Some of the greatest fun that can be had when fishing in the BNF zone is with topwater frogs. Slurp or smash, when walking, popping, or hopping a topwater frog through the slop or the pads, it’s an adrenalin pumping experience, and that’s just waiting for the strike!

I’ve decided to do an extended archive of topwater frogs just due to my OCD nature of trying to see just how many variations of the topwater frogs tackle companies have come up with, and so far, the list is over 200 (!!!) separate models from over 60 different tackle manufacturers.

The requirements for inclusion to this list are: It must be weedless and be able to be fished through slop and pads.

No treble hooked  (3 barbs bad, 2 barbs good!) lures like the Rebel Pop’n Frog or Moreau Baits Original Topwater Walking Frog:

Treble hooks bad! Weed and snot magnets!

As beautiful as this hardbody frog is, trebles = no go.

No buzzblades like the Snag Proof Bobby’s Perfect Buzz Frog or Rebel Buzz’n Frog.

Buzz blades = no go. Too much hardware for the slop. It’s OK though, the Snag Proof brand is well represented in the BNF Ultimate Topwater Frog Compendium.

Although I think the Rebel Buzz’n Frog is an awesome lure, and the design been around a while, it’s not what I have categorized as a topwater frog. Sorry Rebel.

No soft plastic buzzfrogs or toads like the Zoom Horny Toad or Gambler Cane Toad.

The Zoom Horny Toad is an awesome buzzing topwater lure, but is soft plastic and sinks, so therefore doesn’t meet the criteria.

Again, the Gambler Cane Toad in Bullfrog color is one of my favorite toads, but doesn’t make the list.

There’s some frogs that skirt the edges of the requirements, so I assessed them on a case by case basis.

The 3:16 Lure Company No Bull Frog makes the list even though it is a soft plastic frog, it has a sealed air bladder that enables it to float.

This Canyon Plastics Frog is pretty cool as well, but the hollow cavity is not sealed, so it doesn’t qualify for the list.

The 3:16 Lures No Bull Frog, I included because even though it is a soft plastic frog and doesn’t come pre-rigged, it has an sealed air bladder like a hollow bodyy frog. The Canyon Plastics Frog, which I chose not to include, is a soft plastic frog like the 3:16 No Bull Frog, and though it has a hollow body cavity, it is not a sealed bladder like the No Bull Frog and so in my opinion doesn’t qualify for this list.

My search isn’t limited to just the US domestic market, but markets like southeast Asia and Europe as well. It’s also not limited to just currently available frogs, but also discontinued and vintage frogs that if they meet my criteria, will be included. If you have a suggestion for a frog, send me an email or contact me through this site or the BNF Facebook page and I’ll add it.

I will be documenting each one with as much information as I can get. The info that will be included to start will be: Manufacturer, Model, Colors, Length, Weight, Price. I’m going to try to include a full color chart as well as color names and codes if they’re available, and a brief description if I can get one.

They will be broken up into 5 categories;

-Traditional hollow body style frogs like the Mann’s Super Frog:

The Mann’s Super Frog in Cypress Frog color, a nice representation of the traditional hollow body frog.

-Popping style frogs like the Deps Buster K:

The totally cool Deps Buster K, a not so typical representation of a popping style frog.

-Spook and shad style frogs like the Picasso Shad Walker:

Bring on the night bite with the Picasso Shad Walker, a spook/shad style topwater frog

-Mice and rats like the Strike King King Rat:

Be seen from space with Strike King’s King Rat, an example of the mouse/rat category!

-Wooden hardbody and handmade frogs like the Vagabond Bush-0:

A beautiful Vagabond Bush-0 hardbody frog. Notice the weedless two barb topwater hook which satisfied the requirements for inclusion into the hardbody/handmade category.

I’m still figuring out the logistics of everything and how I can present it in a nice easy visually interesting yet uncluttered way, but the first sections should be going up shortly, so stay tuned!!

Functional Topwater Frog Art!

March 20^th was the first day of spring and Old Man Winter is still hanging on for dear life. Other than a couple of teasing, all too brief warm spells, the winter weather has been pretty drawn out and dreary (like watching the Flyers this year). I’m sitting here trying to kick a cold turned cough and getting the cabin fever/fishing junkie withdrawal shakes in the worst way as I suffer through that final cold spell before spring finally kicks out the jams with authority.

