Lure of the Month / bi-week, bi-weekly curious - Part Five - Something Cuttyhunk?
 

Need a plug for the 5th Lure of the Month / bi-week, bi-weekly curious,. Perhaps something with a Cuttyhunk flair is appropriate seeing a blast from the past this am.

How's about the Cuttyhunk Popper. Although the originals had more of a bevel to the front, here's a nice wood example that Finatic made. He loaded it with sliding balls for weight and noise. Nice work Russ.

Dunno if it counts as one, but I've never fished rigged eels, and hope to this year. Would be interesting to learn a bit more about techniques on how to make them, but more importantly how to fish them.

in the words of bonnie, hostest with the mostest. if it ain't blue and white, it won't work.

Let's talk poppers.

Everyone knows they're for googans, right? Well maybe not a full sized polaris in the canal........that's a man's plug.....but otherwise aren't poppers just stuff you buy when you don't know what or when to fish?

Maybe not.

Some years ago it started bothering me that every time I heard a story of some novice fisherman catching a massive bass (several over 50 lbs) it was always during the day, on a popper. Well "DUUUUUUUHHHHH", you say, "that's when and what novices fish with". True enough, but that doesn't explain away a 50 lb bass eating a poorly worked plug under the noonday sun does it? What's with that?

So, I do a lot of daytime boat plugging, and this thought always nagged at me, but naturally I never acted on it. Until one day I shared it with Flap, specifically a story about a local casual fisherman who got a 50 on a chrome creek chub. So next trip Flap shows up with a chrome creek chub and starts throwing it. He worked it steady with long sweeps....pop, pop, pop,........KABOOM........35lb fish! Over the next several years he fished poppers every time we went. Creek chubs, Gibbs, and eventually his own. I saw him take 3-4 fish over 30 lbs (and many in the 20s) on them, often during the slowest doldrum-type days.

Still not convinced? Here is something else to ponder. Look back at old plug builders and note what they built back then. Big swimmers, big flaptails,.....and big poppers. Clearly there was a demand for BIG poppers.......clearly there was a reason for that demand. You think that reason no longer exists, or have we just forgotten why?

So here are some poppers.

First the old stuff

Fishmaster...... Cuttyhunk
Bluestreak...... Capt'n Bill
Gibbs polaris ...... Atom 40
......Gibbs

Then some plastic (the Capt'n Bill on top is for scale)

Creek chub ....... Troublemaker?
Yozuri....... Atom
Smack it....... Superstrike
Rebel ........ Pili

So, like everyone else, what I know about using these plugs is infantile and fragmented.

I've fished the superstrike seriously. The 2 3/4 oz plug is probably the king of modern poppers. Casts great (better than the larger version) works great, and can be slowed and swum like a swimmer. Usually I swim it 5-6 feet, pause and pop, let it drop a bit, then swim it another 5-6 feet. You can also drop them deep and slowly swim them back up.
Probably they work at night, but I can't say I've tried it.

The Pili is also a great bass plug, I don't know why, it pops poorly and doesn't swim. It is fragile and breaks when it hits a rock. But there is something about the way it rolls on its side when worked, or maybe the subtleness of its pop that makes it a very good plug.

The creekchub we have talked about. The Troublemaker is a plug a friend I fish with likes, it floats and can be worked very slowly and gently as well. I can't bring myself to try one. I've seen him take 20-25lb bass on them.

The atom shown is a bluefish plug, but atom also made a very fat version. I've heard guys used to like these for bass, and I think the plug could be swum, but never fished one. Likewise, the Rebel had a cult following. Again it could be swum. I remember hearing that some experts fished these at night as their "go to" plug. There is also mention by R Germani in "Reading the Water" about using these plugs at night when fishing rough conditions with a cross sweep, because they would hold in waves better than plastic swimmers.

The Smack It is a high quality plug that I use in small sizes for schoolies. I recall a post a few years back by a novice who caught a 50" bass the first time he ever tried fishing at night on one of these plugs. Hopefully someone has since set him straight so he knows not to use poppers in the night.......right?

As for the big old school poppers..........well this year we'll begin to find out just what those old guys knew :uhuh:

Excellent and very informative George. Bravo. :kewl:

I've used poppers and tin at night for many years, just can't knock the googan out of me. :grins:

The Smack it is very successful on the beachfront at Crane's beach on the north shore...Brian o'Connor the self proclaimed mayor of Crane's is a big Smack-it advocate... I make a wooden version that does well with balls inside

The Cuttyhunk Popper, in Squid Pink and Yellow, properly worked, is a go to for day or night, if there are any squid around.
Bonnie, The Hostess with the mostest, should stick to hostessing, cause the Blue and White is a pass off for a Pogie or other bait fish.
Again, it isn't so much the color as the way the plug is worked.

We growed up on Cuttyhunk at the same time so I can say that and you are correct, she be a great hostess.

