[numbskull]

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