So what am I to do when the tackle can’t get any more organized , the poor compy is ready to meltdown from surfing every tackle site known to exist, and while I’m staring at blank walls that are beginning to shimmer with magical maps of my favorite puffs before my very eyes? I decide give myself a clear (as in Cristal) and renewed focus for this year’s fishing.

Last year, I starting BNF, and had an emphasis on fishing in the ugliest, skankiest cover, those places that Roland Martin (and his latest sponsored product), your Mom, AND your friends warned you about as a kid (but went anyways and usually got your ass handed to you on a silver platter). Lily pads the size of donk rims and stems like steel cables? Yep. Gnarled Joan Rivers-like trees with otherworldly, alienlike, twisted limbs, and Mr. Burns-like claws that never fail to snag your helpless lure? Yep. Weed beds as thick as your grandparent’s shag carpet (and with the same mysterious smell, color, and stains too)? Yep. Urban water with rusty culverts, dead bodies, shopping carts and mysterious chemical slicks (in other words any suburban Walmart parking lot)? Yep. Went there. Did that.

In essence last year was all about stepping outside the box. It was all about nixing that warm lite beer and Lazy Boy recliner (The Comfy Chair!) of safe easy structure, of familiar baits, techniques, and colors. It was about entering the saloon like Clint Eastwood, double doors a-swinging, giving the place the stink eye, and bellying up to the bar for freight trains, prairie fires, and rotgut whiskey (rats floating in the barrel or Ol Grandad, your choice) until you’ve either scored with the hot chick or are under the table lying in a puddle of puke crying for your mom. It was all about tearing down that wall Mr. Gorbachev, pushing back those Cold War boundaries, freeing East Berlin, (yeah I’m a product of the Reagan era) and never being satisfied with the previous day’s status quo or pattern.

BNF jersey made by Reservoir Dawgs Customs

So as I sit here waiting for my chance to get out on the water, I’m resolved not to just sit and repeat the same techniques and approaches that made last year my most successful size and numbers wise that I’ve had yet. So, as was stated so appropriately by John Cleese’s ‘Announcer’ character in multiple Monty Python episodes, “…and now for something completely different…” (and add a little Graham Chapman’s ‘The Colonel‘ character, “Stop it! Stop the program!” too)

Last season the focus was on digging in, getting down, punching through, and getting out. This upcoming season it’s all about fishing up top. Don’t fret, there’ll still be plenty of Punch Hoggin’, A-riggin’ (with a capital “A”, finesse what? Go big or go home son! More baits! More blades!), and dropshottin‘ to keep it interesting. But. This season, BNF will be smashing it up hardcore surface style! (Not Gangnam style. Trust me.) Buzzing. Frogging. Buzz Frogging. Punch Froggin’. Waking. Walking. Swimming. Sliding. Burning. Popping. (Wait a minute! What! What! Whaaaaat? Hold on a minute… Punch Froggin’? Oh yeah! Add it up, you’ll get it!)

I’ll be fishing cool stuff from cool tackle companies in all sorts of cool situations (How about some froggin’ in 40 degree water? Hows that for cool. I’d fish them colder, but if I did fish frogs on hard water it’d be as effective as those epic 89/90 Nordiques.). Cool rods, (though not this one,it doesn’t seem to deal well with as much cool as BNF is going to throw out this year), cool reels, cool lures, cool people, cool videos, just plain all around cool. BNF. Not playing by someone else’s rules besides my own, which I would never do. I play by my own rules, nobody else’s, not even my own.

Until next time…

This first video stars local South Jersey FLW pro Adrian Avena who was at the show representing Halo Rods. Adrian recently placed 8th at the first FLW event of 2013 at Lake Okeechobee, Florida, so as well as discussing Halo Rods, he was kind enough to share some insights into his experience at the Lake Okeechobee tourney. A great guy!

You can find more about Halo Rods here, and more about Adrian Avena here.

In this next video, BNF talks with Matthew Cashion of Cashion rods about his ‘Made in America’ rods.

