Bending Frog Rods | Rod Wall

Video Transcript: 

All right, here's one that's been highly requested by you guys, Frog Rods. It should be interesting. I would imagine there's probably not a ton of difference between all the Frog Rods, but that's why we're doing this, right? Let's see if there is a big difference between a ton of the Frog Rods. And the reason why this one came up now, we've been doing a lot of part twos of previous videos we've done lately. We decided to do this one because we got a lot of comments from people about the fact that we've been going with a lot of high, higher-end rods. We get that. A lot of what we sell here to be fair is more of the high-end stuff. But honestly, with Frog fishing, you really don't need something super, super high in any way, not that you need it for any technique anyway. But if there were a technique where I would think that you wouldn't have to overspend, you know, stay underneath that $200 price point, comfortably underneath it. It should be a frog, right? It should be a stiff stick that you need to just pull them out of the grass. We're going to find out, now as we bend this one here, we're going to start out with one of our most popular ones. This is the regular core-candled frog rod in the Titula lineup. So this is a 7/4 heavy fast action. This thing should be all you need for all the Frog Fishing. And this thing comes in around $150. Don't quote me on the price exactly, but it's in that mid-150 range. These things have been extremely popular for a long time, and they've been a great value rod. We don't get them back, they don't break. So if you're looking for something at a Yanke-Mata heavy cover, I can confidently tell you this one's been a great one for us. We sold a ton and never had complaints on it. We're starting off the Frog Rods, right out of the gate with $150-ish and the T itula, the standard Titula core-candled ones, 7/4 heavy frog rod. Alright, that's promised 7/4 heavy Titula frog rod. Let's give her a bend and man, it is. I've been doing a lot of BFS rods and jerk bait rods and things like that lately. So this thing's stout, especially with your left hand. It's really, really fast . When you go to impart any action on it or pull on it at all, it's bending way out there. I mean, it's pulling back from way out at the end of the rod. If you're looking to instantly get hooks in a fish and get them back, this isn 't that long or raw. I mean, if you really think about it, right, 7/4 is a decently long rod for a lot of people. But it isn't long enough that you couldn't still fish, bar's cover. I know a lot of people buy this length and power in action of a rod, double it up as like a jig rod to. If you're punching like a big heavy jig, like a 3/4 ounce plus jig, or a big heavy flipping weight, you don't want a really long rod. These rods can do a lot more than frog fish. But man, if you're just looking for raw power and get them out of some thick stuff, this is an awesome rod for that. If I had a knock on it, I did weigh it. This thing's coming in at 4.8 ounces, which isn't that, it doesn't feel heavy by the way. I got a big reel on here though, so it's balanced out, nice. It doesn't feel heavy. But you would get wore out if you're constantly trying to walk the dog, like walk a frog with it, in sparse or cover. It's a stout rod, it's big. This thing came in at 4.8 ounces, like I said, which isn't by any means a really super heavy rod, but it's not in the super light category either. A lot of times when you talk about those expensive rods, that's what we'll be talking about. Hopefully that weight gets down there and makes them easier to fish all day long. But man, if you're looking for a big line and heavy cover and get them out of the slap and not spend a ton of money, I know from experience and from our customers experience, this rod right here is a winner. Pay attention to this one if you're looking for frog rods. The 7-4 Heavy Tatula Frog Rod. Here's another good deal for you in the old frog rod world. The Dobbins Fury Frog and Rod. This is a 7-3 Mag Heavy fast action. This thing's like 129 in that range anyway. So under 150 bucks. And it feels great. I haven't waited yet. I'll get you the numbers when I go over to the wall there . But it feels great in hand. As I've talked about before, if I have a minor complaint with any of these rods and the budget rods from Dobbins is not having that chuck kind of right there, they cut the threads down on the rod so you don't get those sharp edges. So this isn't rough by any means at all. When I was pulming it, I'm not like rubbing on like coarse sharp edges or anything like that. So not a big deal at all. If you want to save some money and get a good rod or reliable, good frog and rod, that's not going to break the bank. This one here is definitely a winner. The price is obviously extremely attractive. Let's go bend it and see how the 7-3 Mag Heavy does in the Dobbins Fury Frog Rod. Alrighty. Just weighed this one. Bit of a surprise. 