surface success rates

[warrior]

being a surface fan for barra and bass ,i use this method as much as possible,even during winter in the right conditions,my prob is and was talking to nagg on the water last week is the hookup to landing fish rate isnt too flash,i am modifing my poppers now to have a single hook on the tail ring to help with better penetration ,have any of you fishoes got any advise or methods you use to help with succesful landing of fish to hookup.we did have a small group of posts on another thread but there has to be more surface fanatics out there, it is coming up to some real good times HELP cheers AL

[NAGG]

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

[vet]

I have had good success using the scorpic hooks with the large prong facing downwards, much better hook up rate with poppers. cheers scott.

[warrior]

have you got any pics of your setup scott, are they the hooks with one large hook on the treble

[Bladeca]

I'm not sure if this is any use on Barra but I was on some website where they used alot of poppers for big fish in the states (i think) and one guy had replaced the back hook with a single jig assist setup. He said that he had a lot better rate of hookup and getting them to the boat.

Glenn

[NAGG]

Sometimes ya just have to laugh

Attachment 60527



Here is a mod that I tried on Borumba Toga last summer & threw a few times during the rise at Mondy back in April - Unproven atm

Chris

[.:::stotty:::.]

I have used singles on anthax's before in mackay, we had to many to count hits and my mate and i pulled hooks several times. In the end i landed 3, and he landed 0. I switched to singles and missed a few more hook ups but landed 3/5.

Also a mate, Isaac is using 2 singles on roosta poppers atm for queenys and its proving succesful.

The twin split ring idea isnt new.

[NAGG]

The twin split ring idea isnt new.

No it's not ...... but it might be for those reading this thread .

chris

[warrior]

with the double split ring does it put the middle hook back into the area of the back treble making it catch each other on the pause looking at how long it is i would think it does?

[NAGG]

with the double split ring does it put the middle hook back into the area of the back treble making it catch each other on the pause looking at how long it is i would think it does?

On the popper with the scorpion hook .... it does reach , but it didn't seem to catch on a retrieve.
With your popper .... it doesn't

Chris

[warrior]

i am going to order some of those scorpic hooks to see how they go too they look good

[NAGG]

i am going to order some of those scorpic hooks to see how they go too they look good

I've run them on Tangos , X Walks & sub walks ...... but like photo run them upside down - I certainly got a better retention......... but it is still early days for me

Chris

[hairypunt]

I fish topwaters alot and i have found hook pulls no more of an issue than if i were using a sub-surface lure. I think how the lure is retrieved and how the stikes are read by the angler is more important than what hooks you run.

[warrior]

hairy with your strikes are you letting the fish hook themselves or setting the hook ,have heard both done but find the first is best

[hairypunt]

99% of the time they hook them selves and no hookset is required, but if the fish hits and swims forward i take up the slack and punch the hooks in.