You can find more info about Cashion Rods here

Part 2 with Cashion Rods. We discuss their new frog rod, and their tournament rewards program.

BNF talks with John Roy of Quantum Fishing about the newly expanded lineup of EXO reels, and the new Dean Rojas frog rod.

You can find out more info about Quantum Fishing’s new Dean Rojas Frog Rod and the expanded EXO series of reels here.

BNF talks with Dale Black of Gamma Fishing about their lines.

You can find out more on Gamma’s lines here.

In part 2 with Dale Black of Gamma Fishing, he goes in depth about line types, care, and characteristics. Fishing Line 101!

Mike Czaplinski of Keitech USA makes a rare appearance and tells us about some very cool products from Keitech for 2013.

You can find out more about Keitech’s products here.

BNF talks A-Rigs, buzzbaits and other awesome lures with Joe Fontana from Picasso Lures.

You can find out more about Picasso’s Lures here.

BNF gets some topwater schooling from Bobby Uhrig of Megastrike/Cavitron Buzzbaits.

You can find out more about Megastrike’s lineup of fish catching products here.

BNF talked with Precision Tackle pro staffer Mike Sabbi about his favorite lures for fishing in the NE USA, and gives a short talk about Save Phace.

You can find the products he talked about here.

Ready for some eye candy? Herb Weichman, the owner of Precision Tackle shows some of todays hottest and rarest swimbaits that he carries! Sexy baits man!

You can get those baits while they last here.

It was great to catch my first bass of 2013 so early in the season. I hope it bodes well for the rest of 2013!

Here’s the video evidence:

So, as BNF looks back on it’s first year, in the Xmas/holiday spirit of giving, I’d like to give some shout out’s and props to a few of the people and companies that stood out for me this year, to give back to them a little of the good cheer and karma that I received from them this year. Of course, now that I have a cool GoPro courtesy of my awesome wife, I decided to do it in video format. It ended up being a 4 part series, as there was just too much to say and show to cram it all into one video. As it is, I still feel like I didn’t these people and companies enough justice!

In Part 1 I give a heartfelt thanks to Matt Wilson and Moaner Hooks, and talk a bit about his company and his jigs and hooks which accounted for some of my biggest fish this year. BTW Pecado is Awesome!!! and my color of the year!

In Part 2, Cajun Tackle House is the subject, as I discuss Jake R0berie and Chris Thornton’s Louisiana based company that has survived 2 natural catastrophes (Hurricanes Katrina and Isaac) and kept on providing awesome lures influenced by their Cajun fishing habitat, and got me fishing outside my comfort zone (with some real success I might add).

In Part 3, I discuss another tackle subject dear to my heart, JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) tackle, and how there are still companies in Japan that make JDM tackle that is really Japanese designed and produced in house, in Japan, like Duo International. Martin Bakos, my contact with Duo, really encapsulates all that is right with any tackle company, and hopefully after watching Part 3, you will share my enthusiasm for Duo’s lures.

In Part 4, I tie everything into a nice sweet little package, tying in JDM tackle and American small business, and talk a bit about Precision Tackle and it’s owner/proprietor Herb Weichmann. I discuss what Precision Tackle is all about, and show some of the eye-candy that he sells that no one else sells here in the USA.

And of course there’s a ton of people that I need to thanks but that never made it into any of the videos, including Carl, my new Nock fishing buddy; Warren Wolk, the drop shot king, king of the puffs and holder of  the enviable streak if 11 months of straight 5lb Pennsylvania donkeys; Mike of Keitech USA; Mr.K of the Keitech User’s Site; Marcus of ScreamingDemons; Boyd Duckett (Bassmaster Classic Champ!!) and Sean Schuyler (cool Canuck!) of Duckett Fishing; Al Noraker of Wright and McGill; Alex, rod guru of ALX Rods; and last but not least my awesome wife Kim, who’s an enabler of the best kind, provider of GoPro’s, support and encouragement, thanks tons Punkins!! Love Ya!

Below you’ll find the Xmas Special in 4 Parts! I hope you enjoy them, and I look forward to lifting BNF this year to bigger and better heights with more cool videos, reviews and more!

Then you get a day like this and it makes it all worthwhile.

