# Hookup on whopper plopper



## wolfenstein (Jan 6, 2014)

Just got back from gouin reservoir in Quebec. Not as many pike as I was hoping for but did ok. My buddy kept throwing a perch plopper and had roughly 15 hits. Only two hookups and one pike landed. I was tempted to borrow one but it seems really frustrating all those hits and nothing to show for it. Is this common? Do most people put different hooks on these? Thinking about getting some since its awesome watching them get smacked but not if they never get hooked.


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## cincinnati (May 24, 2004)

Dad always used to say “If we get to Heaven, they’re all biting on the surface.” 

But there are a couple things working against the fish actually getting hooked. First, since there’s often a splash before the fish actually grabs the bait, it’s easy to prematurely set the hook & take the bait away from the fish. (Guilty as charged, yer Honor.). Second, many believe that the fish briefly loses sight of the bait when he opens mouth wide to attack...& so strikes inaccurately.

I had a favorite musky surface bait that became a dead-sure hooker after a guide put his tremendous hand strength & file to all the hooks. It was scary to handle & hooked everything it touched. Even caught some small bass that were foul-hooked when they got too close.


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## riverKing (Jan 26, 2007)

I tend to see this problem occur with many Anglers when they first start fishing Whopper ploppers. I suggest switching out the hooks to slightly larger and slightly lighter wire hooks. I also always debarb my hooks it gives me much higher catch rates. The other thing I noticed is that you have two camps of hook sets when people first start, some people just rip as hard as they can as soon as they see any movement, other people just keep slowly reeling without said in the book until they feel wait. With Pike and musky on the style of Bates they tend to hit coming at you, what I find to be the best practice is to count to 1 and then swing as hard as you can LOL. If you keep reeling until you feel wait it's rather common for the fish to swim with the bait 10 even 15 ft towards you and you never get the line tight because they're swimming faster than you were reeling. I watched a friend of mine do this dozens of times last year only to hook almost every single fish that ate his Whopper plopper this year when he started just swinging hard after a moment of hesitation


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

They also have muskie size Whopper Ploppers..


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## leeabu (Apr 10, 2004)

Have a plastic bait rigged and ready. A pike will slash at a bait to stun it and then come back to eat it. Follow up missed hit with a plastic bait and just let it fall like a dead fish.


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## wolfenstein (Jan 6, 2014)

I know he wasn't setting too early, kinda just kept reeling in. A few times I threw my spoon in same area and hooked up.


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