6.1 ounces. I'm going to tell you right now, I know I've said this about every rod I've weighed. This thing does not feel that heavy. I mean, it does feel heavier than the previous rod I just did. It does feel like it's got more weight. But it is counter-balanced well. This rod is balanced enough that I don't think it feels that extreme in the weight category. But on paper I got to call it out. It's 6.1 ounces. So saving that money is going to cost you in just overall weight on this one. As I bend it, it is definitely not as fast as that Tatula rod was. Now, that's what I was interested to see in a lot of these frog rods. It's this felt pretty fast and stout when I just had the line on it bending it, but this rod has a little bit slower taper to it. It's still fast to action. I promise you that. It's going to start driving a hooks home right away as you go to low derada. But it's not as fast as the other one where it was super stout. Now, what's good about that is this one would probably give you that little pause. Everybody talks about when a frog gets munched by a bass. You're supposed to kind of give it a second for your lean into them. To make sure the bass got the whole frog. This has a little bit more forgiveness to it than the previous rod did that I've been. It might give you a little bit more. And then also as you're fighting the fish in the pads, especially if it's thick, thick stuff, you're using the meteor bigger part of the rod to kind of fight the fish back to the boat, not so much into the tip. Obviously, the faster real you're using and braided line, you should be able to keep the rod bent over, but the more give it has in it, it might help you in your landing percentage. It is, like I said, going to be fractionally slower in the hook set, but not by much, but it will be. So if you're looking for a frog rod, maybe you're somewhere where you miss a lot of fish, if it's a pressured area or something like that. This one might outshine that other one, but let's face it, this one's a price point wise. It's a no brainer if you're into it. If you want a mat rod that's not going to break the bank, you might want to take a look too at this Dobbin's Fury Frog Rod. Alright, this one here should be no stranger to any of you because it's one of the most popular rod series on planet Earth, especially for people that are more price conscious, that want extreme value for their dollar, that is Mojo Bass from St. Croix. As you can imagine, we sell these in extreme volume, and it's mostly due to the fact that people found extreme value in these rods for the money. If you're an angler that wants a whole bunch of rods for all the different techniques, but you don't want to go and spend the big, big money on the super expensive technique specific rods, Mojo Bass as you covered. As you know, we sell a lot of these things, everybody does, basically, especially in the Midwest and the North part of the country. And St. Croix is growing in popularity and pockets all over the South, and it's certainly out west. We send a lot of these rods out west as well. This one happens to be there, Frog Rod. This one again is a 7-4 heavy fast. So you're seeing a little bit of a theme here. That's 7-3, 7-4 seems to be the sweet spot for a Frog Rod and heavy power and fast action. You're wanting this rod to get those hooks into that fish fast, and you want to drive that hook home really hard. So no stretch lines, a braided lines, even though I'm bending this one with fluorocarbon on it. You want braided line on it. But we're going to load it up, see what the actions like on this, and compare it to the other ones. I did weigh it. It came in at 5.5 ounces. So in between the other two, and it does have that Trigon handle that Mojo just switched to. You've seen a lot of St. Croix's marketing has been around that triangle-shaped grips on it. Doesn't make that big a difference, honestly, on a casting rod, as it does on a spinning rod where you're actually having your whole hand on the handle. The way I palm are real is way up here, so I physically don't even touch as part of the handle, but I do grab onto the back when I cast sometimes. But that's not really where you're fatiguing from that at all, or anything like that. But if you do hold the rod with your finger on the trigger like this, a lot of people do that when they're fishing with a baitcaster, you will notice this. And it is, honestly, quite comfortable when I do it. I just don't hold a bait caster that way. So to me, the Trigon thing shines if you're looking at spinning, but if you're after a rod in that frog rod without breaking the bank again, the Mojo Bass from St. Croix, they're known for their, you know, they've had great customer service in the past, all that stuff. They've done really good for our consumers that have purchased and been loyal St. Croix customers. So check out the Mojo Bass Frog Rod. Let's go bend it on the wall and see what this Mojo Bass 7.4 Heavy Fast does compared to the others. Here we go. 7.4 Heavy Fast Action Mojo Bass. And very, very similar to the previous rod I bent, which was a Dobbins, as far as action goes. This one, believe it or not, doesn't look like it, at least when I'm looking at on the graph there. It feels faster. The minute I start to like pull on it at all, it wants to just start pulling back