Scum Frog Launch Frog...a review

[Jaderose]

Been a bit since I went out so I took some time and went fishing today.  As the calendar now says June, I knew it was the beginning of my favorite season.  FROGGING!  Anyone that pays any attention to my posts at all know I am a HEAVY frogger.  I LOVE it and consider pretty much all other fishing techniques as just something to do until the frog bite turns on.  I am an unabashed Scum Frog fan.  I have all the others but 98.2% of the time, I have a SF Trophy Series tied on.  I picked up some of the new Launch Frog before the season started and took ONLY them out today to see how they compared.  I should also say that I refer to my style of frogging as "combat fishing".  There is nothing finesse about it.  I do not walk frogs between lily pads.  I throw heavy frogs out on heavy mats and bring them back in fits and hops to raise a ruckus.  The color or even appearance does NOT matter. 

The Launch Frog....You really can throw this thing a mile with very good accuracy.  Unfortunately, that only one of 2 things I liked about it.  The other was the hooks were very sticky.  With the exception of one lucky lady, all fish hooked were boated. 

I liked NOTHING else about it.  For one thing, it's WAAAAAY too Soft.  Dragging this thing across mats and over stumps would cause it to distort.  When it distorted, it picked up slime and debris.  This happened on EVERY cast. 

The weight system causes the nose to ride low in the water.  It did not glide over the top of the mats.  I had to keep the tip of my rod pretty high to keep from dragging in 20 lbs of muck with every cast.  If a fish even looked at it, it would foul the hooks and I would have to spend a couple of minutes picking it clean.  Every fish brought in an insane amount of muck with it because I was forced to keep my rod tip so high and couldn't get them up and ski'd over the top of the mat. 

The cast....they really do fly but it's a crap shoot on whether they land right side up.  If they land upside down, forget it.  You now have a mess.  SF brought the hooks out away from the body a little the way a lot of people modify their frogs.  I am not one of those people. 

I wanted to like this frog.  I really did.  I bought 5 of them and honestly have no idea what I will use them for.  I will most likely modify them a bit to see if they can be salvaged. 

I suppose if you like frogging pretty clean water, these will work just fine.  But not for me.  Will stick with my old tried and true SF Trophy Series.  Sure, the eyes come off and they are about as subtle as a hammer but they get the job done for me.  Time after time.

 

The other thing I will say about these is they do not have the same SOUND as the Trophy Series when they land after a high arc cast.  The Trophy's have a unique *SPLAT* that has caused many blowups for me as soon as the frog lands or alerts bass to find it and causes blow ups at first movement after landing.

 

*Addendum*  I'm not saying this is a bad product.  I'm just saying that this frog does not line up with my style of fishing.  It is another quality offering from Scum Frog and even though it's one of if not their most "premium" frog, it's still priced below most other brands.  

 

[TnRiver46]

Thanks for the review, do you like the scum frog rat? 

[Jaderose]

3 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Thanks for the review, do you like the scum frog rat? 

Been a few years since I've thrown one but I do remember them working just fine.  I haven't given up on the Launch, I just need to tweak it.  I will say one thing about it.  The hook up ratio was great!  My timing is usually rusty this early in the season but I nailed most blow ups I had today.  This thing has potential, it's just not there for me..yet

[PhishLI]

31 minutes ago, Jaderose said:

When it distorted, it picked up slime and debris.  This happened on EVERY cast. 

I agree.

 

[Jaderose]

2 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

I agree.

 

Yep......it seems we both had pretty much the same experience.  It frustrated me enough that I regretted NOT taking a Trophy Series but I wanted to give this thing a fair shake by not having the option.  That won't happen again.

[LrgmouthShad]

Thanks very much for your review. I was thinking of getting this frog but I think I’ll steer clear and go for trophy series instead. My only interest in frogging is  for real heavy, heavy stuff.

[HaydenS]

Didn't Lee Livesay win 2020 Guntersville with this frog?  I know he put a tungsten weight in it to make it heavier on the mat, but other than that I don't think he did anything else?  

Maybe it's supposed to look like a frog eating the mat? ?

[Brett's_daddy]

Maybe this frog just isn't suited to your style of frogging? Maybe it's better in light cover and open water? It's just there's something like 40 reviews of this frog on TW and about 98% of them love this frog.

[Jaderose]

3 hours ago, Brett's_daddy said:

Maybe this frog just isn't suited to your style of frogging? Maybe it's better in light cover and open water? It's just there's something like 40 reviews of this frog on TW and about 98% of them love this frog.

