Ever hear of Kermit? Not the Sesame Street skinny green frog, but the bass-catching beauty Spro has on the market. Dean Rojas sure knows about it. He designed it.

The longtime frog fisherman from Arizona knew frogs had their place in tour-level competition, so he came to the East and threw 'em. And he got results: numerous Top 10 finishes at tour-level events, plus Top 5s at the Bassmaster Classic and Cabela's Top Gun Championship.

Scum frogs have long been a go-to tactic when fishing over heavy vegetation, but Rojas has taken that even further. He fishes them in blowdowns, near docks and even in open water. Basically, he throws them just about everywhere, and he designed the Spro Bronzeye Frog 65 with that in mind.

There have traditionally been a few good-quality scum frogs available, but they all had their share of problems. The Bronzeye certainly doesn't cure all of them, but it comes closer than most.

Rojas: Walk It

California has long been the frog capital of the world. The Golden State has even hosted 300-boat tournaments where the field was only allowed to toss frogs.

Rojas said: "I'd thrown them in the past but the frogs weren't very good. You'd get blow-ups but you usually didn't hook them. If you did hook them they'd come off. And they'd fill with water and bunch up.

"Northern California has the guys who pioneered the bait, but I was fortunate enough to raise the bar a bit, particularly from a visibility standpoint. Those guys and the guys from Mississippi threw the frog all the time and they knew about the open-water aspects of it. I was just able to find ways for it to work for me."

Rojas also noted that a friend, Larry Locatis, had a lot to do with expanding his frog thinking. After he saw Locatis throwing the frog everywhere – "places you wouldn't imagine" – that's when he started thinking more about it.

"I started thinking if I could get the right frog on the right tackle I might be able to catch fish others couldn't get to."

Our Tests

One characteristic of the Bronzeye we really liked is how the nose fits tight to the line-tie and water won't fill up the bait. The body's narrower than many other frogs too. Usually you have to tweak your frog to get it to walk, but the Bronzeye walks the dog right out of the box.

The body's soft, yet tough, and the namesake Bronzeye looks realistic, which may or may not matter, since fish probably only see the bottom of the frog. But the weighted body does force the head to sit higher, which does look more realistic.

The flat bottom displaces water effectively and we've had strikes reeling it in. The big differences we noted were the frog's castability – it usually lands correctly and if not, it's easy to flip – and we missed a few strikes but didn't lose any fish we hooked. That's key.

Other Items of Note:

> Frog gear is a matter of personal preference, but Rojas' setup is a good one: the Dean Rojas Quantum Frog Rod, a Quantum PT 7:1 "Burner" reel and 65-pound Izorline braid.

> The Bronzeye is available in seven colors.

> It's really easy to walk the dog with it. No big deal? Wrong. Compare it to other frogs and you'll notice the difference right away.

> The legs have plenty of length, but can easily be shortened with scissors.

> The legs exit the body through a short tube, which keeps the leg-tube from getting caught in the hook gap – a classic problem with other frogs.

> The frogs retail for about $7.50 each.

> For more info, click here to go to www.spro.com. To order, click here.