that day !!??

I did not really have any hope of catching anything as bass is not really known to bite in such radical weather changes ! I tried all the tricks and no luck, but I HAD to use my FROG’s so I stuck it out till before dusk and put “Sir Lands-a lot” on my heaviest stick, as you DO NOT want to lose one of these FROG’s.

As I cruised around the edges I saw a smash right underneath the tree I was hiding under during the hail… I quickly made a “skip cast” under the overhanging branches and I moved “Sir Lands-a lot” once when he got swallowed in no uncertain fashion !

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I managed to land this bugger, Which is definitely not a monster by any means, but the only bass that bit during this wacky day and I am confident that the detail and un-believable action of these FROG’s is what did the trick !!!

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More stories to follow of the adventures of “Sir lands-a lot”, “Rufis” & Luke.

Cheers.