Career Highlights

6-Time BassMaster Classic qualifier
3-Time FLW Championship qualifier
18 Top-10 Finishes

Dean's Quick Tip: Late March through june is prime frog fishing time throughout much of the country when bass can be found in shallows, flooded cover. I use a Quantum Tour Edition PT baitcast reel with the 7.0:1 Burner gears, a 7-0 medium-heavy Quantum PT Signature Dean Rojas frog rod with 65-pound test Izorline braid and a SPRO Bronzeye Frog 65.

When the lure is around cover like bushes, willows or grass, work it slowly to keep it in the strike zone. Only speed it up when it's in open water. That's when you can retrieve is so it looks nervous and like it's trying to get away. Strikes can be really explosive with this bait, and sometimes bass will hit is so hard that they knock the lure up in the air rather than engulf it. Sometimes it's best to set the hook as soon as you see the strike, but as a general rule, count to two (one thousand one...one thousand two) after the strike before you set the hook. If you're still missing fish, try bending the hooks out a little to get a bigger bite. You'll get snagged a little more often, but you'll hook more fish, too.

Rojas Consistent Despite Hectic Schedule in 2006

from Bassmaster.Com article

If asked to name the top full-time, two-tour pro of 2006, a lot of BassFans might come up with Steve Kennedy. The Alabaman was runner-up to Mike Iaconelli in the Angler of the Year (AOY) race and won the Wal-Mart Open at Beaver Lake on the FLW Tour. However, depending on which measuring stick you decide to use, the nod for best double-duty performer could go to Dean Rojas. From a pure points perspective, the Texas veteran was better than anybody. He didn't win an event, but he ended up 5th and 12th in the Elite Series and FLW Tour points, respectively, and finished in the top half of the field in 18 of 22 events (including the Bassmaster Classic).

"I went into this year just trying to be consistent on both sides," he said. "That was very difficult to do at certain tournaments because you didn't have time for homework and you had to fly by the seat of your pants.

"I tend to do pretty well in those situations, but being under the gun like that added to the stress. On the other hand, when I look at the whole picture, it was very satisfying. I was in the hunt for the AOY the whole season on the BASS side, and I was pretty solid on the FLW side too."

Anxious to Win Again
If Rojas has any regrets about the 2006 season, it's that he was unable to win any of those 22 tournaments. Both of his tour-level victories occurred in Bassmaster Top 150 events in 2001, including the record-setting blowout at Lake Toho, where he set all-time records for heaviest single-day bag (45-02) and 4-day total (108-12, which was broken this year by Preson Clark at Santee Cooper).

He's anxious to experience that feeling of triumph again.
"That's my biggest disappointment," he said. "With all those events and coming as close as I did, things just didn't go well for me on the final day. Something always fell apart – I'd lose a key fish, I'd make a wrong decision, or something else would happen. I just couldn't get things to go my way.

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