I had made a few adjustments to my drop shot rig since the amazing day I had with my good buddy Warren Wolk (http://youtu.be/ArWqUuKbKi8) where we killed them on the drop shot.

I changed from all fluorocarbon line to a braid/fluoro leader setup and it worked great. The braid portion was PowerPro 10lb in Vermilion Red. I haven’t used much PowerPro lately after having some clumping/breakage issues a few years ago, but the new line seems to work pretty well. The fluorocarbon line was Berkley 100% Fluoro in 6lb. With this combination, the sensitivity factor was much improved. (also that’s why I was milking the fight on the drop shot bass: light leader line! Too bad the GoPro’s microphone sucks so bad, you should have heard that Opus 1′s drag sing!)

I caught the first fish where it was supposed to be, on a submerged roadbed. what the video doesn’t show is that just 5 minutes earlier, birds were working a bait school in the same location, so I just picked up one of the scavengers. It hit so light, I actually thought I had caught a weed, then I thought I had a crappie on until it jumped.

The drop shot fish were exactly where they were supposed to be as well. The wind was pushing into a small main lake cove where the depths went from 40ft + to about 14ft fairly quickly before transitioning into a flat. The weeds were pretty much dead and done, and the remnants were present out to about 9.5ft. All the drop shot fish were caught in 11ft of water. I figure they were waiting for  bait to be blown up into the flat, and they were sitting just behind the steeper transition of the drop to 40ft. I tried to replicate that pattern in a very similar cove, but one that lacked the ledge to flat drop off and didnt have any takers, so I feel the proximity of the flat to deep water was the ticket. I also missed a couple on a pronounced ledge that I think were suspended crappie.

The fish today were absolutely stunningly colored, and with the bright sunshine, they were just amazing to look at. I’ll never get tired of that!

Without further ado, here’s the latest Bass Nasty Fishing video:

Warning: BNF’s Punch Hoggin’ Punch Rig Rod Guide is waiting for multiple manufacturer provided images, so the whole ‘wall of text’ thing should be alleviated shortly, but I didn’t feel that that was a reason to delay publication of this portion of the guide, so read on if you dare!. 

Welcome to Part 1 of the Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide. (You can read the Introduction to this Guide here) The first piece of tackle we are going to look at used for punching heavy cover is the rod. All rod’s are not built equal when fishing the nasty stuff. A rod used for punching/fishing in extreme cover has three primary functions. The first is to deliver a bait (weight, skirt, hook and soft plastic) that can be up to 2 or 3 ounces  into almost impenetrable cover effectively. The second is hook the fish. The third? Keep it hooked, and extract it from said cover. Obviously rods designed for tossing spinnerbaits or fishing dropshot, or even a worm and jig rod will have characteristics that make those rods perfectly suited for their particular applications, but they wont work so well when applied to others, like using a dropshot rod for chunking spinnerbaits. Lure weights, actions and power are dialed in for each rod and make it difficult to fish these rods across applications, resulting in inefficient casting, inefficient hooksets, lost fish, and tackle failure.  These differences in rod designs and styles are magnified considerably when you are looking at fishing cover that amplifies the stress on all aspects of your fishing tackle to limits that normal tackle would fail miserably (and spectacularly).

So how have rod companies and pros approached designing their technique specific punch rods? First up we look at major rod manufacturer Wright & McGill’s approach.

Al Noraker of Wright & McGill worked with Skeet Reese to design his new punch rod:

“Skeet asked me to build him a very fast, stiff and powerful rod for punching through thick hydrilla and weeds with 3 ounces or more of weight. He wanted a rod that could then get fish out of very heavy cover quickly and hold up to heavy braided lines. The rod will built is 7’11″ long, is rated for 50-80 pound line and 1-4 ounces of lure wt but can easily handle more. The rod tip is stiff and the butt section is very heavy. Skeet loves this rod for this purpose and uses it often.

Bob Myers of Wright & McGill regarding the blank technology Wright & McGill used for the punch rod:

“S- Curve Technology. This process combines T – Glass with High-density graphite as the core of the blank. Carbon yarn, PBO fibers and glass fibers are then woven into a combination of T-Glass and high-density graphite. It is then wrapped by carbon tape and high density graphite to eliminate cracking and to increase breaking strength.”

