By flipping his frogs, Kenny Covington is able to put his lure in places where other topwater lures just can’t go.
However, he’s not content to just put his frog into a tight spot — he wants to put it as far back into a tight spot as he can get it.
“That means I skip frogs a lot, too,” Covington said. “Skipping a frog is not hard, but it does take a lot of practice. Basically, if you can skip a rock on the water, you can skip a frog on the water, too.”
To skip a frog, Covington aims for a spot out in front of his target and makes an underhanded pitch or a low sidearm cast. His goal is to pitch or cast with enough force to give his frog enough momentum that it hits the water and then skips three or four times into a tight spot.
“Think about it from a fish’s perspective,” he said. “A lure skipping in is a lot less likely to spook a bass than a lure crashing down right on top of it.
“Birds skitter across the top of the water. Shad skip out of the water. Skipping mimics this very natural look and gives bass the heads up that food might be coming their way.”
In fact, Covington knows there are some spots where bass hide that he just can’t reach by flipping. Skipping is the only way.
“That’s why I don’t mind skipping a frog behind anglers flipping down a bank,” he said. “I don’t care how good they are: They’re not going to flip a bait as far back into the cover as a skipper can skip one in there.”
In a world of increasing fishing pressure, skipping allows Covington to catch bass that have rarely seen a lure, whether he finds himself alone on a bank or following a flotilla of flippers.
