Raising Fish with Poppers
Few lures bring anglers such unabashed joy as poppers. You can’t help but hold your breath as the rings from your last “pop” dissipate and wait a few tense seconds for the fish to react. When they do, the water erupts below the lure, and you grit your teeth while waiting the couple of heartbeats between seeing the strike and feeling it—and then you set the hook.
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The distinguishing characteristic of a popper is its wide, cupped mouth designed to catch water and send up a large splash. Depending on its size, a popper’s action can fool just about any fish from smallmouth bass to bluefin tuna.
In recent years, however, the popper seems to have taken a backseat in the topwater arsenals of inshore anglers as fishermen go all-in on walk-the-dog lures like the Doc. This is a mistake.
Topwater spooks are tremendous lures, but they aren’t a one-size-fits-all option for raising gamefish. In rough water, for example, a popper holds its position better without skipping across the surface. In a crosswind, it’s easier to work a popper effectively. When the fish are deep, a popper is better at drawing them to the surface.
The popper retrieve is straightforward: the angler simply snaps the rod firmly enough to make the lure’s cupped mouth throw water, but not so aggressively that the popper skips across the surface. Each pop is followed by a pause. Depending on the species and conditions, the pause length can vary from less than a second to between 10 and 15 seconds. In rough water, when targeting stripers, shorter pauses draw more strikes, while tuna fishing in calm conditions yields better results with longer pauses. Most hits come on the pause, but it’s important to wait to set the hook until the line comes tight and the rod begins to bend. Setting the hook when you see the strike will result in missed fish.
One of the newer poppers on the market is the Small Lure Company Mikros Pop designed by artist and lure builder Merv Rubiano. Merv took the craftsmanship behind his Strategic Angler stickbaits and brought it to a popper that’s well sized for blues and stripers inshore as well as mahi, yellowfin, and school bluefin offshore.
The Mikros Pop’s features include a specially curved head and body to increase cavitation and surface disturbance. An internal chrome insert provides added depth, while the stainless-steel rattles shift on the cast to improve distance and call in fish. The lure is through-wired and built to survive long battles with hard-fighting pelagics, and lifelike 3D eyes provide the finishing touches.
The lure can be fished with the pop-pause cadence of a traditional popper, or with a smooth, slow diagonal sweep of the rod, it will slide under the surface, kicking and leaving a bubble trail. It can also be walked, almost like a spook, by twitching the rod with the tip held straight up.
Colors include bunker, mahi, sand eel, hot pink, flying fish, and pearl white. The Mikros Pop weighs 1.4 ounces and is 5 inches in length. A final thoughtful touch is its 100-percent recyclable and compostable packaging to help reduce the plastic waste found around our oceans.
Proven Saltwater Poppers
For surfcasters in pursuit of striped bass and bluefish, few mass-produced plugs hold a candle to the long-distance casting Super Strike Little Neck Popper. It’s made in both floating and sinking models and comes in several sizes, ranging from 4 1/4 inches and 1 ounce, to 6 inches and 3 ounces. The cupped and slightly-angled face pushes a ton of water, regardless of the conditions; however, the sinking models do a fine job of displacing water in rough surf, while the floating models excel in a low swell and light chop.
When it comes to bringing big, pelagic fish like yellowfin tuna to the surface, offshore anglers reach for a large, noisy topwater like the Rapala X-Rap Magnum Xplode Popper. This through-wired plug is rear-weighted, so it casts a mile and sits naturally at rest, and its extra-bulbous head violently throws water to elicit powerful and visual strikes from deep-dwelling tunas.
A 5-inch, 1.5-ounce popper like the Jigging World Burst Popper or Tsunami Tidal Pro Popper are fan favorites for backwater stripers. They’re big enough to cull larger fish that are hanging among the schoolies, but small enough to maintain the interest of aggressive, under-slot fish. In addition to a cupped face, both feature internal rattles to call in fish from a distance or entice a strike in dark, roiled water.
Striped bass anglers are encouraged to replace the stock treble hooks on their poppers with inline single hooks, which minimize damage to the fish and lead to safer, quicker releases.
Related Content
Essential Plugs for Topwater Bluefish
Topwater Walkers for Striped Bass
Topwater Tips for Backwater Stripers
Source: https://onthewater.com/raising-fish-with-poppers
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