at me right away, pretty hard enough to the point where I think you would get hooks in them really fast of this one. But it's a little bit more of a forgiving tip than the other ones. It's a bit softer and I know it's a heavy and it's definitely got heavy power. Trust me, if you lean into this thing, you're into the meat of the rod. But the tip feels a little softer than the other two. Where that would matter to me on this one is this would be a little bit more versatile than the other two. The other two, to me, seem more like kind of cover frog rods, like they're over some pads, you know, they're under some pads or under some cheese mats. There are some stuff that you've got to pull them out of. This one feels like you could probably do that, but you could also walk that frog a little bit, throw a pop in frog, for example, or a walking frog junior, the smaller sizes or something like that. And in part, some action on it, maybe in some sparse or cover, skip docks with it. I know our friend Zona talks about that a lot, but fish and lay down things that nature you've got to make accurate casts. The tip on this one is a little bit softer than the previous couple rods. So I would put this one in the category of a little bit more of a versatile kind of all around frog rod, if that makes sense. Okay, we tried to do it, but we couldn't. We had to go high end at some point. We went fancy on yet. Now this one, this is the megabass Orochi X-10. This is the swamp survivor. So you guys probably heard of this rod talked about a bunch. It's one of the ones that's gained a lot of fanfare out of this latest rod family that's been launched in these states here by megabass. This is a frog rod. Now odd thing about this one came in at 7-1. So this is the first one of the frog rods that we've bent or played with that is shorter than that 7-3-7-4 kind of ideal frog length. Most of my friends that fish competitively for a living, not just like I do, like weekend warriors, I'm talking about that do it to feed families, make money, have a shorter frog rod for things like docks or close quarters battle, open water frog and that kind of stuff for popping frogs and things like that. So this rod makes me think of that, but this rod is no slouch when it comes to power. It is heavy. They call it mod fast or medium fast, so it's not super fast. Bending it with a line on it, it feels fast. So let me just see how it is on the wall over there. The other interesting thing about this one is it came in at 5.7 ounces. So early if you heard me say, when you spending the big money on a frog rod, it 's usually just going to save you in a lot of weight and less fatigue and all that stuff is going to feel nicer to fish with all day long. Well, I lied. First one out of the gate was heavier than a couple of the rods that we bent already that were more price point. Now, that being said, it does feel nicer. It's a little fancier. It does look aesthetically very pleasing, which shouldn't matter obviously to most, but let 's face it, it does to a lot of us. The real seat on it feels really nice. The cork is a higher grade cork. It does feel balanced quite nice with this real on it. No, like I said before, this is a bigger reel, so, but it does feel balanced out the best of the bunch so far. And that might be a little easier to do with a shorter rod, but we're only talking a couple inches. But let's go bend this one and see how the Rochi X10 Swamp Survivor. Remember, this is a 7-1 heavy medium fast action. Okay, we're here bending this one on the wall. Remember, I was just currently, or just moments ago caught my own lies saying that more expensive frog rods would be lighter. I am going to, however, say that this one does feel pretty alive in your hands, which that's face that you're not looking typically for sensitivity in a frog rod, but this thing does feel quite alive compared to the other ones. All right, I'm going to give her a bit. And yeah, they nailed the action there. This is almost modern, almost. I can see why they say mod fast though, because if you are just imparting action on it or you go to set the hook fat, you are getting pulled back on pretty quick. It's not as slow as it appears as you load into the backbone of the rod, but that tip section is quite a bit further back than any of them to be honest with you as far as like what's moving in the rod as soon as you put any, and part any action or put any power into it. So it is kind of named perfectly. It's a heavy power and it is I would call it a moderate fast, even though it looks moderate as I bend it like that. It is pulling back faster than it appears. So you're going to be able to get hooks in the fish fast, but it's going to have a little bit more forgiveness in it than even the other rods all did to be honest with you, which makes this one once again more of to me. A versatile frog rod. In a pinch could I throw this in a big giant cheese mat and that's full of matted vegetation. I bet you I could get some in, especially with a big real big handles and stuff and muscle them back. It's probably not ideal with the shorter length and a little bit, you know, I honestly feel like it's