Product Review: Matzuo Nano Kroaker Frog

Company Description:  The Matzuo Nano Kroaker Frog is the perfect floating bait for hard to reach bass.  Fish this bait in lily pads, timber or any other heavy cover.  The cupped mouth spits a large plume of water when popped. Offered in a variety of realistic finishes for nearly all conditions.  This floating frog bait is a true trophy producer!

Features Benefits:  The Nano Kroaker Frog has a cupped mouth for better popping action as well as multi-strand legs and duel weedless black nickel Matzuo hooks. The Nano frog comes in both 2 inch (1/4 oz.)  and 3.5 inch (5/8 oz) sizes to fit your desires.  Finally the Nano Kroaker has a small disk at the base of the frogs body which weighs the rear end down for longer cast as well as keeps the rear portion of the bait below the head for a more realistic action on retrieval.

Review:  Initially I fished this bait as is out of the box with no alterations.  To say the least  I was initially very happy with the bait as on the first cast a small 12 inch bass exploded from under some lily pads and inhaled it.

Honestly this was the case pretty often however what I learned pretty quickly was that this bait suffered

from the same issues as many of the other hollow bodied frogs.  First, the legs out of the packaging are far too long as a result when a fish took it out on open water many times the fish would grab the legs and pull it under on short strikes.  This ultimately resulted in more missed fish than I would've liked.

The second problem I noticed was that they hooks are bent in too deeply which didn't really make much of a difference with smaller bass that took the bait.  However whenever I set the hook on larger bass because of the sharp bend on the hooks often I'd pull the bait out of the fishes mouth not getting a good hook set.  That's not to say that the hooks aren't sharp, in fact the hooks are very nice especially given the lower price point of the Nano Kroaker Frog.

Lastly one unique thing that happens with this frog, not sure if I want to call it a problem just yet, is that due to the weighted disc in the rear of the body this frog sinks below the surface.  While this flaw is something I'm sure the people at Matzuo didn't intend to have it actually didn't stop bass from attacking
this bait.  In fact I've caught at least ten bass that attacked this frog while it was swimming below the surface.  Overall I give this bait a 4 stars because of the lack of floating and minor tuning issues out of the package and the fact that the cupped mouth really doesn't add much popping sound to the retrieve.

Pros:  The best thing about this frog is that when fish are not really interested in eating bigger frogs the Nano Kroaker Frog draws them through the muck.  As well with the weighted disk in the rear of the bait it imparts a great life like action with the flick of a wrist.

Cons:  First the legs, like on other frogs on the market, are too long out of the package which often leads to missed fish because they grab the legs rather than the body of the bait.  As well the nickel hooks are angled too deeply over the body which has led to several lost larger bass due to inability to set the hook.  Lastly the same weighted disk which aids in casting and imparts great action, causes the bait to sink rather than float as designed. 

Price:  $3.49 - $3.99

Proud Lake Trout Fishing Opener 2014

Every year on the last Saturday of April hundreds of outdoorsmen and women flock to many streams lakes and ponds to enjoy the opening day of "catch and keep" trout season.  For me this is usually my first major fishing outing of the year to fish lower Proud Lake.  In fact you've seen pictures of the results of last year's trout opener in my review of the Quantum Optix 30 spinning reel.

However for me the last two years I've been doing things a bit differently but before I tell you my change I'll tell you what the original yearly tradition was.  For a few years prior to this one my trout opener consisted of me lining up along the base of the dam with about 50 to 100 other people waiting with baited hook and rod in hand on the midnight hour to pitch my first line in the water to catch my limit in trout.  Can you say combat fishing at it's best.  I would literally stand shoulder to shoulder with people pitching as close to the dam as possible hoping to hook a trout and when I did hoping not to tangle up in someone else's line or legs to land my fish.  While it's very affective it was also very annoying so last year my fishing partner and I decided we'd no longer deal with the troutathon and float tube down the following morning.

For the most part this was probably the best idea we had for trout fishing last year.  Cause the following morning we pretty much had our choice of places to fish.  We saw very little other traffic on the river

outside of a few kayakers and waders where ever there was a place they could gain access.  However this year I think someone passed out a memo on the benefits of kayaking in because we saw at least 12 to 15 kayakers, several aluminum boats and quite a few canoes along the river fishing.  A big shock but a good shock in my opinion because I love to see other sportsmen and women taking advantage of the opportunity to fish and enjoy the outdoors.

Every year prior to this one I've always stuck to the same bait for trout and that is berkley powerbait trout bait.  Usually, because of fishing at night, the best colors for me have been the white and pink.  However this year pink drew no bites whatsoever but the yellow and white did very well.  In addition to powerbait big fish catchers this year were corn (an old standby for many fishermen), minnow baits, and white or silver inline spinners or rooster tails.  In fact the three largest trout I saw caught this year were taken on white rooster tails and a minnow bait like the original rapala floating minnow.

Overall I did pretty well this year catching my limit of trout (both browns and rainbows) on the opening day.  However unfortunately I wasn't able to get back out and catch some more that week but I plan on making a trip in the future up north to chase wild browns and rainbows when they start feeding on mice.

Man from Ireland Catches Huge Catfish From a Float Tube

If you know me you know I spend quite a bit of my time fishing from my float tube.  The float tube allows you to get into places that are pretty much untouchable by people on boats or on the shore.  To say the least, it's an absolute blast.  There is nothing like being taken for a sleigh ride by a large bass, pike or carp.

However my experience being dragged around is nothing compared to Gerard Smyth of Roslea, Ireland.  You see Smyth was fishing for giant catfish on the Ebro River in Spain with guides from Monster Tours when he hooked into the catch of a lifetime.  A behemoth of a catfish weighing in at 169 lbs.

According to this man on a mission to catch a giant catfish from a float tube, this fish hit a dead dead

Vietnamese Swamp Eel like a "Steam train".  "I didn't realize just how hard it would fight," Smyth said. "Quite a few scary moments throughout, when the float-tube was getting dragged under like a (fishing bobber) with only my head and shoulders above water level.  I finally got the strength to use one armand loosen the drag on the reel a tad as instructed."

Wow!  After a mile long sleigh ride, being pulled around like a man-sized bobber, Smyth was able land the catfish with some help from his fishing crew.
I have to say this get's me riled up to push the limits of my float tube and catch some of the large fish swimming around at the bottom of my local fishing haunts. Congrats Gerard Smyth you're an encouragement to us all!
Pictures and story sourced at grindtv.com.