Recently a post on www.ultimatebass.com asked the question: "if you had $50 and could spend it on any piece or pieces of fishing equipment, what would you buy?"
Well that post rang very true to me, since i had in my hand a $50 gift certificate that I won in one of the tournaments i fished this past summer. Found money! is there really anything better? Found money is money well spent, it gives you the chance to buy what you want with little fear of the cost and little fear of the product not living up to the hype.. If it does not work out.. Oh well.. at least I did not spend my hard earned cash on it.
That being said I will get to the point of this post. I took that found money and purchased a Deps Hard Belly frog also called the Basirisky. This frog runs at the Hefty price tag of $22 in my area and has been something I always shied away from.. it looks odd and it costs twice as much as the frogs I use on a daily basis.. but found money is easy money to spend and the Basirisky found its way onto the end of my rod.
Pro's
this is a very cool little frog that gives off some pretty crazy motion in the water. It can be fished a few different ways easily and really draws the fish in with its erratic walk. The legs face forward and pull on the water while you retrieve. it walks and rocks back to you and leaves a large ripple, driving some fish crazy.
What I like most is you can easily very the retrieve and still get some very sweet action on the frog. You can raise the rod tip and make slow pulls or burn the frog back quickly to cause more of a ruckus.
Due to the heavy weighted tail end, the frog sits very well in the water will the tail end down, and should help your hook-up ratio. It also makes the frog reasonably heavy, and easy to casts long distances. Im still not sure about the use of a single hook, but it stays close to the body and does not get in the way so thats a plus.
I bought both the hard and soft body versions of this frog. The hard body improved slightly on the already good design. The hard Portion of the belly help push the hook solidly into the fishes mouth on a blow-up. It is designed to only allow a portion of the frogs body to be compressed.
(this image is not the Hard Belly it is the standard Deps frog, but allows you to better see the inside of the frog)
Cons:
I have only had this frog on the water for a very short amount of time. I do see some possible cons, but have yet to experience them. Both the hard belly and the weight system and both separate pieces to the frog that have been attached. Over time these will wear with abuse and may let additional water in the body cavity.
the hook system is interesting (see above pic) It is a two piece system that keeps the actual hook separate from the nose of the bait. There is three pieces inside this frog and as with most things the more pieces the more things can go wrong. I can see a few breaking points and at this price point I dont want to be replacing too many frogs.
The legs of the frog are a huge pro when working the bait in open water, but can become a con when using the bait in a heavily padded area. The Hard body frog is an improvement over the original as the hard portion of the belly slides easier over pads. The legs and rubber on this frog can get caught up and almost stick to pads a bit as the come across them.
Obviously some would consider the the price to be a con. At $20 or more per frog there is not a huge market wanting to drop that kind of money. I really liked what I have seen from this frog, Im glad i used my found money on it, and will not hesitate to use some of my hard earned cash in the future.
Weapons of Choice:
As mentioned previously this is a heavy frog. I would recommend a couple different rods depending on how stiff you like your frog rods. I used a Dobyns DX795 flipping stick, this rods is ultra light, but tuff as nails. works great with all hollow bodied frogs. If you want something with a bit more give and tip, I would recommend the Dobyns 736c, this rod is the king of hollow body rods
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