Popper Techniques

[max pwr]

The last couple of weeks I've switched from using mainly sp's to primarily using small poppers and had a fair bit of success landing 2 barracuda, a 40cm gt, a catfish a flattie and heaps of bream and one whiting.

What I am wondering is the bream seem to like it when i jiggle the rod tip just to get the popper bobbing especially when in really shallow water or right up against mangroves. This technique is effective cos it keeps the lure in the same spot for longer but when fishing sand flats a bream retrieve won't work really well for whiting cos they like a faster moving retrieve.

So what is the best technique? Do you cover the exact same area with different techniques or is there a type of retrieve that will work well for different species?

Also I fished a good area for jacks the other day in the yak using a gold bubble pop 65 and the bream loved it but didnt see any jack action, what kind of retrieve do jacks go for when using a popper? I cant wait to see a jack smash a lure on the surface!

[51MPL]

*grabs popcorn* sitting back waiting for the replies, I want to know as well

i've used a bloop, bloop pause retrieve to land baby gts but don't know what other kinds of retrieves to use

[Schilling]

For jacks... Tango dnacers are great 4 still nights and cup-faced poppers are best for choppy, windy nights. I prefer to fish at night 4 jacks as there is usually less people fishing and the jacks tend to be more active. Work the lures with alot of action and plenty of pauses. When fishing around the concrete walls of canal mouths, casting into the wall and making big single pops followed by long pauses so the lure stays hard up against the wall for as long as possible. You never know when the jacks will hit but keeping your lures against the walls, bridge pylons or any other structure often brings the strikes. Having said that sight casting at surface action is also very productive, a cast into the middle of the action will often see a solid hook up.... Make sure however you beef up your trebles!!!!!

For some good jack spots try......

Monaco street canals

Sugarfield grates in the Tweed

Canal mouths of the Nerang, Runaway bay and Sovereign Islands.

Good luck..

[idrewapicture]

i use big single iregular bloops for bass at night, when its dusk but still light, a slower more constant retrieve with small extra bloops seems to produce better. For bream i use slow retrieves with lots of twitching and pauses, dont have any experience with jacks. I try and cast as close as is possible to structure and imitate insects or bugs as closely as possible so i watch what happens around the place on the surface. I also spend heaps of time watching bugs in the pool and how they respond when they fall in etc. hope theres something usefull in all that blah