You’re probably familiar with River2Sea’s Whopper Plopper, the cigar-shaped topwater that sports a spinning tail. Chances are, there are a few in your tackle box right now, but you’ve probably fished them sparingly, if at all if you’re a heavy user of forward-facing sonar, which has blinded anglers to many techniques. That’s a mistake.
The Whopper Plopper has a pedigree of a purebred fish catcher. Versions that are the length of your forearm have churned up muskies longer than your leg for years. The downsized ones that bass anglers use come courtesy of TV personality and lure-design guru Larry Dahlberg.
Their popularity was cemented when Chris Lane used one to nearly win a 2016 Bassmaster Elite Series tournament, and today, you can see how popular they are by how many versions are available, including the Berkley Choppo and the Mach Patroller. For clarity, “Whopper Plopper” has become this lure type’s generic name and the original from River2Sea has become the standard against which others are measured.
Why the Whopper Plopper Works
Bass anglers live for explosive topwater strikes, and a Whopper Plopper produces plenty. But there are other reasons to fish it to trigger bass:
- Use Constant movement: Whopper Ploppers perform best when fished with a steady retrieve. It allows bass to track them from a distance or through heavy cover or dirty water. It also prevents bass in clear water from examining it, turning away once they realize it isn’t worth biting.
- Attractive Action: Faster than a Lucky Craft Sammy sashays or a Rebel Pop-R spits, the steady slaps and noisy splashes from its big rotating pliable tail are hypnotic. What exactly they imitate — swimming baitfish, kicking frog or paddling mammal — is debatable, but they convince bass to eat.
- Perfect Profiles: The Whopper Plopper is available in six sizes, five geared toward bass fishing. Whopper Ploppers have a relatively long shape, which is considered the most natural. Bass easily find even the smallest one. Choose larger ones as cover, turbidity and wind increases.
A Whopper Plopper’s movement, action and profile are more important than its color. So, keep that choice simple — natural patterns in clear water and bright ones in dirty water. Once that’s settled, you’re ready to fish. Using a Whopper Plopper in these three ways will point you toward more and bigger bass.
Different Models and Sizes
The Whoppper Plopper comes in multiple sizes, ideal for everything from smallmouth to muskie. These models run from 2 3/8 inches weighing 1/4 ounce all the way up to 7.5 inches and 2 3/4 ounces, so odds are good they will match whatever forage species is in your lake. There’s also silent models, as well those filled with tiny glass beads that create sounds that draw fish from a distance.
What it Looks Like Underwater
Take an above and below water look (and listen) at a few different sizes of the Whopper Plopper. What becomes immediately apparent is its imposing profile, pronounced sputter, and mesmerizing sound — it’s pretty easy to see why fish jump all over it. Note the action, and keep that in mind when you hit the water with one.
Bring a Whopper Plopper Along Cover
Don’t let the fear of snagging a Whopper Plopper’s pair of dangling trebles stop you from casting it around heavy cover. All it needs is some runway in the form of an edge. Fish it along laydowns, docks and beds of emergent aquatic vegetation. That requires multiple casts, whether three to fish the sides and front of a dock or two to fish both sides of a laydown. Bass won’t be along the length of these edges. They pick out specific spots such as a limb, dock post, or small point or pocket. Bringing each retrieve past several creates more chances for a bite.
The disturbance made by a Whopper Plopper’s tail while motoring across the surface is an advantage when bass bury in shallow heavy cover. It makes your lure easy to find, regardless of how much aquatic vegetation, brush or dock is between it and a bass. So, keep it moving. Adjust the speed to the amount of cover — the faster the thinner. And consider how bass location changes with conditions. Low water, for example, pulls them to the end of laydowns, and a sunny sky pushes them into cover.
Rod, Reel, and Line Suggestions
Bulk up your tackle. Spool a medium retrieve baitcasting reel — about 7:1 gear ratio — with low stretch monofilament or co-polymer line such as 20-pound test P-Line CXX X-Tra Strong. Its relatively large diameter makes it less likely to slip behind bark on laydowns or dock post splinters like thinner braided line, which gets stuck and ruins presentations.
Your rod needs a heavy power to wrestle big bass from cover and a fast action for casting accuracy. Putting your Whopper Plopper close to heavy cover often requires underhand and roll casts. Short rods make those easy, so grab one that measures 6’ 6” instead of the ubiquitous 7-footer.
Cover Plenty of Water
Bass live and feed on shallow flats where water is 2 to 8 feet deep for three seasons of the year. Largemouth on river-run reservoirs cross them during the post-spawn on their way to deep summer spots, and they return in fall to ambush baitfish. Further north, they’re home to giant smallmouth throughout summer and fall, when they hunt in wolfpacks, running down schools of yellow perch.
Bass don’t use all of a flat. They cling to subtle structure, like ditches and pieces of cover, like stumps or clumps of aquatic vegetation. The presence of baitfish indicates the best structure to focus on, and locating them covering some water, and a Whopper Ploppers’s steady retrieve does just that. Lean on larger models — 90, 110, or 130 — whose big splashes and profile are easy for bass to find from further away. Big smallmouth will chase one down and crash through waves to eat it, so don’t let wind keep you from fishing it.
Rod, Reel, and Line Suggestions
Reaching these bass efficiently requires casting distance. So, choose a baitcasting rod that has the same action and power as before but in a bigger package: 7 feet, or a few inches longer. Less cover means you need less protection, so fill a wide-spool reel with slightly thinner monofilament — 15- or 17-pound test — that’s easier to cast further. And tie it directly to your Whopper Plopper. It doesn’t need the freedom that snaps, split rings, and loop knots give walking topwaters.
Cut Through the Current
Plenty of bass swim in moving water. It can be tricky to fish with some lures, but a Whopper Plopper is right at home here. Largemouth buried in laydowns along an outside riverbend and spotted bass seeking shelter in a boulder’s eddy will eat one. And they’re perfect for river smallmouth, whether they’re feeding along a steep bank or at the head of a pool.
The current brings meals to these bass, so use it to your advantage. Avoid casting directly into it, because that washes your lure back toward you, creating too much slack or too fast of a retrieve; casting across and slightly upstream is better. Use your rod tip to steer your Whopper Plopper left or right so it crosses ambush points such as seams — where fast and slow water meet — ledges, rocks, stumps, and logs.
Rod, Reel, and Line Suggestions
Small lures work better than big ones in moving water. While a medium or medium-light power baitcasting rod will handle the smallest size 60 or 75 Whopper Plopper, enjoy the simplicity of a spinning outfit, especially when wading.
The rod should have a fast action, medium power and 7-foot length. But exchange the thick monofilament for subtle braid such as 10- to 15-pound test Cortland Master Braid. And forget the leader: A Whopper Plopper’s nose-up attitude and steady retrieve keep your line off the water’s surface and beyond a bass’s sight.
