The Columbia spotted frog (shown here) ranges from southeast Alaska south to Nevada and is common in lakes, rivers, and low-elevation wetlands. There are more than 300 frog species nationwide, and almost everywhere there are large trout and bass, there ar
In late spring a few years ago, my buddy and I had plans to explore a new piece of water for smallmouth bass. As with most days in the spring, we were rigged up with 8-weight rods and 4- to 5-inch white Roamers, Circus Peanuts, and crayfish. I had a 7-weight rod still in its tube sitting in the back of the truck, but decided on the drive over that it would stay there. As I backed the boat in, we saw a couple rises from some unknown species. It could have been a bass, trout, fallfish, or even a sunfish.
My buddy saw the rises too, and gave me a look that said, “Mere mortals would be fishing a baitfish imitation today.” I knew he was goading me into fishing a topwater pattern. I looked at him with a defeated look and said, “Fine, I’ll bring the 7-weight with a frog.”
Not long afterward, I was casting an Umpqua Swimming Frog at the bank and into every slow eddy I could find. Ten minutes later, a bronze glow waked its way from the shoreline and inhaled my frog before my brain could compute what was going on. Our fate was sealed for the rest of the day. We were frog fishing.
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