ok guys i want too know what some of youse use for freshwater fish,ok just for you old fullas lolol,,,,,,what type of surface poppers do you guys like and recommend ,,,,,,,i even typed it slow ,just for you stevo ,,,,lolololool

Well I really do use a rod and reel most of the time

What ya mean Jass what lures

read the heading stevo ,,ya nong ,,ok ill change it a little for you older fullas

theres heaps ,
but my fav. is the Buger chug . you can swim it , jigle it keep it in the srike zone longer with small twitches . Hell it will allso have a cupa with you when your both done

haven't used poppers in the fresh yet jas but i will be trying them soon

i like river2sea poppers, ive tried cheap copys from ebay and other brand poppers but none have caught anything...
i changed to river2sea and there great!

Tom there is a slight difference between lure manufacturers & the cheap ones you were refering to yep they do lack the quality in regards to hooks, split rings etc.

But ultimately it's up to the angler to make the lure work the cheapo lures a generally a rip off from the originals & their action is very similar.

Many many moons ago some 25 odd years ago I 1st used SP's & branded them Shite cause I caught very little if anything on them it was not the fault of the lure it was the fault of the angler.

Yes Tom believe it or not Jumpus didn't know how to use them correctly but dont tell anyone

These days with the same SP's I have no probs catching fish.

Haven't used poppers yet exept maybe once or twice many moons ago & again with very little success maybe one or 2 kung fu fush when they came in close enough to the rocks back in my LBG days.

But on a recent trip out woop Woop out to jason Murray the Cod were caught think 4 or 5 of them & every single one of those Cod took a imitation lure so the El Cheapo's do work prob with these lures were the trebles which were getting destryed.

All the rig ma didge expensive lures in my box well the cod didn't even look @ them.

Jumpy the significant diffrences are that the river2seas have a little feather, the mouth is wider and theres two holes either side of the mouth.
The cheaper ones have none of these...

Wrong Tom I'm afraid

When I get the chance I'll take same pics & post them

What you're not aware of is different brand names buy from the same manufacturer then they market the very same lure under different brands names.

I know this because Jumpus is allways right

Jump, they may buy off the same company but there obviously cheaper models...
the river2sea poppers are a heck of a lot better...
i lost my last one when i was bass fishing last week so when i buy a new one ill take a photo of them for you...

These are the river 2 sea poppers as you can see the mouth has holes in it to have a bubbling effect.

Tom I know very well what river2seas poppers look like & thats why I made the comment that I'll take apic of identical lure & post it for ewe

Well just had a looky & allthough old stock I know the new models a a near spitting image of the river2seas complete with poly's feathers on tail etc etc.

But in the meantime have a looky @ 135 & 153 on this link

http://www.vivafishing.com.au/h/hard%20lure.htm

still diffrent mouth shape...
the 135's mouth didnt have the holes at the sidesto make the bubble effect and the 153's mouth was curved...

Tom Tom Tom

There's an old adage that says most of the tackle out there is designed to catch the fisherman & not the fish & I'm a believer of that.

Here's something for you to have a good think about.

The topic is surface poppers correct ???

So that means the lure is dragged on the surface correct ???

Now here's my Q 2 U ??

How much water do you think those holes produce as a spray ???

And remember we're talking about twitching & jerking the lure now not doing a high speed retrieve

jump heres the bottem line im willing to pay a bit more for a product which i beleive works better then the cheaper ones, youve got your opinion and ive got mine and i will continue to use these river2sea poppersover lets say those viva ones you posted...

hmmm poppers lots of good ones about and I only use what I know works. I test my own as well as a lot of other top notch pros and enthusiasts.
River2sea are quite cheap in regards to others dont mind spending on their surface lures.Bassday have some nice plugs also as do rapala pop-r's are a old favourite of mine.
The holes on the sides and under a lot of poppers and surface lures do work especially in very still shy waters a slow retrieve will produce the all enticive bubble to add a bit of sparkle to the surface tension of the lure megabass,bassday,yo-zuri and many more did not spend millions deeloping this for nothing thier developement pages are accessable to see how it really wroks and yes it works..
Plus the Water ducts along the gill slits creates a natural rather than a popping sound..

Quoted [and tested feature ] from megabass. http://www.extremelures.com/browseproducts...r-Splasher.HTML

As far a using them out at sea in rough situations I think the finesse of these system will not work as well but this doesnt mean it wont catch fish all in all use what you have found works I have spent a lot of money and time with a lot of pro's and magazine article writers not to mention yo-zuri and a few other manufacturers sifting through the crap to find the good so to speak.

As far a river2sea go they are a cheap beautiful popper my type x frogs and griffon zeros are up around $30 US each but you get what you pay for the terminals hanging off the end really stick a fish properly and no matter how good a lure is its is useless without the pointy bits and equiptment holding it to the wood or plastic painted body's properly.

strike pro make cheap poppers also with decent terminals on them as do timber wolf,plenty out there to try when you find a goodun stick to it.

Technique plays a big part also never be shy to try a different retrieve somedays it make the difference between 2 guys using the exact same equiptment scoreing 10 or nothing just by the wrist action...

Anyway Ive rambled on enough I use what I catch fish on stand by these simple rules and you cannot loose.

It's all in the action.

