Popper Time

Hi All,

The summer sun is starting to rear its head...blue currents are feeding into our estuaries... and the fish are looking to spawn. This only means one thing..... crack out the poppers.

I just love these topwater lures. The visual aspect is exciting, the vicious takes as well as the gentle slurps off the surface as the fish nails the lure. Wicked stuff. As with any current craze there are some myths that need to be dispelled as well as some techniques that need to be elaborated on... Lets look at some of these now in readiness for summer.

1) Use heavy leader - Typically a heavy mono leader will aid in the popper staying on top of the water. Flurocarbon naturally sinks and will pull the nose of the popper down restricting the action. As mono floats, using a heavier line class will help the popper track straight and stay on top of the water. Also use a short trace too. Long traces are not neccessary and will also restrict the action of the lure.

2) Fish Shallow Flats - Now contrary to belief, you dont actually have to fish water super shallow. I have caught bream and whiting in water over 5ft on poppers last summer. The craze to go super shallow is fine but dont think the depper drop offs are out of bounds either. Fish patrol these areas and will willingly hit a lures 3 ft off the bottom.

3) Fish Broken Ground - I have had my best sessions flicking poppers over a mixture of sand and weed. Pure sand flats dont seem to produce quite as well. I get a lot of follows over pure sand but the fish seem more timid. Add in some patchy weed ans see what happens. It turns lookers into takers. The skittering popper resembles a fleeing prawn and prawns live in weed.. so the reason is quite simple. Even flick poppers over the top of dense weed beds too.

4) Walk the Dog - If things are tough and the fish are ignoring of just following a popper try a switch to walking surface lures. Walk the dog lures dont have a cupped face, just a tow point, and sometimes arched in appearence. When twitched correctly the lure will have a zig-zagging left to right action. It doenst displace any water like a popper but still resembles a fleeing prawn or fish. It a much more sublte presentation and can turn the fish on when a popper scares the fish

5) Colours - This is a very easy one to remember. Basically dark water dark lures, clear water clear lures.

6) Fish High Tide - I have found that fishing the incoming tide has provided the best results. Perhaps even the first hour of the run out too.. the shallow flats come alive with life as fish get to prospect for food on flats exposed at low tide.

There we have it...6 tips to maximise your popper fishing this summer. The benefits of this exciting new style of fishing is simple...tasty fillets of whiting... you cant get much better than that.