Poppers

[Marc Z]

Saltheart,
Excellent post on poppers. I also fish a teaser when fishing a popper and will agree that you definately catch more fish because of the teaser, about 60-40 popper to teaser ratio. Have caught some good sized fish on the teaser too!!!! The only thing is that when in a blitz, now I take the teaser off because it's a pain trying to get 2 fish landed and off when you know there is a blitz going on in front of you. When fishing around other people, I tend to do better I believe it is because of my retreive. Especially with bass, but even with bluefish I use a very slow retreive with just average "pops" and some swimming of the plug and I think this entices more strikes and definately more hookups than someone who pops hard and retreives really fast. I think the slow retreive allows the fish to hit more than once if missed and the fish actually gets pissed off that he missed it and comes back for more. I always use a single tail hook and still catch plenty of fish, I also leave on the belly hook and actually most bass hit the belly than the tail anyway, but the single tailhook is easier especially in a blitz because all you need to do is get one hook out rather than a treble. The single hook of course is also easier on the fish. As for plugs, I love the Gibbs type of plug, it casts far, has good swimming action and pops well, but for cost the Creek Chub is also a great plug, it also casts well and I don't think I have had one break yet, in fact most of the plug fish I have caught in my life have been on the Creek Chub.
My only problem is that I love to catch fish on plugs so much, that I think I sometimes sacrifice the bigger fish just to see a fish crush a popper. I have made a vow this year to use more swimmers and bucktails to get under the small fish.
Oh, as for teasers, I use red gills and store bought clousers and deceivers, lighter colors during day, and darker at night. Do you use the black over white day and night???????? Is this a larger profile type teaser you use???
Again, good post, haven't seen one like this from you in a while.
MZ