If you haven’t been paying much attention the last few years, you may have a different perception of the new-age Scum Frog lineup. It’s one of the original hollow body frogs my dad used to throw and it’s an old-school bass fishing staple that has caught a bunch of giant bass over the years.
With all of the “latest and greatest” frogs out there these days, I admittedly hadn’t thrown one of these in quite a while until I tested the new Scum Frog Trophy Series Painted Frog. I didn’t quite know what to expect but upon extensive testing, I discovered a legit bass catcher that will work throughout much of the year.
I was rather impressed with this frog. The Trophy Series Painted Frog is a continuation of Scum Frog’s Trophy Series… but with a twist. Partnering with lure artist Andrew Gardner, Scum Frog used a proprietary manufacturing process to add 10 new color choices to the Trophy Series.
These color patterns are designed to be super realistic and durable, holding up to multiple fish catches over time. I tested out the New Moon color which is mostly black. I caught several fish on it and the finish seemed to hold up really well, which was great to see. I would imagine the other colors would hold up equally as well.
This frog walks really well in open water. I initially thought Scum Frogs were made to fish over super thick mats of scum; that’s where I’ve always assumed their claim to fame came from and has always been what I’ve used these frogs for in the past.
But the Scum Frog Trophy Series Painted Frog does a really nice job in open water as well, fished more like what I’d call a traditional walking-style hollow body frog. With a simple twitch of the rod tip, you can get a cadence going pretty quickly that allows you to walk the frog right and left.
One of the issues you’ll run into with some frogs is their castability. They’ll be so light that they’re difficult to cast. There’s a weight in the rear of this frog, however, that really helps you make long and accurate casts, even in a pretty stiff wind. Due to the weight in the rear of the bait, this frog sits pretty low in the water and nose-up when you’re not working it along. Then when you start to pull it along, it moves a pretty good bit of water.
This frog also has a rather large hole in the rear of the bait compared to many of the other frogs out there. Inevitably, all frogs are going to get a little water in them. Most lure manufactures try to eliminate this as best as possible and they put one little hole in the bottom of the bait so the water can be squeezed out.
Scum Frog went a different direction here but somehow it still works really well. The water just flows in and out of the frog but even with the weight and the water getting into the frog, it still floats in open water. This eliminates the need to squeeze a bunch of water out of this frog every 5 to 10 casts like some other frogs. Instead, the water just flows out between casts.
Though this frog works well in open water, it was definitely designed for fishing around thick and dense vegetation as well. The body design has two grooves formed in it where the hook points can lay, making the bait virtually weedless and able to come through just about anything.
The body is also soft and compresses well whenever you get a bite, allowing the Owner Double Frog Hook to then penetrate the fish well. I typically bend the hooks up on a lot of my frogs to increase the hookup percentage but these already had a pretty good upward trajectory so I chose to fish this bait straight out of the pack and had really good success with it. I think that has to do with the way the hooks are already pointed up a bit, but tucked in those channels well.