That is exactly the case.  I'm not saying it's defective or a bad product.  I'm saying that for what I do, this is not the best tool.  I think it's another quality offering from Scum Frog that simply does not match the job I want it to do.  I think in a more open water situation, this would be a winner and I think this is exactly what I will do with it.  This just gives me more froggin opportunities

[PhishLI]

3 hours ago, Brett's_daddy said:

Maybe this frog just isn't suited to your style of frogging?

Personal style has little to do with what has been described, which is lack of suitability for certain circumstances.

[ChrisD46]

*SF Trophy series for heavy mats and the SF Launch Frog for open water frogging .

[Swamp Rat]

I have never had any issues with the Launch Frog on heavy mats. Tried it up on Guntersville...no issues at all. Always have one tied on here in South Florida whether in the Everglades, Okeechobee, Istokpoga, Headwaters...never an issue. I have to issue a caveat...I am on Staff with American Baitworks, which owns Scum Frog as well as Snag Proof(been on Staff with Snag Proof since 1996), but will always admit when things aren't good about a product. I know the tour guys have had no issues either, but...if you are then like you said, tweak them until they work for you. The NEW Snag Proof products will be released at the Classic next week, and trust me...these are sweet. I have been fishing them a little while now and I am so thankful American Baitworks bought the company and is improving the product from what the last owners did. 

I will gladly answer any questions I can, but contacting the company is always best.

[Jaderose]

18 hours ago, Swamp Rat said:

I have never had any issues with the Launch Frog on heavy mats. Tried it up on Guntersville...no issues at all. Always have one tied on here in South Florida whether in the Everglades, Okeechobee, Istokpoga, Headwaters...never an issue. I have to issue a caveat...I am on Staff with American Baitworks, which owns Scum Frog as well as Snag Proof(been on Staff with Snag Proof since 1996), but will always admit when things aren't good about a product. I know the tour guys have had no issues either, but...if you are then like you said, tweak them until they work for you. The NEW Snag Proof products will be released at the Classic next week, and trust me...these are sweet. I have been fishing them a little while now and I am so thankful American Baitworks bought the company and is improving the product from what the last owners did. 

I will gladly answer any questions I can, but contacting the company is always best.

Ok.  I can only go with what I experienced using this frog over a period of about 6 hours on one lake in Northwest Missouri.  It seems at least one other person on here had much the same experience.  As I said above and have said for years, I am a Scum Frog fan and wanted very much to like this.  I bought 5 of them with the assumption that they would be great for me.  Right now, they are not.  I'm not a bait junky and I'm also not a big fan of having to make substantial changes to a bait to make it work for me.  I will, but frankly have better things to do.  I will, for the time being, go back to my favorite frog....The SF Trophy Series in Natural Black and Green.  I have around 20 of those...lol.  If others are having success with the Launch Frog...GREAT!  I want Scum Frog around for a long time!

[joshuaray83]

Related, but also unrelated question for you, @Jaderose: I got a few scum frogs on clearance at Bass Pro (the original only cost me like $1.80). I got a few Scum Dogs. Have you used those? And, if so, how do they compare to the Trophy Series?

[Jaderose]

8 hours ago, joshuaray83 said:

Related, but also unrelated question for you, @Jaderose: I got a few scum frogs on clearance at Bass Pro (the original only cost me like $1.80). I got a few Scum Dogs. Have you used those? And, if so, how do they compare to the Trophy Series?

I have a couple in my frog box but I don't know the last time I threw them.  As I recall the Dog has a bit of an upturned nose to help it walk a bit better.  If this is something you wish to do with it, trim the legs and it will work great.  I also think it's a smidge lighter than the Trophy.  With all that said, I remember it being reasonably comparable to the Trophy series.  Especially at the $2.88 price I just saw on them.  You did good and I'll probably pick some up at that price.  Throw with confidence!

[ChrisD46]

The Scum Frog Launch & Trophy series  are two of the best frogs going . *Watch a few JT Kenny videos to learn the attributes of both better .

[Deephaven]

On 6/3/2021 at 3:10 PM, Jaderose said:

That is exactly the case.  I'm not saying it's defective or a bad product.  I'm saying that for what I do, this is not the best tool. 

Couldn't agree more.  I think it is an offering to appeal to frog users of other brands instead of to appeal to those that are already SF fans for how they fish.