Pop Max retrieve

[BrianMDTX]

I do not fish poppers a lot. Most of my topwater fishing has been with Whopper Ploppers or walking baits like the Spook. I want to start using my Pop Max’s more. Do you (most often) pop once, pause, pop again…or lightly pop it on the surface multiple times in a row?

 

I know the bass will let me know what they want at the time, but I’m interested in knowing which technique, or other retrieves, seem to work best the majority of the time. 

[Reel]

I use poppers mostly for smallmouth and I walk them pretty fast like a spook, and even faster, because they are short, but with more splash.  They never rest.

[Pat Brown]

My best luck has been to cast it where i see bluegill and bass eating on the surface and gently blooping it in place and then letting it sit a long time.  It's a slow topwater but it works really well in open shallow clear water.

[Jar11591]

I’ll cast it and always let it sit for 15-20 seconds. Then I’ll give it a tiny little twitch. 50% of my strikes come on this twitch. If nothing on that, I mix up the retrieve. A few pops at a steady pace, then a few erratic ones, or vice versa. A lot of the times it will be obvious what retrieve is working better and you can narrow your it down to that one. 

[A-Jay]

I am a POP MAX Fan Boy ~ Big time.

I won't even get into what happens with that bait in Mexico.

But up here in the north woods,

the brown bass crush it.

Need to be fishing it in the right place and at the right time but still,

it's a big fish magnet for me.

I do best on Flat Calm Flats, late summer, - hot, sunny and clean water 5-12 feet deep.

The 'retrieve' is no retrieve.

Just an accurate cast, maybe a single pop or two and then wait.

Wait some more, wait some more and did I mention, wait some more.

It's a stupid slow way to fish, but it get's big bites when almost nothing else will.

https://youtu.be/sITpRNLz_04?feature=shared&t=347

https://youtu.be/6Ds4Z22ywnY?feature=shared&t=119

A-Jay

[Jmurphy87]

I use a variety of different retrieves, work it like a walking bait with pauses. I pop it 3 times and let it sit. Pop walk pause. I use everything that I can think of and let them tell me how they want it.

[wdp]

I love fishing poppers! It’s one of my go to warm water techniques. I’m too cheap to buy a Pop Maxx 🤣 but I have good results with a KVD splash, Rapala Skitter Pop, old fashioned Rebel Pop R (change the hooks) or even the Academy Sports brand popper. 
 

One of things that really helped me was learning to walk the dog with a popper with sporadic pauses. It’s a more subtle approach than the traditional big ploop, ploop retrieve. I get more bites that way prob 90% of time & it works great on calmer days. I tend to only work poppers loudly/more aggressively on higher wind days. Everyday you gotta let the fish tell you what they want.

[LrgmouthShad]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

I am a POP MAX Fan Boy ~ Big time.

I won't even get into what happens with that bait in Mexico.

But up here in the north woods,

the brown bass crush it.

Need to be fishing it in the right place and at the right time but still,

it's a big fish magnet for me.

I do best on Flat Calm Flats, late summer, - hot, sunny and clean water 5-12 feet deep.

The 'retrieve' is no retrieve.

Just an accurate cast, maybe a single pop or two and then wait.

Wait some more, wait some more and did I mention, wait some more.

It's a stupid slow way to fish, but it get's big bites when almost nothing else will.

https://youtu.be/sITpRNLz_04?feature=shared&t=347

https://youtu.be/6Ds4Z22ywnY?feature=shared&t=119

A-Jay

Same deal with largemouth and smallmouth?

[A-Jay]

16 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Same deal with largemouth and smallmouth?

I don't fish much up here for LMB,

mostly because the SMB are bigger.

But they certainly get bites   . . .

A-Jay

[BrianMDTX]

Ok, so different strokes for different folks. But it appears that if popping slowly, the trick is sl-o-w, and pausing for some time. Which makes sense. 
 

Next time out, that’s the plan. 

[fin]

I've never used a Pop Max® but I've got a large variety of sizes and styles of poppers. I don't think there is a wrong way to fish a popper, unless you did a steady retrieve, and I've even caught fish like that accidentally.

 

I would suggest starting off slow with very slight jerking movements, but keep it moving. Next cast, same thing but a little harder jerks. Next cast, longer pauses. Etc.

 

In moving water, I've had some great catches just letting it flow downstream after a couple jerks.

 

I think some people get obsessed with making it pop as hard as possible and don't let it pause. I've seen a lot of people fish it like that only, and they're making a big mistake based on my experience.

 

It also depends on your water. The lake I fish used to be easy to catch a fish on topwater. It's pretty tough now. The fish are scared of anything on the surface.

[GReb]

I very rarely “pop” a Pop Max. Just twitch it left and right really slow pausing around cover. Some days I steady walk it like a spook. Just depends on the day. 

