Frech W-Y Popper

[Eric Roach]

This is a through-wired version of the W-Y. The dimensions are specific to Frech's diagram, but I had to guess a little on the lead slug weights. They ended up about .75 oz each, and the total weight (hooked but not epoxied) was a hair under 4 oz.

I fired it into some heavy surf to see how it popped. It obviously needs to keep moving to stay up top but it wasn't a struggle.

I brought it out to a measured field to see what kind of distance I could get out of it. It cast between 80 and 100 yards on a standard overhead thump.

It wobbled noticeably on the majority of casts. I'd like to think this popper could consistently cast at 100 yards and maybe cross 110 yards or so if the wobble were eliminated or at least reduced.

I'm going to try to drop the weight a shade and get the slugs a little closer to mid-line to null the wobble. It might help to reduce the hook sizes a bit -- the 4/0 treble and 6/0 siwash are pretty big.

If anyone else has any ideas to improve cast-ability, I'd love to hear them.