I have thrown poppers around up at the kings, but had no takers. The boys hiding from the wind and rain drinking rum thought I was MAD.
I had the opportunity to talk with someone yesterday who was had a lot of experience with popper fishing, in Australia on the GB reef, in Vanuatu at the Whanganella bank, Chesterfields reef and many places in between.
Yesterday we went for a look out off the back of the Cavalli islands in search of Marlin. I brought along a popper set with a hope of being able to cast at anything we teased up. Interestingly Dean talked about the difficulty of hooking up on a bill fish with a popper or stick bait. He mentioned the way Marlin feed and how hooking one would involve alot of luck.
I understand it has been done many times all over the world, but wonder if using swinging assist hooks off the front of the lure would increase the hook up rate?
I figure that as of next game fishing season there will be a whole lot of people flicking poppers. Interestingly Dean reckoned that we in NZ have a good chance of making it happen due to the incidence of marlin bailing up bait balls. Slowly approaching one of these and repeative casts could provide a whole lot of fun, pain swear words and possibly some spectacular top water action.
My popper rod is now always stowed, rigged up and ready to throw, when the situation presents it,s self, even acurracy practise on quiet days has gotta have some benefit?