[GRiver]

I second @Jar11591 method….. cast it, let it marinate, then twitch pause, twitch pause. If nothing happens it pop, pop, pause…. Repeat.  

[RRocket]

4 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

Ok, so different strokes for different folks. But it appears that if popping slowly, the trick is sl-o-w, and pausing for some time. Which makes sense. 
 

Next time out, that’s the plan. 

When I was shown how to use a popper slowly, a good "rule of thumb" for me was to pop...then wait until the wake/ripple from the popper completely dissipated from the water surface before even considering another pop.

[JacobB006]

11 hours ago, RRocket said:

When I was shown how to use a popper slowly, a good "rule of thumb" for me was to pop...then wait until the wake/ripple from the popper completely dissipated from the water surface before even considering another pop.

This is a good tip. When I first started bass fishing I was more impatient and I always wanted to twitch the popper way more than necessary (I even still do). I remember forcing myself to wait until the wake dissipated to make my next pop. I do recall my catch numbers increasing from that method. My popper takes are almost always on the pause.

[roadwarrior]

19 hours ago, A-Jay said:

I am a POP MAX Fan Boy ~ Big time.

 

Me too!

[king fisher]

After reading the responses here, I was surprised at how much faster I fish my poppers than most members here.  I don't have any Pop Max, poppers so I can't comment on retrieves for them specifically.  If I spent that much money on a popper, I would expect the bait to work with any type of retrieve. 

 

Most of the time I either walk my poppers like a spook, or fish them fast and aggressive, almost skipping them on back to the boat.  I do cast them to specific targets, where I let them sit until the water settles then give a small twitch, then pause keeping the bait next to my target as long as possible.  If I don't get a strike I work it fast back to the boat.  When I was a kid I fished a Hula Popper often, and would work it painfully slow, but after switching to a Pop R I started fishing a popper much faster.

[Fishingmickey]

Long time popper and top water fan too.  I have found the cast and let the ripples disappear before even thinking about twitching method does well. I will give it another twitch or two and the wait and then pop and then start to pick up the pace. Like stunned bug/frog that is recovering and fleeing. Rinse and repeat.

FM

[RRocket]

11 hours ago, king fisher said:

After reading the responses here, I was surprised at how much faster I fish my poppers than most members here.  I don't have any Pop Max, poppers so I can't comment on retrieves for them specifically.  If I spent that much money on a popper, I would expect the bait to work with any type of retrieve. 

 

Most of the time I either walk my poppers like a spook, or fish them fast and aggressive, almost skipping them on back to the boat.  I do cast them to specific targets, where I let them sit until the water settles then give a small twitch, then pause keeping the bait next to my target as long as possible.  If I don't get a strike I work it fast back to the boat.  When I was a kid I fished a Hula Popper often, and would work it painfully slow, but after switching to a Pop R I started fishing a popper much faster.

If it works, no need to change. As always, part of the trick is figuring out what the fish want in your area.

 

Once when I was fishing a popper, I had zero hits. Out of boredom, I started flat out ripping the popper...like they do for fishing Peacock bass. And the fish wouldn't leave it alone! 

 

So yea, do whatever works best for the occasion and don't change a thing...until you have to.

[PABASS]

Love the pop max as much as the bass do!

I start off letting the ripples die down and start walking slow, if that doesn't work, then pop, pop, pop stop, then pop stop.  If fish don't react to that then I move locations..

 

[Bankbeater]

I fish poppers around vegetation. Most of the time I don’t retrieve the bait with any set cadence. I like to mix it up, sometimes on the same cast. I‘ve also had bass hit poppers while they are sitting still in the water. 

[wdp]

Yesterday was one of those days they wanted the popper worked aggressively, fast & loud. Small schooling largemouth feeding under balls of baitfish. At one point, I had a bite on 6 consecutive casts. I caught 7 in 45 mins during my lunch break. On last cast I caught a twofer!

[RRocket]

1 hour ago, wdp said:

Yesterday was one of those days they wanted the popper worked aggressively, fast & loud. Small schooling largemouth feeding under balls of baitfish. At one point, I had a bite on 6 consecutive casts. I caught 7 in 45 mins during my lunch break. On last cast I caught a twofer!

Those are just special days, eh? 

[Phelptwan]

Open Water - Pop, let set, pop, let set, rinse repeat.

Around docks - Pop pop pop pretty much as fast as I can get it out under/away from the dock.

Around brush/laydowns - Pop pop, set, pop pop set.

 

I generally start there, but generally vary it up if it doesn't work and let the fish tell me.  I also don't fish poppers unless I see/hear bluegill snapping at the surface.

[wdp]

5 hours ago, RRocket said:

Those are just special days, eh? 

Yes they are. Unfortunately, days like that are few and far between. Crazy thing, I stopped by same pond after work & couldn’t get a sniff on same exact popper. The feeding frenzy was over. ☹️