Skeet Reese and Wright & McGill’s thoughts on their rod design reflect the harsh realities of fishing in heavy cover. Tackle durability when subjected to nasty cover is a big concern.

Next, we go from one end of the rod market spectrum from the major manufacturer Wright & McGill to a lesser known, but just as viable rod maker, ALX Rods.

Technique Specific FTW!

Alex Dziengielewski, owner of ALX Rods had this to say about his company’s approach to the design of their punch rod, the ‘Power Bolt’:

“With a punch rod, the #1 most important thing we look for is durability. You are putting a long rod in the thickest, nastiest stuff (BIG NASTY FISHING! ). You have companies like Ardent who are putting out reels with NO drag… you then have that paired with braid. Then, when a fish comes out, it’s being pushed, pulled, yanked violently – and quite likely with an added 5lbs of grass. So you can now see the need for the durability we look for in blanks and rod design. 

The BNF Special/TFPS rod blank under load, showing the flex characteristics that ALX rod designer Alex Dziengielewski uses as starting point for his punch rod design.

 What we’ve found is a couple things – this is based of pro staff and customer feedback – you need a rod that is stout and can absorb all that impact, you have to be able to set a very heavy wire hook, and you need the rod to stay buttoned up. A more moderate action – the blank flexing a little deeper than your worm rod – is a huge help for absorbing impact and staying buttoned up. The tip is less likely to be flexed past the point of failure since it bends further into the blank. You also get more power because you fight the fish in the middle of the rod blank.

Hooked up and loaded up with the ALX TFPS “BNF Special” rod in real world conditions. You can see that this rod performs exactly as Alex of ALX rods has designed it, with a smooth parabolic transition from tip to backbone.

This blank (the TFPS blank, ed.) was really designed for this purpose, so there wasn’t a lot we had to do. It was really important during design to space the guides with the flex of the blank so you didn’t create more stress in certain areas. This technique just lends itself to potential issues, so maintaining a solid guide train spacing is key.”

The rod designs these two designers have come up with show variations in design philosophy, but for the most part have been different executions on the same theme: a heavy powered graphite rod from 7’6″ to 8’0″ with a softer tip that transitions into the backbone of the blank in a smooth, parabolic fashion. Why these attributes? The longer lengths give greater distance when pitching, more line take up on a hookset and greater leverage when prying big bass from that gnarly cover. Combining this with the rod blank’s heavy power gives it the backbone to set the hook effectively in the midst of the nastiest junk, and the power to muscle the fish from its location quickly. The soft tip allows for smooth pitches and flips, and allows the angler to impart subtle action to the bait once it penetrates the surface. The softer moderate fast to fast action tips of punch rods have just the right amount of give and flexibility deeper into the blank to minimize the loss of fish on the hookset and extraction, giving the angler a little easier task when fighting the fish, but sacrificing pure fish moving power due to the softer, gradual, parabolic transition from tip to backbone.

Here’s an extreme example of what happens when pure fish pulling muscle in the blank is sacrificed (sacrificed is a little harsh, compromised might be a little better, but still, there was a sacrifice made in backbone vs. tip) with a little softer tip for fishability. The rod just didn’t have the oomph to get to get the fish up and out of the nasty stuff quickly enough. To be fair, it also could have been that I didn’t set the hook quickly enough and the fish got down and deep into the junk before I had a chance to get it turned. Either way, you can see that two-handed pressure on the rod has the blank stressed down to the handle and the rod has no muscle left to give, so I’ll have to take the boat in and get the fish.

The attributes of the heavy power blank but softer tip flexing deeper into the blank are accentuated by the use of reels with locked down drags and the lack of stretch inherent in braided line that put additional stress on the rod during all aspects of Punch Hoggin’ heavy cover.

And now,  here is the beauty of having so many rod companies with different design philosophies, a completely different approach and solution to the same problem of designing a rod to fish in extra heavy cover effectively.

I recently had the great opportunity to talk with 2007 BassMaster Classic winner and owner of Duckett Fishing, Boyd Duckett, about his company’s newly released extreme heavy cover specific rod, the White Ice “Terry Scroggins Pro Series Model DFWI78XXH-C, and how it was conceived and executed.

