How to rig your poppers with hooks

[PeterD]

On snaller poppers, I just tend to go with trebles generally. I tend to change to Owner ST-66s on most but relaistically, I'm not sure how necessary that is on small poppers. It is more a case that I can't be bothered making up Bakers of this size. I have use some of the opposite eye Owner and Decoy hooks and found these to be good too as singles. On the last serious barra trip I did, I fished quite a bit with singles and found these to work reasonably well. I'd actually like to rig some barra lures with hooks attached with assists to see how they go.

Interesting you say that about the Barra lure's i have been thinking about doing the same. I have been spinning for Jew with hard body Barra style lure's locally and i can't keep the things connected. They all seem to come to the surface and with big barra head shakes throw the lure across the river.

How did you find the single's hook up rate compared to the treble's Brandon?

[Brandon Khoo]

to be honest, I found the singles very effective on the hook-up and no less so than trebles. I wonder whether this may be the way in which the barras suck the lures in.

You may find it worthwhile trying a small baker rig on the hardbodies you are using for jewies or perhaps even attached singles wiith an assist. From my experience, the single hooks attached by an assist are a lot harder to throw than trebles

[David Clumpner]

Brandon, I noticed your sample popper got pretty beat up as the pictures went along.   

Also, you mentioned that you wouldn't bother with a baker on smaller poppers. Can you define 'smaller' poppers?  (Actually, all I want to know is where does a Sea Frog 120 fit?)

[PeterD]

to be honest, I found the singles very effective on the hook-up and no less so than trebles. I wonder whether this may be the way in which the barras suck the lures in.

You may find it worthwhile trying a small baker rig on the hardbodies you are using for jewies or perhaps even attached singles wiith an assist. From my experience, the single hooks attached by an assist are a lot harder to throw than trebles

Thanks for that Brandon ill give it a go.

[Brandon Khoo]

Sorry David, I should be more careful with my language. By not bothering, what I meant was that smaller fish are a by-catch and I personally wouldn't bother doing it as bakers need to be made up.

I remain of the view that fish that jump and shake their heads aggressively may be better targeted with singles and bakers, especially with the flexibility of assist cord.

A 120 Sea Frog will go fine with a baker made out of 11/0 SJ41s.

[NathanMcNiece]

yeah i tangled with a 20-30kg gt yesterday on a r2s 150 and it wasnt the trebles that failed me and I was putting a fair bit of power into the fish but unfortunately it was the leader that wore through

[Jay Burgess]

Has anybody tried using an assist rigged off the head, jobu on the rear AND a baker rig on the belly?

[Brandon Khoo]

unless you're using something like an ebipop 200, I think that the assist would probably snag on the Baker.

[Jay Burgess]

unless you're using something like an ebipop 200, I think that the assist would probably snag on the Baker.

Yep that's what I was thinking of using it on.

[Brandon Khoo]

can be done but boy, it'll be heavy!

[Jay Burgess]

No more so than a couple of big trebles??

[David Sharples]

to be honest, I found the singles very effective on the hook-up and no less so than trebles. I wonder whether this may be the way in which the barras suck the lures in.

You may find it worthwhile trying a small baker rig on the hardbodies you are using for jewies or perhaps even attached singles wiith an assist. From my experience, the single hooks attached by an assist are a lot harder to throw than trebles

I use exclusively singles on minnows for nile perch which are similar in the way they feed to Barras and Jewies. My hook up and retention rate has gone up a lot. Used to get loads of hooks thrown on the strike and on jumps but not now.

Was a very good swap. Use Tiemco 600SP in 6/0, damn those things are sharp.

[Greg Burt]

We used the setup a few times at Bugatti but found it to heavy and sunk or the extra hook killed the action on most lures including the Edipop, the  Baker rig was taken off and it worked fine and actually enhanced the action on the Ulua by the drag on the Assist hook getting the nose down.

[Brandon Khoo]

I can only suggest that you experiment and find what works for you.I personally do not like the assist on the front of a stickbait at all as I don't like what it does to the action.

[Marc Vandaele]

thanks again for this great information Brandon
but i am wondering what kind of assistcord you using  for poppers and do you keep this also to 1/3 op popperlength like  jigging?