Originally Posted by oldboot
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The technique in question here is utilising a zoom horny toad as a vehicle, nothing else.
In other words, barra are not identifying it as a frog. Frogs do not move that fast.
It is purely a speed trigger matched with subtle sound and vibration that makes it very hard to resist.
Combine this with Barra's inbuilt natural aggressive nature, in which at times will not let anything escape it, creates a lethal combination.
To say that a fizzer, or similar with a blade etc will do the same job means you have not been down this path yourself Lyndon.
If you had, you would know that fishing extremely shallow water in pressured impoundments requires ultra quiet lure spashdown to avoid spooking wary fish, combined with a subtle but exciting presentation that has two components that
do the following.
1. More or less force barra to strike regardless of its mood or hunger.
2. Push a Barra to the very edge of its capabilities in which they become airborn on the strike and swim faster than they ever need to in order to eat.
3. Excite barra to a point where it forgets where it is, forgets its own survival mechanism and exposes itself to extreme dangers it normally wouldnt.
You have suggested that we went out there and in "one arvo discovered the toad because our lures fouled weed and we wound it in fast".
What I can tell you is an incredible, long thought out process that required some serious banging of heads, making protoypes and long periods of time on the water.
I tried blades, tango's, scumfrogs all the known topwaters I could find, and some others that one of my mates made, as well as some of my own but I knew they wouldnt work because of the environment, ie. shallow weedy string water and super wary fish in alert mode. I still tried it though to be sure.
It had to be and upward semi exposed hook, a super strong one at that but light enough in gauge to pin fish. It also needed a slim profile in order to swim fast and track straight. It also had to be light and physically small in order to minimise splashdown. It also had to have nothing to foul it underneath like hooks, and be able to right itself upon landing or be able to work right side up or down.
It had to be able to be pulled through and over the top of serious weed growth without fouling to maximise exposure. It still had to be able to hook barra, a species notorious for its skill and difficulty to hook. (esp on weedless worm hooks!) The result was a hook up rate better than I have ever seen on topwater Barra.
My discoveries are made through a process of elimination, work ethic and time on the water. Anyone who knows me knows that. That way you test and challenge recognised thoeries.
I dont watch other peoples "dvd's" and take their idea's as you have suggested. I bounce idea's off friends, identify with them which in turn gives me confidence in what I am doing.
Thats the only bit that annoyed me about your post. You dont have a dam clue what process we went through to come up with the toad to do the job, yet you found it prudent to say I copied it and dont give credit to pioneers.
Im not worried about anything else you said, water off a ducks back, but the thought process and physical effort involved was monumental.
Here are some pics of the track we went down during the discovery, some of these prototypes are crude, some of them never made it back to the boat.
The ones that made it back to the boat were eliminated, the ones that got eaten were the ones we went home and went, why did it eat it?
To cut a long story short, the zoom horny toad had the right attributes, and became the money bait.
Cheers
Jas
....... Anyone got some more 