Boyd Duckett with his new White Ice Pro Series rods.

Boyd Duckett has been fishing competitively since 1977 (age 17,) and in 1979 fished his first travel circuit; Jerry Rhyne’s ‘Fisherman’s Bass Circuit’ , with such notable anglers as David Fritts, Mickey Bruce, Peter T, Rowland Martin, Hank Parker, Orlando Wilson etc., and has purchased, used, enjoyed, discarded or broke more tackle (good and bad products) than most regular anglers will ever see (even hardcore tackle junkies!).  An already successful businessman, he started his company Duckett Fishing in 2009 to bring the highest quality, cutting edge, no compromise, focus driven, fishing tackle to the everyday angler at an affordable price. Duckett Fishing manufactures it’s rods from the ground up; from the concept and design of rods on paper and CAD, to rolling and manufacturing their own rod blanks and components, to the finished product that you see on tackle store shelves. That ‘in-house’ manufacturing allows Boyd and Duckett Fishing the freedom to create highly technique-focused fishing rods without sacrifice or compromise.

When it comes to XX heavy cover, XX heavy power technique specific rods, there are a LOT of rods on the market to choose from, (in the rundown at the end of this article you will see just a small fraction of the rods available), and typically, a traditionally designed and manufactured super heavy powered rod uses a blank with more material and wraps of graphite to achieve it’s strength, resulting in a heavier and unbalanced rod.

When Duckett Fishing was designing the White Ice Pro Series line of rods, Boyd approached his pro-staff member Terry Scroggins about designing his ‘perfect’ signature rod. Terry Scroggins, (known on the B.A.S.S tour as ‘Big Show’ and as arguably the preeminent XX heavy vegetation/grass mat/flipping angler on the tour) was unimpressed with the extreme heavy cover, super heavy power rods available on the market at the time. He felt that the available rods weighed too much, were unbalanced, or both, making them uncomfortable to fish for extended periods in extra heavy cover. He wanted Boyd to create the ultimate no compromise rod that was all power and strength, no sacrifice given to anything that would impede applying maximum leverage and power to the fish, and that had just enough flex in the tip to pitch 1+ oz. lures. He also wanted it to be as light as possible and perfectly balanced and be as capable using 65-80 lb test braided lines as it was 25 lb test fluorocarbon (a must in clear water or pressured XX heavy covered situations). A tall order, even for a company that can build any rod blank it desires and that supplies blanks to numerous outside rod companies, but Boyd and Duckett Fishing were up to the challenge.

Utilizing Duckett Fishing’s rod building and manufacturing capabilities to it’s fullest, Boyd began to design Terry’s ‘XXH’ rod the way he designs all of the rods for Duckett Fishing, from the ground up. For the XXH’s blank, Boyd didn’t use an off the shelf blank from his extensive stock (Duckett Fishing also manufactures blanks for other rod companies), but applied an extremely labor intensive dual helical bias blank rolling process that Gary Loomis had used and perfected in his salt water blanks in the past at G.Loomis to create a blank focused only on achieving the goal of extreme strength and durability combined with ultra light weight and balance. This entailed starting with a carbon fibre scrim base for extra strength without adding weight, then using the highest quality Toray T800S graphite prepreg material in multiple 45 degree cross wraps to achieve the desired ‘XXH’ strength and power without any excess material and weight. Additionally this process, along with the specifically designed shape of the prepreg sheets enabled Boyd to keep the more of the blank’s weight near the butt of the rod, a necessary part in achieving the all important balance that Terry was looking for.

At this stage, many rod companies would be happy to wrap some standard guides on the blank, put a trendy split grip handle and reel seat on it and be happy to call it a day. Boyd and Duckett Fishing however are not that type of company. Boyd Duckett, the man credited with introducing the micro guide into main stream rods over 4 years ago, was only getting started. He designed a new, heavier framed micro guide (0.71 compared to 0.50 for a regular micro guide, a thickness increase of around 30%) with nanolite rings to help the tiny guides withstand the rigors and pressures fishing with heavy braided lines without grooving and cracking.