Although, Rebel Pop-R's are a gun lure, except the trebles are way to big. I replace them with smaller ones. Smith Towadi's are great too, although they are a pencil lure so you need a walk-the-dog action where you use the rod tip and twitch the lures so it darts from side to side. The R2S are OK, I don't think the slits in the side of the mouth do anything really, maybe in the larger sizes but with the small 3.5cm ones the effects are minimal to say the least. But like I said, with the right action they'll all have their day.

Ecogear PX 45F's are great too, the ultimate prawn imitation...but they're hard to come by. Only one tackle shop in Australia stocks them and I think they've sold out. In a few months they'll start to spread around the country.

Mully my initial comments to Tom were to get him to realise there's more to a lure than what everyone says is the hot flavour of the month
I stressed if a angler didn't use it correctly then it didn't matter what flavour of the month it was.



I'm very Mr My the chinese gentleman who owns River2Sea did spend alot of money in their development but I also have a Firstma catalogue in front of me which is river2sea & that company sells their products to other wholesalers who market river2sea lures under their own brand name so dont be in a big hurry to write off that like to viva I supplied.

Simply because alot of those lures are river2sea

Same as your favourite gun Ecogear PX 45F's googlefush you'll find they are a product of www.wilma.com.cn

get me a couple of pics & I'll tell you if they are.



Having said all that guys all this talk about poppers has got me interested & I picked up a couple of dozen of them yesterday once I can get up & move around again I'm keen to leave the boat @ home & go wade a couple of spots we've caught some nice whiting in the past up in Gudjamutta Bay

And yep yep googlefush I did pick up 1/2 dozen Rebel Pop-R's in clear body & yep yep Tom they do have a tail feather

Absolutely agree with you I do not write off any lures what so ever the differance is a simple as tecnique..Sorry if I mis portrayed what I was getting at..
I was merely saying that the holes do play a part depending on their use and area fished and technique is more inportant than any holes anyway.
I am aware blanks are copied to other names but I dont know what that has to do with my post ,,sorry

I never bagged viva they are great also.I will never mock a lure regardless as some one may fish them better than I do, I fish what I can catch fish with not you Tom or anyone else,,why becasue our styles are different.

Again sorry if the post come across the wrong way..

Well we'll see what my techique is like when I get to use them

Mate you have to see the FIRSTMA catalogue it will blow your mind looking @ the lures which I'm sure are on that site.

And to give you an example of what I was saying earlier Dave came back from his trip to Awonga raving on about this you beaut lure that nobody else has got given to him by this rep from wilson.

I had a chuckle opened the catague & showed him the very same lure Roll'n Shad A001

@ a guess I'd say prob around 80% of the worlds fishing tackes comes from China or Taiwan even your Shimanao's & Daiwa's

The worlds biggest tackle expo happens in China next month was was invited but said maybe next time

Reckon I would've gone stupid looking @ it all

Ive used a sinker in silver choclate wrapper with a hook to catch fish, also have some balsa lures my dad knocked up...

If the fish is hungary and the lure in the right spot it will get eaten...

dont beleive in all the hype of expensive marketing..... sorrry guys...

same goes for squid jigs... never had a problem with the cheapies... can always catch a feed.. sometimes a colour change helps.

I was invited to the japan / china and Oz trade shows, time and money were my main reasons for not going.
A friend of mine Frank Prokop "he wrote the lure encyclopaedia" has inspired me to endevour on a project of my own regarding a lot of video footage of lure actions.
No small feat by any means but a challenge for me non the less.

A lure is just that a fish attractant whatever shape or form it may be, if you make them yourself or buy them the choice is yours in the end use whatever YOU actually score fish on...

Very well put mully!!

I dunno, those flavour of the month's are pretty tasty.



Here are a few of my ones.





And here's the link to the lure.

Ecogear PX 45F (surface popper)

So far they are proving deadly on the bream and whiting scene, the fact that it's something the fish have never seen before helps, although sometimes you can't go past the tried and true like the Rebel Pop-R's.

They are a very tastey morsel many a big bream have told me personally....
A few lures stand out amongst the crowd when used in the brine a lot are just over advertised rubbish but some really do shine.

Catch, what method do you find works best when using these ecogears? surrondings? water depth? structure etc?

Googlefush !

Nope not in the cattledog so cant help you on who's got them

Out of curiosity if you have a unopened packed there look on the back & tell me if they're made in china

The PX 45F's are 100% made in Japan and come with top quality Owner hooks, there was only a small shipment of about 300 made to Otto's (keep in mind that's the only place in Australia that stocked them). Ecogear is a Japanese brand (I think a branch off Marukyu) and I think all of their product is made in Japan. Or maybe only that small shipment of poppers was made in Japan.

Rummy, these work very well with a quick-ish walk-the-dog retrieve with a few pauses thrown in. Vary it up, sometimes other retrieves work. I like to work poppers in shallower stuff so it's easy for the fish to notice it. Any sort of structure that holds fish will produce, over weed beds are good.

McCallums in Nowra stockem Catch. I worked there on Saturday and to my surprise there they were in a box , about 20 or 30 of them. I had to price them, exy I thought at 19 odd dollars. But they look the goods and I will never know if they catch fish cause I can't afford to throw that much money away on a lure when it could be putting some tucker on the table if you know what I mean. BUT they do look the goods

There you go googlefush found it hard to believe otto was the only one to have them it's just a matter knowing who is releasing gear

McCallums is a pretty big store & there's not to much you wont find in there