May 17-18

[mixermarkb]

Howdy guys.

Got down Tuesday and Wednesday. Spent the first half of the day Tuesday working on the boat while the troller batteries charged. Hit the water about 2pm, and fished till about 7. Caught fish on topwaters and keitechs, including my first Whopper Plopper fish, a fat 17" smallie that looked to not have spawned yet. Fished a lot of secondary points, in coves, and a few main lake flats. Never found a mother lode in one spot, or a magic lure, but had steady action all afternoon. 

Wednesday was more of the same, junk fishing delight with maybe a little stronger topwater action than on Tuesday. Had lots of followers coming back when one would hit on top, fish (mainly bucks) seemed to be running in little wolf packs of 4-5. Lost a big LMB (5ish#) at the boat on a keitech, was fumbling with the net (fishing solo cause 24/7 had some excuse like needing to work for a living) and let some slack in for a moment. Fished from 7:30am-4pm and caught fish on Whopper Plopper, two sizes of Sammys, Gunfish, Yamamoto grubs, 3.3" and 3.8" fat swing impacts, 4"swing impacts, green pumpkin tube bait, carolina rigged baby brush hog, and 3/8oz double willow spinnerbait, with the biggest fish of the day (4# LMB) coming on the spinnerbait. Probably had somewhere in the 50 fish range for the day, with a best 5 in the 13-14 range. Had a stud smallmouth straighten the split ring on the back hook of a LC Gunfish and swim away with a dressed treble in its face. Really wanted a pic with that one, but oh well. 

Water temps were 66-67 most everywhere I was, which was within a couple miles either way of the Buck Creek ramp. 

[Stein]

Sounds like a darn good outing!

[dtrs5kprs]

Fun trip. You need to hit up the federal government for new batteries. Has to be a social justice hook in there .

These higher end Japanese baits seem to all have "cutesy" split rings on them. Flat wire, black nickel, etc. I don't trust them a lick compared to a good round wire ring, and don't think of them as a premium upgrade. I've been swapping them out on all those baits.

Also noticed several of those manufacturers have really backed off on hook quality recently. At one time those baits had some of the best hooks you could buy. Some still do. Evergreen comes to mind.

 

[Ham]

3 hours ago, dtrs5kprs said:

 

Also noticed several of those manufacturers have really backed off on hook quality recently. 

 

I have a larger issue with hooks being too small or the wire too thin. I don't trust the hooks on the Whopper Ploppers at all and the hooks on the Deps Buzz Jet Jr are just too small. 

[mixermarkb]

I'm not at all impressed with the whopper Plopper hooks either, it is a fish losing machine. I'm changing them as soon as I can, but I didn't have anything with me big enough. Have you guys tried the spro split rings? What brand spilt rings do you trust? 

[Stein]

I didn't know what a Whopper Plopper was until I googled it.  Been hearing about it on Bassboat Central as well.  Now I know.  I've fished with essentially the same thing but much larger versions for years for muskie.  These are all about 8" overall length bodies with 5/0 hooks.  What goes around comes around.  I bought my first Topraider probably 15 years ago.  I assume a Topraider or Rumbler would be about the same as a Whopper Plopper 190, assuming that it is 190mm or around 7.5".

 

[Stein]

I could see picking up a Whopper Plopper 130 and changing out heavier hooks/split rings for pike fishing.

For the ultimate split rings,  Bucher super split rings are super, super tough.  I use them on my muskie lures.  I just don't know if even the #5 rings would be too big for the bait.https://www.muskytackleonline.com/joe-bucher-outdoors/bucher-split-rings

[Ham]

Yep, lots of guys are banging on WP as being an "old" lure, but it was made with a smaller profile for bass fishing. It's new to bass fishermen because of the smaller profile,

prior to the WP losing a hook on me, I had seen one split ring failure on a fish. One. That was a DB3 with 7 plus LMB. We still caught the fish as it had both hooks in its mouth. 

I know of two split ring failures with the WP in the short time it has been available. I had one QB had one. I would guess there are others amongst ppl I know that I have not heard about. 

The easy step is to swap them out. I had better hook up and landing %'s when I when to Gamakatsu's hooks on the WP as well. YMMV.

 

[Ham]

45 minutes ago, mixermarkb said:

. Have you guys tried the spro split rings? What brand spilt rings do you trust? 

I really haven't worried about brand of split rings a whole lot. I have Worth and Bass Pro XPS I think. The Spro would be fine, but I'm not sure you get anything for the extra expense. 

I got 3 sizes of the ovals for putting in the nose of baits and three sizes for attaching hooks to lures. I also have various size snap locks for certain baits. 

[dtrs5kprs]

2 hours ago, Stein said:

I didn't know what a Whopper Plopper was until I googled it.  Been hearing about it on Bassboat Central as well.  Now I know.  I've fished with essentially the same thing but much larger versions for years for muskie.  These are all about 8" overall length bodies with 5/0 hooks.  What goes around comes around.  I bought my first Topraider probably 15 years ago.  I assume a Topraider or Rumbler would be about the same as a Whopper Plopper 190, assuming that it is 190mm or around 7.5".

 

That's it. Think the plopper's claim to fame is that it is supposed to be more consistent, in terms of sound than the metal flipper musky baits.

Owners are awfully good split rings. Spro seems to make a good one. Have not had any issues with their stock rings. Worth is very good, if you can find them. I use a lot of Barlows, Janns rings. Just a nice heavier ring for TW. Usually about a #3.