Just for the record (Whopper Plopper content)

[plawren53202]

Here in my neck of the woods in MO, topwater season is finally underway. Just for the record, I think my absolute favorite way to catch fish is on a Whopper Plopper (or Berkeley Choppo, I have a couple of those as well). I'm a late comer to the Whopper Plopper party, never fished them before this year. I think I thought that the dinks in places I fish the most wouldn't hit one. But I recently gave the 75s and 90s a shot, and the dinks do hit them--and have been pounding them my last couple of trips out.

 

This morning I was on a Plopper bite until past 10:00 a.m., which I had never done before. Bright sun but the wind was putting just enough chop on the water and white/bone kept working until darn near 11:00. I spend so much of my time throwing a spinning rod using finesse baits on the high pressure/dink-filled waters I usually fish--nothing better for a change of pace than the toilet bowl flush on a Plopper and throwing it on my baitcaster. 

[Bluebasser86]

Man, my condolences on waiting this long to get on a topwater bite. I caught my first frog fish this year on April 2nd ?

 

They'll eat that plopper all day long if you keep fishing it. Not always the best option but some of my biggest ones have been right in the middle of the day when the sun was the highest.

[PhishLI]

5 hours ago, plawren53202 said:

But I recently gave the 75s and 90s a shot, and the dinks do hit them--and have been pounding them my last couple of trips out

Almost all of my bigger fish caught in the past 3 months have come on the WP75 in perch. It was one of my best baits when the water temp was in the mid 40s, which was surprising. I can't say for sure if the color/pattern has anything to do with it, but perch even outperforms loon at night for me by a huge margin, so I'm sticking with it.

[FryDog62]

At times they don’t work - maybe too much “in your face” to the fish.  Other times, it’s exactly what you need to trigger them.  

Agree with Bluebasser, sometimes when nothing else is working they excel.  Like a sunny mid-summer day when the bite slows down.  Or, on a cold rainy Fall day when you’ve thrown everything including the kitchen sink w/o a bite.... Then this happens..

[MGF]

I know that I can't predict when they'll work and when they won't. One sunny hot day last August my son and I took a river trip. I started with a whopper plopper and figure I'd switch when they quit hitting it. I caught fish on it all day and never did throw anything else.

 

I've picked one up a few times this year and not a single bite so far. Now that the river is comming down and clearing up I think that'll change, I should have tried it yesterday but I got on a tube bite and I couldn't put it down. LOL

[scaleface]

I've caught a total of one dink on the Choppo .  I dont use them because of the mats of algae I deal with . 

[snake95]

10 hours ago, plawren53202 said:

Here in my neck of the woods in MO, topwater season is finally underway.

Good post.  I got one on a 110 plopper yesterday but couldn't get a bite on them after that.  A few weeks ago I got a short strike on the 110 plopper and then nailed 'em with a quick fluke follow-up to the blowup spot.

 

I fish in GA and you'd think our ponds would be on topwater fire right now but I have found topwater success to be fleeting even this far into the year.  I don't know why.  

 

I am doing far better on ochos and flukes on the fall lately.  Not a ton of fast reaction strikes.

 

I know you can get 'em earlier (have seriously caught them on walking baits during a Christmas warm spell), but I normally don't have lots of topwater success until the summer.  Might be me, might just be the particular ponds I fish, I don't know why... 

 

 

[FryDog62]

The two sizes I get most bites on are the 75 Plopper and the 105 Choppo.  The 75 has a deeper sounding plop than the 90... and the 105 is my best overall for combo of LMB/SMB.  

[DitchPanda]

I'm more than late to the whopper plopper party...I still don't own one! As far as topwater I caught my first fish of the year on topwater probably a month ago. Last Thursday I fished in the rain and caught 7 or 8 on a black buzzbait.

 

[OnthePotomac]

I have a 110 ready to go if I can get on the Potomac on Thursday and the NW wind cooperates.   It will go out on a 7' MH Carbonlite 2.0 on 17lb XL mono on a Curado 200K XG.

