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Hi, Capt. Ken! Hope you are good. :)

Just a late-night report to you about some FANTASTIC experiences fishing the FROG over the July 4th holiday weekend. Really hope I don't jam up your email with my photos.

We really had a busy year so far. Got laid-off from my job at Christmas, and then half our house burned down at New Year's -- I found a better job in April and have been working there ever since...And our insurance company rebuilt our house again, so we just moved back this month. So the house is filled with boxes of all of our stuff. I am the new guy at this new job, so I have no vacation time this year. So, for the 4th, what do I do with the three-day weekend? Take the time to move back into the house, unpack all the boxes and settle back in? NO WAY! We waited six months to move back into our house again. Our stuff can wait a bit longer. I took the family for a quick Hilton Head-area getaway in the Carolina Low Country, which means plenty of brackish lagoons filled with sassy bass -- and a perfect opportunity to fish my FROG that you had repaired for me.

I am sending you a few pictures of the trip. I had really wanted to use the kayak, but I was warned with all the hot, rainy weather, the alligators had become very aggressive. Who was I to argue with an advisory like that? So, I focused on the well-mowed banks, where I could keep an eyeout. Now, in the first image, Perfect4FROG, notice all the great cover to pitch the frog over and hop him back through. I really like to cast across a cove where the mats of vegetation are really thick and there is a good algae layer around shore. I will cast right over the water and land the frog on an opposite shore, hop it through the grass and back into the scum line and let it sit for a few seconds. Plenty of times, that is all it takes. If I am in the kayak, I set up about 40 feet from shore and cast onto the mowed grass along the shore. Or, I use the corners of coves if I am landlocked. Either way, it works really well. If I don't get smacked right after the initial hop-in, I will swim the frog a few feet and pause it, then alternate between a few fast pulls and slow ones. But I think the real key is not to just stop the frog, but to slow the reel crank , then give it one last push away from you with your fingertips. That will make the frog slow down and glide to a gradual stop. I think fish like to follow the FROG and watch it, because after the frog slows to a gliding stop, that is where he gets hit most often. Smaller fish seem to explode all over it and smack it all around. It is a lot of fun, even when they miss it. But you always know when a good fish hits it because they just come up behind it and slurp it in. Most of the time you can hear the slurp -- and it is a really delicate hit. It helps to watch the line where it goes into the water, because if it starts to swim around, you know it got hit. The contrast between how a big fish hits it and a smaller one really is dramatic.

These frogs really make a lot of surface commotion, so be careful about the large reptiles coming to investigate. Where I fish in coastal South Carolina, I have had gators swim across lagoons and travel great distances just to see what all the splashing is about. (Please see UHOH image). The little striped baby gators are a lot of fun to watch as that tail whips like mad back and forth. But these guys chasing my bait this time were about six footers and I have seen much bigger ones in these lagoons that would push ten or eleven feet. Scary.

But speaking of splashing, everyone fishing these FROGs should pay particular attention to spillways and drainage pipes. The current tends to collect big patches of debris, which is really nice cover in hot weather. I like to cast all the way across the debris field, then hop the FROG onto and off off all the floating sticks and mats of salad. Also, if there is any current running out of the spillway or pipe, be sure to make a short cast close to the pipe and let the FROG drift out with the current. It looks like the frog is tired fighting against the stream and is just coasting along. Make a few twitches and let the frog be carried into and around the floating debris. The fish could hit him at any time in there.

I'm including two shots of fish I got this last trip out -- the first one might be pushing 3 lbs and the second one was really close to 5, I would say. It looked like it should have been a bit fatter to match its head and pectoral fin, but hey, he really was a fun one to catch. I was standing on the bank and cast into open water and just slowly swam him back to shore, past a few little surface weeds and he got clobbered. I should mention with this frog that it is a total blast to fish the heavy cover with him, but don't forget to fish the clear shorelines, too. You never really know where he could get hit, but the fish are having no problem at all finding him.

I really like fishing this FROG because every hit is so entertaining -- whether it is a violent strike or just a gentle slurp from a bigger fish. This year, I don't have a lot of time available to go out and fish, so when I do, I tie on the FROG and I know that even if I can get out for only an afternoon, it is going to be an adventure -- and every time I am learning new ways to fish it. It really adds a new dimension to my trips, even when I'm just casting from shore.

Thanks for all your help teaching me how to be a FROGman!

Take care and catch 'em up.

Dave