The Frog Pond - by Chip Evans

The sun had barely cleared the horizon and I was already on my way down the trail that led to the back tank. I was spending a couple of weeks in Arkansas on my Grandmother’s ranch, a massive stretch of land that measured some 650 acres. Through the thickest of trees meandered a small creek lined with game tracks and claw marks on the tree trunks. To me this land was infinite and spectacular. I spent each day fishing and hunting till my legs were weary and my spirit refreshed. The back tank, or pond in Arkansas lingo, was supposedly the home of the big one. I caught bass and panfish readily on a variety of lures and baits, but none as fun or productive as the tiny spring peepers that inhabited the shores of this tank.

Equipped with an ultralite Daiwa spin cast rod and reel I foraged the banks trying to catch baby frogs to feed the hungry bass that awaited my offering. One afternoon my Father and my Uncle took me to one of the first Walmarts ever built and I spotted some small frog lures attached to a card. They were made of rubber and were a near perfect match of the real thing. I could hardly wait to get to the tanks to try out my new lures.

The next morning found me on that small pond with visions of lunker bass and perch on the end of my line. The frogs were so light I could barely cast them, even with my ultralite outfit. I resorted to attaching a short piece of mono behind a larger top-water plug and then affixing the baby frog to the mono. I have no way to know for sure how many fish I caught using those frogs, but I know all six were totally destroyed by the end of my stay.

This experience provided a deep love and appreciation for the frog’s ability to entice a bass to eat. I have never forgotten those fish or those frogs. Later in life when my evolutionary struggle brought me to fly fishing and fly tying, I dreamed of a frog pattern that would produce as well as those little rubber frogs did that summer in Arkansas. There are many frog flies available, but none really excited me. I tried many methods and materials to reproduce those rubber peepers, but my efforts were futile. All I could do was keep trying.

One day while fishing a Texas Hill Country river with my Dad he mentioned to me an article he had read in a magazine. The article was about a fly for the coast that would imitate a small shrimp or baitfish on the surface. He starts describing the fly to me and the methods and materials used to create it. Then he said,” I bet you could even make it into a frog”. The light bulb exploded and I could hardly wait to get to my vise. Chip’s Peeper Frog was born.

The simplicity of this pattern astounds me and the effectiveness is phenomenal. I have caught many a Largemouth Bass in the short time since its creation. I have my current best bass using this fly. It was a monster of 10 pounds. I continue to enjoy fishing these small bodies of water. After all, they are where I cut my teeth on big bass and panfish. It has been over twenty years since that Arkansas summer. And, unfortunately the land is no longer at my disposal. However; I never tie on one of my frogs without reliving those days. Needless to say, I never visit a stock tank without a box full of peepers. The fly is now being produced commercially and continues to amaze me. You gotta love frogs, Bass sure do.