By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

A lot of frog-fishing aficionados have a lot of different theories about the best ways to entice and catch largemouth bass with an imitation amphibian. Matt Arey, a bona fide expert on the topic, says the cardinal rule is to keep the bait in your visual focus at all times.

Failure to do that on Sunday afternoon at Lake Ray Roberts may have cost the veteran from North Carolina the Bassmaster Classic title. The Texas heat was at least partially to blame.

Arey said he thinks he was wiping sweat from his eyes when he failed to see a 4-pound-plus fish engulf his frog and begin swimming with it.

"I heard the blow-up, then I turned around and thought I saw the frog sitting there and I didn't jerk," he said. "It wasn't the frog that I saw, though, it was a leaf. The next thing I know, my line is 12 feet under the boat going as fast as it can go.

"I tried to catch up and swing at the same time, but when I swung I still had slack in the line. When the fish came up, it just opened its mouth and the frog came flying out."

Had he been able to get that fish into his boat, it might've given him the 2-pound upgrade he needed to unseat fellow North Carolinian Hank Cherry as Classic champion. As it turned out, Cherry claimed his second straight title in the event.

"The most important thing I can say to people is you need to always be watching the frog. Focusing on it is the No. 1 tip.

A Big Improvement

Arey is now in his third year on the Elite Series after a long stint on the FLW Tour (now MLF Pro Circuit) that saw him post back-to-back wins at often-fickle Beaver Lake in 2014-15. This was his second Classic appearance and it was a big improvement over his first outing – he was 43rd at Lake Guntersville last year.

He employed a flipping/frogging combo pattern at flooded Ray Roberts and compiled bags weighing 15-05 and 15-12 on the first two days to keep himself in contention. He knew he'd need 20 pounds on day 3 to have a shot at winning, which was a prediction that ended up being right on the screws; he came in exactly 2 pounds shy of that mark and lost to Cherry by 1-15.

"I've been doing this full-time for 13 years now and I could say (the finish) was bittersweet, but I don't know how much sweetness there is," he said. "At this point in my career I just want to win.

"Those are opportunities I want to have more of and now I'm even hungrier to get back next year and get another shot at this thing. It's refueled my fire."

He said the primary key to his high finish was having string of tops within a couple miles of each other.

"I was able to kind of monitor that water and see how much it was getting hit by other guys and I'd make adjustments based on how everybody else fished it. Some guys were flipping the outside edges (of the vegetation), but there were some places where you could also go inside. I caught my biggest fish (of day 3, a 5 1/4-pounder) and some other key fish on the inside."

Gear Notes

That big fish bit a prototype 1/2-ounce Titan Tungsten jig that he designed. He described it as a compact bait that excels around woody cover with a wire keeper that holds trailers extremely tight.

The jig features a 3/0 Gamakatsu hook, which is said is plenty stout for thick cover but pins fish better than a larger hook with a wider gap. It was attached to 20-pound P-Line Tactical fluorocarbon spooled on a Lew's Titanium reel (7:1 ratio). He used a 7'6" heavy-action Lew's Custom Pro rod.

As for frogs, he threw three different models – a Lunker Hunt Compact Frog, a popping-style bait and another conventional frog that he pulled out only because of its color.

"I didn't have any Compact Frogs in white, so I grabbed one that was white with kind of a blue tint. There was a lot more bait present (on day 3) and they seemed to eat that color better."