Pencil poppers

[Chris Young]

Just wondering how many of you have pencil poppers in your kit?. Couldn't help but notice most fish caught in these pages are on large poppers or stickbaits, the poor old pencil seems to be out of fashion

Chris

[Mick Cunningham]

hi chris .
i find the pencil need to work with a high speed and keep spinning non stop and sometime i am out of breath to keep it up 

i do have a couple in my kit just in case when the tuna are hot .

i did notice that you make one for tony when we went to frazer . and it,s a nice pencil popper . and he has tested it but but he was out of breath 

that size seem to be a great size for tuna  .

i will be happy to test more on it if you wish so while i go up north in nov . 

[Andrew Poulos]

I like pencil poppers but I chase different fish with them. The speed gets them going more than bloopers.

[Brandon Khoo]

I always carry a couple of different pencils on my trips but they are not generally a preferred choice. The primary reason is that I have rarely come upon suitable conditions in the past couple of years. Pencils work very, very well when the fish are active and I've had days in the past when pencils have outfished everything else.

My experience is you don't need to work them as fast as most people think. The objective is to get them to make a steady commotion on the surface and you can do that without going flat out. I've seen some quite surprising fish caught on pencils ncuding a maori wrasse.

I know Sachin uses them with great success in Fiji.

[Aaron Strid]

I quite like using pencils poppers when chasing GTS.  Speed isn't necessarily the key.  My 5 year old son was proof when he caught a 5 kilo GT on 6 kg gear by slowly winding in a 135 halco rooster.  The lure was just blooping along at a reasonable speed and the GT had no hesitation in smashing the lure.  Also there is nothing like watching a GT at speed with it fin up chasing down a popper on the surface. 

What is other peoples preference on pencils?

[Zeck Lim]

hm... i was only packing big chuggers and stickbaits. i guess i will have to bring along a couple of pencils just-in-case!

good to know i do not have to wind at rocket speed. mine is a low-speed reel.

[Chris Young]

One of my standard retrieves with pencils is a walk the dog style as used on barra

[Jay Burgess]

On one of our last outings at our local spot it was a pencil that caught most of the GTs. I'm not sure why, but we only had follows on bloopers. My go to popper is always a blooper but I think it pays to have a few pencils in case they're a little quiet.

I've also noticed that trout are quite partial to a pencil 

[Warwick Joyce]

I have had great success in my fishing grounds with pencils, and at the moment if the fishing is slow they are the go to lure. Never really worked fast like they are intended but with more of a stop start medium to slow speed.

[Luke Wyrsta]

Pencils should be in all keen GT lure bags but they have definitely fallen out of favour with me at least. I generally keep 2 or 3 in the kit with conditions are calm to slight when the fish aren't really cooperating.

Sometimes work them fast but as some have mentioned they don't need to be worked at lightning pace - it's more about getting the lure to really 'slap and slop' as you retrieve for me.

[Sachin Chaudhry]

Agree with Luke. I don't think that you need it for dead calm days either. In areas where you have to cast in a break they outfish other lures because as you pull them out of the was they look more natural and the GTs wolf them down without a thought. I use pencils for most of my fishing and I have personally seen a 50kg+ GT and several over 40kg taken on pencils. Find the fish and most things will do the trick.

[Andrew Poulos]

I think it comes down to the pencil poppers you are using too though. Skipping poppers/plugs work better for me at a speed that generates a bubble trail and doesnt matter if its a bit bumpy on the water. I have some saltiga pencils and they suck in anything other than calm water in comparison I reckon.
I have some other poppers like amanos, and ones similar to longpens but havent tossed them around much yet. Not sure if you classify those as pencil poppers.

[Chris Young]

I call long pens, pencils, this is the size /shape I was refering to, rear weighted and rear boyant, its because of both of those attributes that make them so versitile....long cast ,able to retreave fast or walk the dog, slap slop, they can even get a small buble trail going if worked accordingly.