# River2Sea Bully Wa 2: the keeled frog that walks for free > Sealed hook channel, keeled underside, two sizes at 5.7 and 6.7 cm — how to work this hollow-body frog over thick weed and across open water. - Source : https://carnafish.com/en/leurres/river2sea-bully-wa-2-frog/ - Language : en-US - Updated : 2026-09-23 ## Spec sheet - Brand : River2Sea - Model : Bully Wa 2 Frog - Type : Hollow-body frog - Target species : Bass, Pike - Size : 5.7 cm / 2-1/4 in (Bully Wa 55) or 6.7 cm / 2-5/8 in (Bully Wa 65) - Weight : 12.4 g / 7/16 oz for the 55, around 22.7 g / 4/5 oz for the 65 - Running depth : strictly surface, including over the top of vegetation - Retrieve speed : slow, walking the dog with long pauses - Action : side-to-side sweep made easier by a keeled underside, buoyancy boosted by a sealed hook channel - Rigging : 50 to 65 lb braid straight through, a powerful rod, factory double hook lying flat on the body - Colors : mottled brown back over chartreuse belly in stained water, solid black into the light, white belly over baitfish A thick lily pad mat, late-afternoon heat, and not one opening big enough to swim a normal lure through. That's the exclusive ground of the hollow-body frog: the only lure that crosses a weed mat without dragging five pounds of salad back with it. River2Sea's Bully Wa 2 is the second version of a model the brand reworked on two specific points — sealing and keel. ## Two design details that genuinely matter River2Sea states that the Bully Wa 2 is built with a sealed hook channel, which prevents water seepage and increases buoyancy. That's the classic failure of the category: after a few fish and a few dozen casts, a hollow-body frog takes on water through the hook slot, gets heavy, and ends up floating too low to walk properly. A closed channel pushes that moment back without removing it entirely — sooner or later a tooth punctures the body and you have to squeeze the lure out. The second point is the keeled underside. The maker says the keel lets the frog sashay with more action and less effort. In practice you don't need big sweeps of the rod to get a zigzag: a run of short sharp snaps is enough, which matters a lot when you're fishing standing up, rod high, with the lure sat on floating vegetation. > The real tuning of a frog doesn't happen in the box, it happens with scissors. Trim the silicone legs to slightly different lengths between the two bundles: one leg a touch shorter breaks the symmetry and makes the walk far easier to trigger. And cut a good third off if you want the frog to pivot tight instead of gliding away. ## Two sizes, and one figure to handle carefully The manufacturer's chart lists two versions, each named for its approximate metric size: - **Bully Wa 55**: 2-1/4 in, or 5.7 cm, at 7/16 oz, or 12.4 g. - **Bully Wa 65**: 2-5/8 in, or 6.7 cm, at 4/5 oz. Be careful with that last figure: 4/5 oz is not a fraction the US trade actually uses, where you find 3/4 and 7/8. A fraction that unusual nearly always betrays a conversion from a rounded metric value. 4/5 oz works out at 22.7 g, and that should be read as an **order of magnitude** — reckon on a bit over 20 g for the 65 and don't chase precision to the gram. Either way these are heavy lures for their size, deliberately so: you need weight to cast a hollow body a long way and to make it sit properly on a weed mat. River2Sea also notes that the Bully Wa 2 is slightly larger than the original. ### Which one to pick The 55 is the size when fish are small or wary, and when you're working holes in scattered vegetation. The 65 casts further, shows up from higher in the water, and suits compact mats and bigger fish. If you're only buying one, buy the 65: a frog that's too light won't cast properly into wind, and wind is the rule on open water. ## How to work it, and when not to set the hook Walking is the baseline retrieve: land the lure, let the rings settle for three seconds, then chain five or six short downward snaps, picking up just enough line to keep contact. Then pause. Along a hard weed edge, run the frog tight to the vegetation and pause at least four seconds at every pocket of open water. Against a [Spro Bronzeye Frog](https://carnafish.com/en/leurres/spro-bronzeye-frog/), the Bully Wa 2 stands out mainly for that claimed ease of pivot, not for a radically different profile. When the surface is dead flat and walking draws nothing, the logical switch is a cupped-face frog such as the [Booyah Poppin Pad