The placement of these heavy duty micro guides was also critical to the balance of Terry’s XXH. With standard, non-micro guides, there is a liberal amount of leeway (up to an inch) of guide placement on a blank without a noticeable decrease in performance. However, with micro guides, it is critical that rods have the precise combination and spacing, and this combination and spacing changes for each type of blank and application. With it’s custom rolled blank that was designed with weight distribution as one of the  primary goals ( resulting in more weight in the butt end of the blank), Duckett Fishing was able to have more guides near the tip of the ‘XXH’, achieving maximum sensitivity due to the number of guides being placed optimally where they were needed for line management and sensitivity (sensitivity = line contact on the guides transmitted to the rod blank, therefore more guides at the tip increases the line’s ‘movement and vibration’ transmission to the rod blank, hence to the angler). This higher number of micro guides near the tip was incorporated into the rod design and is instrumental in achieving the goal of perfect balance for the XXH.

Boyd then used an in-house designed reel seat with a deeper reel foot cavity than normal to ensure that a reel’s foot would be locked down tight and unable to pop out or shift during the extreme duress the reel would be put through during home run hook sets and fighting giant bass in thick masses of vegetation (check 1:40 to 2:10 of my Fishing And Messing With GoPro video for an example of this occurring haha!). The 17.5” long handle/grip/reel seat area was located on the blank at the precise point where maximum leverage could be applied to the fish. The 17.5″ handle is long enough for an angler to use their body as a fulcrum for leverage or to tuck under their arm when extracting reluctant bass from nasty cover, and is ergonomic and comfortable when performing fishing related functions like pitching, working baits, hook setting and reeling with 1-3 oz baits in unforgiving cover during long days on the water. The lighter ‘split grip’ handle configuration (again designed into the rod from it’s conception) was used in place of a ‘full grip’ configuration due to the inherent balance in the blank construction and is made of EVA (Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate) foam for durability and comfort.

So, take this indepth process, build a prototype, fish it hard in the worst conditions and cover imaginable (Florida and Alabama), work out the kinks, rinse and repeat half a dozens times trying different lengths and configurations, until the rod design is precisely 7’8” of exactly what you’re looking for in a pure power extreme heavy cover rod, choose a color for the rod, and you’re good to go, ready for shipping right?

You couldn’t be more wrong. Even something as simple as a rod’s color has been thought out by Boyd. He believes that a plain black graphite blank is the most visible rod shade/color for the fish to see against a blue or cloudy sky. Add that rod moving and jerking around while pitching and working baits while physically close to the cover and that wise old kicker bass that’s seen it all before might just get spooked and leave the vicinity. Since the fishing world and average angler isn’t ready for a sky/baby blue rod, the next best color is white, which is what Boyd has chosen. You would think that the White Ice color chosen for the rod is too bright with the sun shining on it and that it would be even worse than a black rod, but you’re looking at the top of the rod. The fish sees the bottom of the blank, which is shaded and a nice neutral gray that blends in with clouds and sky nicely.

The XXH rod Boyd Duckett and Duckett Fishing created for Terry Scroggins ended up being exactly what they had set out to achieve:

- a no compromise, no sacrifice, no nonsense rod with just enough tip to pitch 1+ oz baits perfectly, and that applies unadulterated power and leverage immediately upon hook set to bass in the worst types of cover imaginable .

- a perfectly balanced 7’8” XXH heavy powered rod that is extremely sensitive due to it’s use of the highest quality graphite and precisely placed micro guides.

- a rod built with the best heavy duty components available for utmost durability, which meant making them in-house, resulting in the confidence to fish in and withstand the extreme forces involved in XX heavy cover fishing.

-a rod that offers the angler precisely balanced handling and ergonomics tuned specifically for extreme cover fishing.