[NYWayfarer]

Topwater bite here started earlier than normal. It’s in full swing now and I am catching multiple fish with it up until early afternoon.

 

90 size in Bone is my favorite WP Got a nice Smallmouth on it fishing this Father’s Day morning.

 

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[plawren53202]

1 hour ago, DitchPanda said:

I'm more than late to the whopper plopper party...I still don't own one! As far as topwater I caught my first fish of the year on topwater probably a month ago. Last Thursday I fished in the rain and caught 7 or 8 on a black buzzbait.

 

I used to fish a buzzbait quite a bit but what I like about the Plopper/Choppo is that it makes essentially the same sound as a buzzbait, but because it floats I can vary the retrieve more. Slower steady retrieve, steady retrieve with occasional stops, or chugging it like a popper. Yesterday for instance I was getting a lot of strikes on the pause during a slow steady retrieve. 

 

Having said that, the old reliable buzzbait has been providing similar fun for 40 or 50 years.

[DitchPanda]

I think a plopper is a cool design..I have a buddy on here that I've fished with a lot over the past 10 years who does well with the plopper and I don't think he has really ever thrown a buzzbait. I do have three observations about the plopper that I don't like: 1) they are way to expensive for me...can buy 2 or 3 buzzbaits for the same price 2) they are more prone to get snagged on wood or weeds because of the trebles 3) they seem to be easier for the fish to throw being a big heavy bait with trebles. Number 3 isn't a deal breaker since a lot of this can be remedied with the right rod and line...kinda like throwing a super spook which I throw alot. I do like the idea of stopping it since it floats but I have other bait for that. Kinda like how some guys walk a popper...others think I want a popper to pop if I wanna walk something I'll use a walking bait. I'm not saying there aren't exceptions but for the most part im in the latter camp.

 

Another reason for the buzzbait love is my results. A few falls ago I had maybe the biggest 5 bass bag I've ever caught...on a white buzzbait. I'm in Northern Iowa so a big fish here is 4 or 5lbs. On this particular day I had 4 bass over 5... My best 5 went 25 or 26lbs. It was insane.

 

[Born 2 fish]

I love the plopper For numbers but I catch bigger fish on the buzzbait. 

[NYWayfarer]

3 hours ago, DitchPanda said:

1) they are way to expensive for me...can buy 2 or 3 buzzbaits for the same price 

 

If you think about it the Whopper Plopper is pretty economical if you take into account how long it lasts and how many fish you catch on one bait. I have my Bone 90 for 2 seasons and caught lots of fish on it. I Sharpened the hooks once and replaced the front treble when I broke it on a rock. Other than that it’s built tough.
 

Buzzbaits get bent and have to be replaced frequently. 

[DitchPanda]

59 minutes ago, NYWayfarer said:

If you think about it the Whopper Plopper is pretty economical if you take into account how long it lasts and how many fish you catch on one bait. I have my Bone 90 for 2 seasons and caught lots of fish on it. I Sharpened the hooks once and replaced the front treble when I broke it on a rock. Other than that it’s built tough.
 

Buzzbaits get bent and have to be replaced frequently. 

 Sounds like our buzzbait experiences haven't been the same.I use primarily war eagle buzzaits...I had a black one that failed(threw the blade off) last season that was several years old and had caught dozens of bass..many in the 4 to 6lb range. I wouldn't consider that frequent replacement...to me that's surprisingly durable for a $5 bait.

And believe me I was in no way discounting the whopper plopper. It is a cool bait that definitely produces...I've seen the results first hand. But for me where I fish it just doesn't fill a niche. I've got other baits already in my arsenal that do those things.

[gim]

I will admit that I bought three of these lures a couple years ago when they were all the “rage and hype.” I didn’t pay full price and it was a buy two, get one free that a retailer was having. I bought 3 sizes in 3 colors. I can even remember my wife saying “do you really need 3 of them? Maybe just try one to see if it works first.”