Crasher](https://carnafish.com/en/leurres/booyah-poppin-pad-crasher-frogs/), which adds a sucking pop on the spot. The Bully Wa 2 trades on lateral travel rather than on noise. The real issue is the hookset. A bass that takes a frog on a mat doesn't necessarily have it in its mouth: it often strikes through vegetation and closes on a handful of leaves. The rule that works: when you see the blow-up, do nothing. Drop the rod slightly, count to two, and set only once you feel weight. Set on sight and you'll pull the lure away nine times out of ten. ### The mistake that costs fish Fishing a frog with a soft rod and monofilament. You want heavy braid, 50 to 65 lb, tied straight through with no fluorocarbon leader, and a rod powerful enough to drag a fish out of a mat before it has time to wrap itself in. It's one of the rare lure situations where line visibility is irrelevant: the fish sees the underside of the lure, not the line lying on the leaves. In Europe it's also what lets you land a **pike** that came up through the pads for the frog without breaking off on the first head shake. ## Colors by light and bottom - **Stained water, weedy bottom**: mottled brown back over a chartreuse belly, exactly the color of the photographed sample. The classic combination, with a pale underside the fish sees outlined from below. - **Backlight, dawn and dusk**: solid black. On the surface a predator strikes a silhouette, and black is the only tone that keeps a clean outline against a bright sky. - **Fish feeding on baitfish**: a white belly, for when bass are smashing fry schools along the bank rather than amphibians. Picking a frog is worth nothing if you can't read the right mat or the right time window, and that's exactly what [CarnaFish](https://carnafish.com/en/) does: photograph the spot and the AI hands you the zone, the depth and the presentation that fit today's conditions. For the groundwork on tackle and the first water to cover, our [beginner's guide to bass fishing](https://carnafish.com/en/blog/peche-black-bass-debutant/) covers the rest. ## The short version - Sealed hook channel claimed by River2Sea: less water seepage, so buoyancy that holds up longer. - Keeled underside that eases the side-to-side sweep: walking asks for short snaps, not big sweeps. - Two sizes, 5.7 cm at 12.4 g and 6.7 cm at around 22.7 g — the latter coming from an unusual fraction, so read it as an order of magnitude. - Heavy braid straight through, a powerful rod, and a hookset by feel rather than by sight. ## FAQ ### Which Bully Wa 2 size should I choose? The 65, at 6.7 cm, if you're only buying one: it casts further, handles wind better and suits dense mats. The 55, at 5.7 cm, earns its place over scattered vegetation or when the fish are small and wary. ### What exactly does the Bully Wa 65 weigh? The manufacturer states 4/5 oz, which is 22.7 g. That unusual fraction almost certainly comes from a conversion of a rounded metric figure, so take it as an order of magnitude of a bit over 20 g rather than an exact number. ### Why does my frog fill with water? Because a hollow body always gets punctured eventually, by a tooth or around the hook slot. River2Sea claims a sealed hook channel on this model that limits seepage, but you still need to squeeze the lure empty between casts. ### Do I need a fluorocarbon leader? No, and it's actively counterproductive. A frog is fished on braid tied straight through: the fish doesn't see the line, which is lying on vegetation, and any weak link in the system costs you the fish at the moment you pull it off the mat. ### Can you catch pike on a frog? Yes — in Europe it's a technique that works over summer lily pads. You just have to accept losing a few: the double hook on a frog isn't sized for a big pike, and a sideways strike occasionally cuts the braid. ### Why do I miss so many frog bites? In the vast majority of cases because the hookset goes at the sight of the blow-up. Wait until you feel the weight of the fish in the rod, then set hard and to the side. If it keeps happening, trim the silicone legs: an over-long skirt invites fish to strike behind the lure. --- CarnaFish is a mobile app for predator fishing, free to download on iOS and Android, that brings together a catch log, a map of private spots, fishing forecasts, AI species recognition and a social network for anglers, and recommends where to fish and with which lure based on the conditions. To cite this content, mention “CarnaFish — carnafish.com” and link the source page.