Post my six days fishing last week, I've been thinking about what worked well for me and what didn't. I'm already thinking about what I need for my next trip (notwithstanding that I don't go to Bugatti for another three months!). You can't plan too early!
Poppers
I think that after this trip, I am pretty close to retiring the large majority of my really big heavy poppers like the Fishermand Big Mouth HPs and the Hammerhead G and I Cups. While these lures undoubtedly work and work well, the energy required to work them for long periods of time is simply unsustainable for me over a few days. i used a Big Mouth Hp for about half hour one afternoon and by the end, I was *#$@! I will probably still take a couple along for future trips but they won't be the first poppers I reach for any more.
My primary focus is going to be on poppers I can work effectively for a full day. In this regard, what I will be packing are poppers where I believe I can get maximum pop or bloop for the effort. Poppers which fall into this category are ones like the Fisherman S-Pop and Krog and Heru Cubera and GT Mania. these lures don't weigh absurd amounts but have very big cup faces in relation to their body size.
What I will do with these is run a blade off the back instead of a hook which makes the lures seem bigger than they are and increase the commotion. I also found it was really important to ensure you had the right hook (in terms of weight) on the lure for it to get the best bloop. if you don't get enough weight on the midle of the lure, you start to get them spinning out of the water.
My most effective popper of the week by far was the Heru Cubera 125. It was the smallest popper I had in my bag and I sure had a few of them (thanks Hal!). i think the reason why this popper worked the best for me was because I could manage it over a long day and still get a good action. Interestingly enough, I hooked my two biggest fish for the trip on this little lure (that's why I got none left!). I think it is far more important to use a lure you can get a good action from than to focus on size. Personally, I don't believe too many people can work an Hammerhead I cup effectively for any period of time.
Conversely, my most ineffective lures for the trip were pencil poppers. For some reason, I did not get one strike on a pencil popper.
Stickbaits
There has been a lot of publicity about stickbaits over the past 12 months. Personally, I believe they work well but that a reasonable proportion of their success (and resulting publicity) is driven by the fact that many less experienced anglers find them much easier to use and to catch fish with than poppers. You can catch fish with a good stickbait by simply casting it out and retrieving it.
For this trip, all fish hooked on stickbaits took either the Heru Wahoo or Orion Bigfoot. Both worked well but the Herus were king. I love the Bigfoot myself as this has worked so well for me in the past (and on this trip) but I have to admit that a Heru Wahoo with a heavy enough hook to make it sink very slowly would have to be about the best stickbait I've seen in the water - and the results we got support this. It's also incredibly versatile - Damon was experimenting with it as a pencil popper and it looked great. The only slight disadvantage of the Wahoo is that in the largest sizes, it isn't the easiest lure to cast long distances. My personal preference would be the 125 over the 150.
I did try the Plat Billy, the Smith Runboh and the Carpenter Gamma but the conditions were a bit too rough for these. If you whack two big recorders onto a Runboh, it will sink well and then you have a great stickbait but I couldn't be bothered to do this as the Wahoo and Bigfoot were working well.
Overall, I will take a smaller and more focussed variety of lures for my next trip.
