The Designer Bass FROG™
Skitter Leg / Stinger Hook Kit
In the photo above, you can see the components of the Skitter Leg / Stinger Hook Kit. They are also listed on the back of the package which is displayed below. As you can see, they are identified by their "style" and "action", yielding 4 different legs, but the fact that they can be positioned on the FROG with the legs oriented in either the "up" or "down" position means that you can get 8 different retrieve behaviors for your Designer Bass FROGs™. The behavior of the legs can often mean the difference between strikes or no strikes. One of those legs, when positioned "downward" will turn your FROG into an immediate shallow diver or "wakebait ", creating the ultimate FROG "searchbait". So make sure you experiment with them all in your fishing environments under various daily environmental conditions.
The Skitter Legs can really speed up your search for the hungrier bass by covering more water faster. It is a great solution for situations where there is miles of cover . They actually catch you more bass than the kicking legs because you cover more water, hook the short strikers, and sometimes they still get you the big bass also!
In many cases, you will do fine with just the Skitter Legs, especially if you are fishing slower or in a "stop & go" manner. But when you speed up to cover more water, often you will draw strikes from marginally aggressive fish that will target only the tantalizing legs gurgling behind the FROG. In mere seconds, you can slip on the Stinger Hook and throw back again to nail that fish. You may even continue fishing in that manner until most of your strikes begin to result in fish getting hooked on the big weedless front hook. Of course, positioned behind the FROG body, the upright double hook is amazingly weedless without any enhancements.
However, the addition of a piece of tubing that holds the hook horizontal with the water surface and keeps the point of the hooks positioned behind the FROG body even when stopped. This position insures that the FROG will not hang up when sitting still on matted vegetation or even when moving through emergent vegetation. In the photo above, you can see the clear plastic acetate "Spreader" positioned just behind the Skitter Leg that prevents it from entangling on the Stinger Hook by creating a wider gurgling path. Actually the Legs do not usually create a problem without the Spreader, especially the "stiffer" Action #2 Legs. But the distance of the Spread will also allow you to further adjust and vary the alternative actions of the legs by bending the Spreader equally on both sides but at varying distances from the center point as pictured in the two next photos below. It can actually even change the speed of the gurgle.
Pictured in the photo above, you can see that the Spreader is at its widest spread, and the gurgle will be wider, softer and higher speed. You can change it the least by bending a crease at the closest point to the edge equally on both sides.
In this photo above, the Spreader is at the minimum spread but with a wider angle for a somewhat wider spread, creating a wider spread than if the angle was straight back. You can make the bend at any location from this point to the edge and get varying degrees of action. At this point, the gurgle will be slower but more powerful because more of the leg will be involved in the action at any given speed, especially with the softer legs. By the way, the Skitter Leg / Stinger Hook Kit has two Spreaders in the Skitter Leg / Stinger Hook package. You can save one to make a few spares from the clear acetate border of your package, using a pair of scissors.
In the photo above you can see Designer Bass FROG™ Clone Series FROG #5 which is a Black & Yellow Poison Dart FROG, and it is also my favorite FROG to use with the Skitter Legs. This FROG also has the Stinger Hook "Texas Rigged" with the tendrils of a spinner bait trailer. With the Stinger Hook Texas Rigged, there is no need to use the Spreader unless you just want to adjust the gurgling action. The Texas Rigging prevents any chance of the legs from entangling on the hooks. Just be sure to remove the soft plastic from the hooks and away from the legs when not fishing. The soft plastic will "melt" the legs if left in contact before or after fishing, but they will not hurt them for just a day while wet or while fishing. Just don't forget to take them off.
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