 

Fast forward to this season. I have caught maybe 5 bass total on these three lures combined in 2+ seasons. The most productive has been the 105 in perch color. I haven’t caught a single fish on the 130, not even a pike. It still looks like it did the day I took it out of the box. I have given all three of them more than enough chances to produce, and they simply haven’t done that.

 

I do think they are a quality lure - they have good color, pretty good hooks, and good action. They just don’t work for me.

 

New lures come and go. Chatterbaits/vibrating jigs seem to be that new popular lure right now and I use them too. The only difference is that I have caught good numbers of fish with them, and quality ones too. The whopper plopper failed to deliver. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

[Cdn Angler]

I've caught hundreds of fish on these things. Big, small, LMB, SMB, Pike, Muskie. 75, 90, 110, 130.  I fish mostly clear water and the results are ridiculous. I'm nearly 100% that I can catch something on one every time out. 

 

I will say fish coming unbuttoned and rear treble tearing up dinks have been the two biggest drawbacks. 

[Koz]

I don't think I've caught anything on a Whopper Plopper in two years. Prior to that it was a crazy top producer. Then it was like all the bass got together and had a meeting and decided not to strike those baits anymore.

 

Seriously, not one strike on them in almost two years.

[GreenPig]

6 hours ago, DitchPanda said:

 Sounds like our buzzbait experiences haven't been the same.I use primarily war eagle buzzaits...I had a black one that failed(threw the blade off) last season that was several years old and had caught dozens of bass..many in the 4 to 6lb range. I wouldn't consider that frequent replacement...to me that's surprisingly durable for a $5 bait.

And believe me I was in no way discounting the whopper plopper. It is a cool bait that definitely produces...I've seen the results first hand. But for me where I fish it just doesn't fill a niche. I've got other baits already in my arsenal that do those things.

I fish alot of open water and a big plus with WP is the casting distance. I can easily cast twice as far with it and in clear water that's a huge benefit. But I do throw Buzzbaits in off colored water and around cover. Double on the 130 Bone.

They work.

[BrianMDTX]

On 6/21/2020 at 10:10 AM, DitchPanda said:

I'm more than late to the whopper plopper party...I still don't own one! As far as topwater I caught my first fish of the year on topwater probably a month ago. Last Thursday I fished in the rain and caught 7 or 8 on a black buzzbait.

 

I just stopped at Academy and bought my first. A 75 in Perch. Topwater has not been my friend but I’m willing to give it a go. 

 

I have either a MF or a MHF action casting rod. Both spooled with 12 lb YZH. Which power rod is the best choice? 

[tcbass]

I love the Whopper Plopper 75s and then 110s. The Berkeley Choppo works too.

 

Problem is the lake I fish recently grew up a lot of light topwater weeds making the WPs hard to fish. 

 

Welcome the Whopper Frog!!!

 

 

[ChrisD46]

On 6/21/2020 at 5:06 AM, PhishLI said:

Almost all of my bigger fish caught in the past 3 months have come on the WP75 in perch. It was one of my best baits when the water temp was in the mid 40s, which was surprising. I can't say for sure if the color/pattern has anything to do with it, but perch even outperforms loon at night for me by a huge margin, so I'm sticking with it.

*A WP75 is a cool bait - I believe people are just discovered enhanced applications for it ... Who would think to use a WP in 40ish degree water temp ? No perch in Georgia but a bluegill or shad pattern certainly is on the menu . 

[GreenPig]

32 minutes ago, BrianMDTX said:

I just stopped at Academy and bought my first. A 75 in Perch. Topwater has not been my friend but I’m willing to give it a go. 

 

I have either a MF or a MHF action casting rod. Both spooled with 12 lb YZH. Which power rod is the best choice? 

MHF 

[scaleface]

1 hour ago, tcbass said:

I love the Whopper Plopper 75s and then 110s. The Berkeley Choppo works too.

 

Problem is the lake I fish recently grew up a lot of light topwater weeds making the WPs hard to fish. 

 

Welcome the Whopper Frog!!!

 

 

Ive got to get one of those but that price . How durable is it ?