BassFirst Kennesaw, Georgia (May 1, 2020) – Fifteen years ago, SPRO revolutionized bass fishing with the introduction of the Bronzeye Frog. Designed with input from B.A.S.S. legend Dean Rojas, the innovative topwater frog delivered the perfect combination of walk the dog action and weedless performance to draw bass up through the thickest pads.
“After 15 years, the Bronzeye Frog is still the one of the number one frogs on the market,” said designer and SPRO Pro Dean Rojas. “We are thrilled to have provided so many great memories for frog fans over the years.”
Rojas used the original premium frog to win $40,000 at the Bassmaster Classic on Lake Wylie in 2004. He followed that up with plenty more victories, making it a timeless tournament favorite. The Bronzeye Frog is engineered to utilize the full potential of Gamakatsu’s 2x-strong EWG Double Frog Hook, allowing anglers to use the heavy braid to extract lunkers out of the thickest cover. The soft plastic body delivers weedless performance that maneuvers through the thickest cover without hanging up. It easily moves out of the way when bass pounce for a great hook up ratio. Though it was designed for the salad, the thin body allows it to walk the dog effortlessly in open water, drawing big bass up from submerged cover for big surface blow-ups.
The Bronzeye Frog lands right side up every time, thanks to the weight molded into the body and precision tolerances that keep water out. The nose of the bait is anchored just behind the line tie eye, so it will stay put even as you drag it through the densest pads. For added action, the legs are constructed of living rubber strands that provide plenty of movement even when the bait is paused. The extra-long legs let you trim them just how you like them and are securely anchored to the body so they’ll stay put.
“SPRO has never stopped innovating,” said Rojas, noting the success of SPRO’s full line up of weedless surface baits. “We took the best attributes from the Bronzeye Frog and developed different baits with their own actions. The Bronzeye Pop, Bronzeye Shad, and Bronzeye Spit Shad all deliver explosive topwater action.”
Pick a fight in the pads with the original Bronzeye Frog, the winningest frog bait in tournament history. See for yourself why it has become the go-to frog of Bassmaster’s top anglers for the last 15 years.
By Tyler Brinks - During Bass Pro Tour Phoenix Boats Stage Five Presented by Mercury on Smith Lake in Cullman, Alabama, the shad spawn was the point of focus for most of the anglers in the field. This phenomenon of targeting bass actively feeding on shad during their spawning ritual is a common occurrence when the conditions (and the right structure) allow.
Stage Five winner Dean Rojas exploited the shad spawn throughout the event, and it was his main program during the Championship Round, where he totaled 30 bass for 47-0.
“I chased the shad spawn during the mornings every day, but the final day was overcast, and that prolonged it,” he said. “I was fortunate to have those conditions and to have found the right area.”
The Winning Area
Rojas did not fish his winning area until the final day, but had been keeping an eye on the area during the event. What he found was two points, one being a main-lake point and the other a secondary point.
He found the area during the morning’s ride-around period, and knew right away that he had a good spot.
“It was a place I wanted to fish all week, and during the ride around, I saw fish activity on the bank,” Rojas said. “It was two points, but it had a lot of ditches running down from those points.”
The other key, according to Rojas, was the presence of “hay grass” in the area.
“Most of the other banks are clay, and there were not many places with grass,” he said. “That grass is a great place for shad to spawn on,” he added.
Winning Gear
Watch my win on the Bass Pro Tour will air on the Discovery Channel this Saturday, Nov. 2nd, from 7:00 - 9:00 am.
Catch it on any device here: BPS on Discovery
Dean Rojas rang up SCORETRACKER® during the shad spawn. Photo by Josh Gassmann
By John Johnson BassFan Senior Editor - Dean Rojas' program at the Smith Lake MLF Bass Pro Tour didn't differ a lot from that of most of the other anglers who reached the Championship Round – or, for that matter, a lot of the competitors who didn't. He capitalized on the shad spawn with moving baits in shallow water for the first couple hours each day, then moved out to deeper points, shoals and bars and employed finesse tactics pick off post-spawn spotted bass that were transitioning to their warm-weather mode.
The primary reason he won (and broke an 8-year victory drought) was he was in the right place at the right time to start the final day. He caught more than 75 percent of his weight in the Championship Round in the first of the three 2 1/2-hour periods, establishing what proved to be an insurmountable lead.
He'd checked the place where he loaded up that morning during the 30-minute ride-around that precedes each day's competition. Never before had it been so rife with activity.
"As soon as I pulled up, (the bass) were busting shad," he said. "I knew at that point I needed to start there.
"I was just sitting there (waiting for the lines-in call) and licking my chops. I knew if they started biting, it could get real good, real fast."
He caught 23 fish for 36-05 in the opening period, most of them on a square-bill crankbait and some on a swim jig, then added seven more over the final two stanzas to finish with 47-00. If he'd stopped fishing at the day's first lines-out signal at 9 a.m., he'd have still beaten everyone except runner-up Brent Chapman, who flipped up several quality largemouths from bushes in the final period to at least partially close the considerable weight gap.
"It went on for the whole first period and it was almost every cast – I'd get a bite, hook it, land it, cast again and get another bite. A couple times I had a lull for five or 10 minutes, but then there they'd go again.
"We had unique conditions: overcast, dreary, balmy and a little windy, and we hadn't see that all week. That kept it going on for the whole period. On the days before that, once the sun came up, that bite would die."
He started out throwing a swimbait, but it became detached from the hook on the first fish he caught even though he'd applied an adhesive. Because of that, he switched to the square-bill.
"I needed something I could catch them on really fast without having to worry about re-tying or fixing the bait. That's where the square-bill and the swim jig came in – I could catch one, weigh it, pick the rod back up and throw right back out there."
Dean Rojas takes home the trophy and $100,000 check after winning the Bass Pro Tour Phoenix Boats Stage Five Presented by Mercury in Cullman, Alabama. Photo by Garrick Dixon
By Joel Shangle - May 5, 2019 CULLMAN, Ala. –It’s an age-old question in competitive bass fishing: pattern or location? If you ask MLF pro Dean Rojas this week, he’ll come down firmly on the side of “location”.
Fishing an area on the upper end of Smith Lake that he had found during practice for the Bass Pro Tour Phoenix Boats Stage Five Presented by Mercury, the Arizona pro went to work on the Sunday-morning shad spawn with a mix of baits (primarily a crankbait, swim jig, frog and swimbait). By the end of the first period, Rojas had put 23 fish on SCORETRACKER® for 36 pounds, 5 ounces – enough spotted and largemouth bass that Rojas could’ve put his rods down for most of the rest of the day and still won.
“It’s not too often that you get into a Championship Round where the fish are biting like that and you can use multiple baits to rack up a big lead,” Rojas said. “The conditions were right: we had overcast skies, a breeze, warm temperatures, and the fish were just feeding in the area I was in. It was just about capitalizing on this format. I knew I had to catch as many fish as I could early to put some distance between me and the field.”
Rojas added an additional 9-1 in the second and third periods for good measure, finishing with 47-0 and a 6-plus-pound win over Brent Chapman (40-14), Michael Neal (34-15), Jason Christie (32-6) and Todd Faircloth (32-2). Mark Rose (29-14), Brent Ehrler (26-0), Dustin Connell (24-14), Mike Iaconelli (17-14) and Fred Roumbanis (10-1) rounded out the Top 10.
“At the end of the first period, that was the end of (the bite),” Rojas admitted. “It was a big deal that I caught as many fish as I could to build a big lead. Period 2 and Period 3 were a matter of catching a few here and there, but I was struggling because they just wouldn’t bite.”