As we can see from the previous examples the rod designers from Wright & McGill and custom builders like ALX rods discussed, Duckett Fishing has a wholy different approach to the tip and taper of their XXH for compared to the Wright & McGill Skeet Punch Rod and the ALX Zolo Power Bolt/BNF Special rods. While those two companies employ a softer parabolic taper (imagine a ‘C’) that blends into the backbone farther down the blank, letting the rod do some of the work and therefore more forgiving to the angler but sacrificing power, Duckett Fishing employs just enough tip flex to pitch baits effectively, ( more of an ‘L’ ) that transitions immediately into the full power of the backbone. This delivers maximum power and leverage to the fish, and relies on the angler’s skills to fight the fish effectively. Two completely different approaches, three if you consider Wright & McGill’s innovative use of S-curve glass and graphite composite technology. Which philosophy is the best? There is no easy answer, but the best aspect to all of this is that you as the angler get to decide by honestly assessing your XX heavy cover fishing skills, tendencies and preferences, and by getting out on the water and fishing.

Below, you will find a breakdown of some (but not all) of the available technique specific rods for punching heavy cover.

Stay tuned for updates to this rod chart as I get more information on different rods.

Coming soon, the next installment in the series: Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing’s Punch Rig Guide to Reels

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide: Introduction

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 1: Rods

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 2: Reels

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 3: Line

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 4: Weights + Stops

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 5: Punch Skirts

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 6: Hooks

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 7: Plastics/Baits

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 8: Technique and Strategies

Punch Hoggin’ BNF Style!

When an angler approaches a day of fishing, there are many paths and techniques that can lead to the same goal, which is to catch that ginormous bass of a lifetime. Most take the conventional route, beating the bank with jigs, plastics, spinnerbaits or cranks, or fishing  points, structure or other ‘sensible’ ‘fishy’ areas that typically hold fish.

BNF, of course, takes the path less traveled, and approaches those nasty areas that the typical angler shies away from or takes a few halfhearted casts into with tackle not designed for it and ends up with a broken line (or rod), minus a lure, and moves on, thinking that no sane fish would live in that impenetrable mess.

Punch Hoggin’ in the BNF zone (nasty stuff)!

Little do those anglers realize that  impenetrable mosiac of dinner plate sized lily pads or featureless carpets of grassmats as far as the eye can see are truly a haven for largemouth bass. In the dog days of summer, the temperature beneath those mats and pads can be up to 10 degrees cooler than the surrounding water. They provide critical aspects to fish holding habitat: shade from the sun, protection and places to hide from predators, and, beneath the pads and mats exists a maze of undergrowth, stems, debris and low light conditions that provide a myriad of ambush points from which to feed on shad, sunfish, frogs, insects, or whatever else tasty that happens to cross their path (like your bait!).

Tossin (Punch Hoggin’) the salad!

As with any fish holding location, the biggest, most dominant, and aggressive fish are going to be located in the optimal locations for feeding or safety or both. Bass will be buried in the thickest cover, or in and around primary locations like points, channels, pockets, structural objects and depth changes within the pads or mats themselves that offer the best feeding opportunities.

So how do we get to those bass buried in the thick stuff that aren’t responding to a buzz frog or hollowbodied frog on the surface of the pads or mats? Punch Hoggin’ with a punch rig. Punch Hoggin’ isn’t just a type of bait or a type of presentation, but a specialized tackle system and technique designed purely for getting your bait to those less pressured fish, and then just as importantly, getting those fish extracted from that impenetrable cover into your boat.

The Punch Hoggin’ Punch Rig consists of 8 separate pieces of tackle that bring the sum of their individual strengths into a symbiotic relationship that provide the angler a tool greater than any of them could provide on their own. Rod, reel, line, stop, weight, skirt, hook and soft plastic all come together to allow the angler to approach and apply the Punch Hoggin’ technique to previously unfishable cover with the expectation of being able to present lures to, hook up with, and land those giant bass.

So what kind of specialized tackle is required to access these fish? Welcome to the Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig (Guide), where the equipment that is used to approach punching heavy cover is examined in the usual BNF OCD/indepth style.

Punch Hoggin’: Bass Nasty Fishing approved! Two thumbs up for catching big fish!

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be going into each aspect of the Punch Rig, and the Punch Hoggin’ technique itself. So sit back, relax, pour yourself a wobbly pop and let the fun begin!

Below are the topics to be covered:

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide: Introduction

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 1: Rods

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 2: Reels

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 3: Line

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 4: Weights + Stops

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 5: Punch Skirts

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 6: Hooks

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 7: Plastics/Baits

Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 8: Technique and Strategies

Open wide and say, “Punch Hoggin’!!!”