I figure it’s fairly trite to say I love topwater fishing. Who doesn’t love the explosion of a big bass on a lure sitting on the calm water’s surface? It’s one of those thrills that keeps fishing exciting for us for decades and the memories just as vivid.
I’ve been throwing the Boing G2 Popper a good bit recently and thought I’d share my observations and experiences with this unique popping topwater lure.
The specifics
The Boing G2 Popper is just under 4 inches in length and weighs a tad more than 1/2 ounce. It comes in a lot of custom hand-painted colors from well-known bait painter Dwain Batey. Some of my favorites are Ice Shad, Sexy Bone Black Back, Sickly Bone and Gill Fry. The bait has good Gamakatsu treble hooks and the rear one has a large feather on it that adds to its appeal.
The G2 Popper bait casts like a rocket due to its weight and size. But it’s appeal is in the unique sound it makes with both high and low-pitch frequency rattles and boing noises.
Why you will like it
Big poppers were a well guarded secret among anglers in the know, especially in professional tournaments. A big popper fished around shallow cover can be deadly for big bass. They are very effective around docks, shallow wood, grass and other places bass like to lurk.
What’s unique about the G2 Popper from other poppers is that it can effectively be a target oriented topwater lure like most poppers, and it can also be a water-covering topwater like a walk-the-dog type of bait.
The G2 Popper spits and “bloops” on hard snaps, but on short controlled snaps of the wrist and rod tip, the bait walks back and forth and can move a lot in the strike zone without moving forward a lot. Or you can change the jerks and slides of the bait to cover more water quickly.
Applications and experiences
I was out shooting some photos of the bait a few weeks ago for this review. I saw a fish bust near a stake bed, so I crept over on my trolling motor and got within casting range. I fired a cast past the stake bed and when the bait cleared the stake bed a nice 3 1/2 pound bass tackled it. That was one of my first experiences with the topwater.
Since then, I’ve been able to coax some bass on rip rap, points in the mornings, and around docks with the G2 Popper. It’s a fun bait to fish, casts great on mono and braid alike and you can make real precise roll casts and pitches to targets because of its size and weight.
I’m anxious to try it on schooling fish and on more isolated targets like laydowns, stumps, isolated grass clumps and more. So far I’ve found it’s a great bait around targets, and I think it will be equally effective on big open areas where bass are feeding.
The nitty gritty
These are custom poppers. Hand made with custom sounds due to their special design. They are hand-painted in several custom colors made just for them. So each one has a lot of craftsmanship in them. Because of that they retail at a premium price of $24.99.
The nice thing about more expensive topwaters is that you generally aren’t going to lose one. If one snaps off on a cast, you can usually go get it because it floats. You can check out all the colors and see more about the baits at tacklewarehouse.com. I’ve seen them at a lot of local tackle shops and of course online.
