Yeh .... interesting this one.
I don't do a great deal of popper fishing for bass , toga or barra .... my preference has been stick baits & fizzers - but the one thing that I picked up on was that once I started to use bigger (85-100mm) stick baits for bass / toga my hook up rate & retention increased significantly ...... my guess is the larger hooks .
But back to the problem - Is it hookup rates or retention or even technique.
I used that popper last weekend .... got 3 hook ups - but the small barra got rid of them real quickly during their jumps .
Anyhow ...... I did some upgrades & this is what I came up with Attachment 60526 ....... there should be great penetration with the finer wire decoys plus double spitting them should give a better radius on the hook swing & reduced torque on a hooked fish.
Chris