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Great Article....love lessons from the pioneers of bass bug fishing.

1. Smaller diameter flies make a lot of sense and I will experiment more with them...I always thought it was the sound of the gurgle from the fly that stimulated strikes; which is more pronounced with larger tied flies, again I am a novice to the bass bug-gin technique and still learning. I find at night, listening to the deer hair bugs moving thru the water has a more deeper gurgle, bloop... with foam/cork poppers has a higher popping pronounce tone. Taps bugs cast much easier that deer hair frogs, more aerodynamic during casting

2. Tryin to figure out which rod is the best rod to throw deer hair bugs. I have several Shakespeare rods, some solid some hollow with different taper designs a 7' 9" Shakespeare Presidential Wonder rod and 8' 6" Presidential wonder rod...I find the 7' 9" Presidential (Kwik-Taper) fiberglass rod throws and cast much better with bulky bass bugs, it loads better. As bad as I cast, I can easily cast any line from a 6wt to 9 wt line rather well with it...it rated for a 7/8 line, that's what I like about these glass rods. The 8" 6" wonder rod is a action taper and it is a 8 wt and cast only a 8/9 well ... I have a standard tapers 9 ' wonderod and it a cast 7 wt line and cast only a 7/8 and harder to to cast. I have a Phillipson that is rated for 7wt and cast 7-9 wt line well but doesn't say what taper it is on the rod. When I dry cast them with with a bug in the bask yard they cast well. opnce the bugs get waterlogged it is a diferent story with cast ing and I find the shorter rod works better. My 8wt Fenwick cast a 9wt line great with smaller size bugs and is my back up rod...Still confused a little on his article on standard -action -kwik taper...on glass rods, which is the best to use??? right now my 7'9" wonderglass rod with kwik taper cast the best. My 7'6" wonder rod is my pan fish rod cast 4-7 wt line great

An article from a sister website I found very informative. It discusses conventional baits, but you can relate this information to deer hair bass bugs strategies...I think after reading this I am fishing my bugs way too fast...

Many of us have tried them, and chances are those of us who didn't catch many fish with them haven't touched them since! I'm talking about those big hollow soft rubber-bodied top waters that we know as Scum Frogs and Snag proof Tournament Frogs (or similar baits). There are two main reasons why these baits often make a quick trip back to the bottom of the tackle box. One, you're not getting too many bites, and two, you're missing too many fish, or a combination of both. Let's take a closer look at these problems, and I will outline some ways of how to get around them.
You've taken ten casts, and now you're ready to change baits yet again. Chances are you're just working that frog a little too fast. If you're fishing the right stuff (thick weed beds or lily pads) then you need to slow down your retrieve.
What a lot of guys like to do is skip the frog along as if it were in a frantic run to get away from a predator. Now logically, that seems like the correct approach, right? Wrong! While you may get "some" bites doing this, you will miss out on the better quality fish by retrieving the bait quickly like this.
Simply put, big bass are big lazy couch potatoes. They will sometimes be in a chasing mood, but most of the time, if they are hiding in the green stuff, they often aren't very active. They just sit around waiting for a nice easy meal to munch on. They hide to ambush prey as well, but the bigger fish still won't likely chase down a quick moving bait. It will just zoom over their head and they will just sit and wonder what all that commotion was.
What I like to do is pop, or twitch the bait once or twice, then stop for a few seconds and repeat. When my bait comes to a pocket, weed edge, lily pad or something else different to key on, I will let it sit, and sit, and then sit some more! I will often let that frog sit there for as long as 15-30 seconds and sometimes up to a minute. Trust me, it is well worth the wait!
Now here is the important part, if there hasn't been a blow up by now, I will just barely twitch it without moving the bait much at all. This will make the legs quiver a little, and most often this is where I will get a big strike.
What you need to realize here is that when retrieving these lures, if there is a fish in the area, he has to have time to hear or see the bait, then swim over to the source of the commotion, then inspect it some more, and then decide whether or not to hit it. Big fish can be very fussy that way.
If that frog seems too quick for him to chase down he will often they will turn his head in search of an easier meal. They prefer weak or injured food, not marathon runners! These fish "know" that they might be able to catch this thing, but at the same time could probably just sit and wait for one that is slow or injured and spend a 10th the energy for the same rewards. They are very smart and conservative like that. They don't grow that large by being stupid and inefficient hunters.
So in summary, here is a simple formula to help you improve your strike percentage with frogs: FISHING FROGS SLOW=BIG FISH! This principle can be applied not just to frogs, but many other top water baits as well ....