The guys that fished skin plugs used the eelskins with the blue side out and rigged the skin short to look like a herring or pogie.
If you want to fish for big fish, rig a big bait. Take a big plug, like a Goo Goo Eye swimmer, drill it end to end to give a water supply to the eel skin, rig the skin full length, dark side out and drag that through your favorite spot, night or day. Be prepared. Don't worry about a tail hook cause the big fish will hit the bait by the head!!!!

We proved that one night. Took over fifty fish over 20 pounds, all on the front hook of an eelskin rig. We used one rig with a tail hook and caught all small on the tail hook rig and all over 20 on the front hook rig.

Note to John R. I am trying to remember but I think I posted about
rigging eels one time a few years back. Maybe you can check your Archives. If you can't find it I will write it again.

I love the atom polaris. thing is indestructable. It deffinately has brought me a stray fish during the night when nothing else would work. It's like 3 plugs in one

So how do you work it if you don't mind sharing?

Numbskull thanks for posting this. Your experience benefits someone like me.

yeah thanks for sharing that george really informative post. This year I will make it a point to try a big popper in the canal, they are next on my build list.

Ya ever watch a Squid working on small baitfish? They dart left and right and squirt as they grab the bait fish on the surface, dart left and right, pause, dart and squirt and splash.
I have watched some folks working poppers who drag that sucker six feet at a time, splashing all over the place. What kind of bait fish swims like that?
Remember, you are making a presentation of a nice sweet Squid or bait fish so make it look real!!!!
I had a guy casting live eels one time that insisted on pulling the eel back to the boat so fast it would spin!!! Never seen an eel swim like that. Needless to say, he caught zero fish!!!!

Thank nor-easter, not me.
I have not, in fact, ever considered using a popper to imitate a squid. Makes sense, though, particularly with a semi- level floating style plug like the original cuttyhunk popper (no weight in it). Also suggests a way to use them at night, something I could see trying particularly with a full moon.
Cool.

Man I love those nights so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face. Calm water with minimal fire, and big fish just crushing poppers, right up to the rod tip. What a rush as all your other senses kick in !

"You think that reason no longer exists, or have we just forgotten why?"

I think part of the reason for the larger plugs was because the saltwater fishing gear typically being used at the time could not cast lighter payloads well. Maybe someone who's tried using the older surfcasting gear can comment...

numbskull...i think i may be that 'novice' you mentioned with the smack-it nighttime adventure...true, first time using that plug at night yielded a nice fish...and since that summer early am fish, i have used it many times at night with good results...googan plug or not, they are effective...

Superstrike 2-3/8 oz sinking popper is one of my go to nighttime plugs, A couple of pops when it hits the water then swim it slow for a ways, then another pop. I always pop my darters to start with also. It makes a difference sometimes.

This is a Lucky Louie plug that I got on the first Cuttyhunk trip many moons ago. It was from GB's family's house. (There were literally hundreds of old plugs hanging from wire all around the house. VB would have had a heyday there. As for the Lucky Louie, Capt Chet thought it might have been a salmon plug that the old Cuttyhunk captains liked to use. Anybody know this plug?

predecessor to the J plug?

Numbskull- My Godfather's friend would always take him out fishing along the Elizabethans. Neither are great fishermen I would say. They just know to fish poppers along the rocks. They have caught TONS of bass, big bass. And the one guy, Butterbean they called him, once caught a giant fish on one. He brought it home but only had a bathroom scale. So he weighed himself then weighed him holding the bass. The bass weighed roughly 65lbs....

My favorite poppers are the OLD plastic Atom 3 oz poppers. I still have a couple that have caught tons of fish. And they also swim like a SS. One night at the narrow river during a full moon I caught bass to twenty lbs on them swimming them. It was the only thing they would eat...

Oh yeah, that guy who caught the monster bass got it on a 3oz atom. just talked to my godfather about it...

For the most part ,,, No longer exists ... smaller thinner plug profiles are in because we are mainly imitating sand eels and spike mackerel .. There are no pogeys so why imitate them .. When's the last time a harbor filled with pogeys and died from lack of oxigen due to high numbers ? Talking with Rockfish 9 about this today. Talk to a real old guy like Angler #1 he'll tell you about back in the day how you could hear the Silver Hake (whatever those are) coming down the canal before you could see them .. Then you'd see the Silver Hake all skittering(big popper?) on top of the water trying to get the hell out .. I remember in my short yrs. seeing the canal loaded full of squid . All the plugs hanging in the bait shops now are blue,green,mackerel . If you need a Squid color your screwed, but who's going to need one of those ?? Yea ,,, sadly enough the need no longer exisist for the most part .. Only bright spot is we can bring back herring imatations due to latest conservation efforts . More striper conservation ? I think the whole eco system needs an overhaul . Gotta feed em ..