So I like a medium action spinning rod x-fast for smaller walking baits never had problems catching smallmouth on them.  The other day I was using the same rod with popper type bait and had nothing but problems landing fish. I’d set the hook fight them for a second and they’d spit the bait. I’m thinking that rod to wimpy for what I was doing? Any suggestions? I was using 10# Yo-zuri hybrid line.

 

thanks

I have caught many hundreds of fish on poppers using a Saint Croix Avid AVC62MXF.

May have been a tough day for you. It happens sometimes. But I like a tip a little softer for Topwater baits for river Smallies. XF is great action for soft plastic bottom baits. Some fast tips I own seem to be a bit too fast. Everyone has their own special feel. I only use mono for the most part. 
 

 

My only experience with smallmouth bass was a few years ago on Lake Erie.  Two years back to back we trailered a bass boat and spent a week fishing Pelee Island.  I took a number of rods with me on those trips.  Fishing was fantastic.  What I noticed was I seemed to lose more smallmouth than largemouth on the way to the boat.  To fix this, I put down my light spinning rod and went to a medium heavy casting rod.   It seemed smallmouth bass needed a harder hook set than largemouth.   Two weeks is not a enough time for a definitive test.  I'm reporting what happened to me.

6'8 MXF SC spinning blank made into a BC with 30lb braid here and have no problems with the hook set or landing.  Rarely does the braid mess the trebles either.  When it does it is always on the perfect cast to where I really don't want it fouled, but not often enough that I use a leader.

If I'm doing a lot of twitching a short handled rod makes it much less laboring . 

Take a look at the hardware on your baits, dull hooks are as often the problem as anything else when I don't change anything but start losing more fish than average, you can either touch up the ones on there or else replace them with something newer, but I find hooks dull a lot more swiftly than you might think, as few as 5-10 fish and I have noticed a major difference with some of them.

What's the weight of your popper?  If it's heavy enough to be thrown on a casting rod, that's the direction I would go.  Regardless I prefer a more moderate taper.  An XF rod and smallmouths tendency to go airborne would make me nervous.

 

 

I use a Berkeley shock rod 7’ MH moderate fast casting. I’ve seen people use spinning for top water but the physics aren’t on your side. All the weight of the beast and crap is pulling down against your eyes. I tried it a few times and had no issues, but I also work the bait better “from the top” of the rod rather than underneath.  And I was just nervous eyes would break off the whole time. 
 

That being said, I use 65lb braid mostly. Top water is my frog stuff as well. If I have fouling issues with wind or current I’ll tie on a mono leader, but it’s rare. But I really like the shock rod for it. Takes getting used to with light stuff like dragonflies and such, but I like it. 

Definitely not a rod issue. You're basically throwing two identical baits, other than the way they move in the water. So even though an XF rod isn't ideal for it, if you're not having an issue landing them with one, you shouldn't have an issue with the other. 

 

I'd look at hooks, first. If they're dull, replace them. If the hooks are sharp, then you were probably having a bad day, or the fish weren't really committed to it, and were just swiping at it.

 

If they were swiping at it, then it could turn into a rod issue. A more moderate rod will help you land a lot more of those barely hooked fish.