just as powerful as the other ones. At least it feels that way. They all feel pretty strong, but this one maybe a little less. But this thing I think is going to really shine when you're doing things like imparting action on frogs like the juniors I spoke about earlier, the smaller frogs, the paddle frogs, you know, if you're into any of those frogs that are, you know, the buzzing type frogs. That's would be a perfect rod for that. Honestly, what this thing screams to me is the smaller popping or the junior style walking frogs and and docks are hard cover. That's where the seawalls and things of that nature and lay downs. That's where I think this thing really, really shines. But it's a lot more expensive than the other ones, but it does feel nice. But I got admit this time I'm having a harder time justifying the big spend unless you, you know, if you got the money more power to you. But I will say it does feel the nicest, but it's also double the price. So all right. Last one of this bunch. Obviously we're ready to get ridiculed in the comments about what frogs we miss. But honestly, we do want the feedback. Keep it coming. Let us know what rods and thank you for the feedback we've gotten, by the way. It's been fun to do these. They're getting a lot of traction on the site. Hopefully the YouTube audience picks it up over time. We get much bigger. But certainly on the site it does very, very well. So we do appreciate all you guys messages and bound messages to us. Like to figure out a way to get those chats more publicly viewable on our site alone. You know, it would be cool. But certainly appreciate all the feedback. But we'll be remiss if we didn't go with what seems to keep coming up as being one of the best values in the entire fishing industry. That'd be these guys the Shimano X-Bride rods. So these are coming in just under 300 bucks. This one was the lightest of the bunch 4.5 ounces. This one goes back into that key frog and rod range of 7.3 heavy. So it's an in short and a couple of other ones but it's actually an extra heavy . It's not a heavy. It's an extra heavy. And this is a mod fast again similar to the Mega Bass rod. It feels like the light is right out of the bunch. I do have a very light weight reel on here. I have a hyper mag on here right now. Another personal reel has been around here at the shop. It is light and it feels light on this rod. It doesn't make this thing feel super tip heavy at all. Bending it, it feels faster than mod fast. Which is line on it but let's go bend it on the wall and see how it does. The Shimano X-Bride, 7.3 extra heavy mod fast frog rod. Okay, we're here with that 7.3 extra heavy mod fast Shimano X-Bride frog rod. It's definitely more mod fast on the wall than it was just bending it with the line in your hand. And on the ground too. The wall is telling a much... Shimano continues to impress me to be honest. I don't know why I keep thinking I'm going to find a big difference in what they say the rod is going to be. We get on the wall and it's like they do a really good job of nailing that. I mean they're the ones who make the rod. You think it'd be the best ones to say what the action is. So kudos to them. It's a mod fast extra heavy. It's really really powerful. Trust me. And it's got a lot of power to be honest with you. In fact the extra heavy is so accurate that honestly you will be pulling hooks into that fish pretty fast on this. It is mod fast because honestly that tip section is all of 5, 6, 7. Let's weigh down there. But it is stout. So this rod here to me is an absolute power frog rod. You could put 65 pound test braid on this thing. Go to big old mats. Even though you really... when you see that we're seeing the popularity now in really long frog rods. I don't personally have any of those. I don't guess I don't do enough launching a frog out into the back way deep part of a mat. It sounds like fun but I just don't do that that much. I worry about losing fish out there and getting your line gets bowed and caught on stuff too much. I try to make my frog casts a lot more precise nowadays. So I had the best chance of getting the fish out. This is a perfect heavy power frog rod that isn't too long and isn't too heavy that you couldn't get by with a whole bunch of other techniques with it. Outside of frog fishing, this to me screams killer jig rod, killer Texas rig rod with a big giant weight. If you don't want a big giant rod you'll punch some mats in between docks in the fall if you do up here a lot. This thing would be awesome for that. A lot of applications. Even some decent sized swim baits. Obviously none of the big giant stuff don't kill me swim bait guys. But this thing would do a lot for you. Once again, Shimano does do a really good job up there. It's certainly not a cheap price point. I know a lot of you point that out. But these X-Brid rods continue to show that they could play with rods way over their price point. So kudos to Shimano again. But lots of good options for you in this first round of frog rods. Please let us know in the comments if there's some frog rods that you think need to be shown in this frog series of rod bins. [Music]