I have not fished a wake bait, but would like to give them a shot. So what determines when you guys choose one or the other? Is it as simple as calm smooth conditions for the popper and a chop on the water for the wake bait? Or is it that the popper imitates struggling prey making for an easy meal, while the wake bait looks like fleeing prey and targets more aggressive fish?

 

Joe

 

While a wake bait & a popper are clearly both topwater presentations, 

that I have my best results with during super flat & calm conditions,

I fish them each quite differently.

A wake bait is a 'moving' bait for me.

All be it a slow crawl, it's still covering at least a little water.

Where as a popper can be like fishing in slow motion for me.

Pop. . . . . .  Pause.. . . . . .  Pop. . .. . . . ..  Pause . . . . .

Time between pops can and does vary sometimes up to a minute at times.

Like watching paint dry.

But not always

Boom !

https://youtu.be/6Ds4Z22ywnY?t=119

Hope that helps

A-Jay

 

 

14 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

A wake bait is a 'moving' bait for me.

All be it a slow crawl, it's still covering at least a little water.

Would pausing on a wake bait trigger the same reaction as that on the pauses between pops on a popper? I take it that a wake bait targets more aggressive fish.

Impressive smallie in the vid! My biggest ever was less than half that size, anything bigger and I’d have to change out my underpants ?!

11 minutes ago, 5/0 said:

Would pausing on a wake bait trigger the same reaction as that on the pauses between pops on a popper? I take it that a wake bait targets more aggressive fish.

Impressive smallie in the vid! My biggest ever was less than half that size, anything bigger and I’d have to change out my underpants ?!

Thanks ~ 

Like many baits, there's rarely just one way to fish a wake bait & get bites.

If & when one deal isn't working, rarely hurts to try something else.

No Rules.

I even fish my popper like a wake bait at times . . . (Pop Max)

https://youtu.be/kS1O5RRKQU0?t=655

(btw - I don't use those cull clips anymore)

A-Jay

I have a popper that can be fished like a wake bait .

I use a Storm Arashi Cover Pop because I can either retrieve it like a popper or walk it like a wake bait... or vary it during the retrieve. A lot of times with a little experimenting you find what the fish prefer. Great, versatile lure -

Both. Final answer.

 

While I will throw both in calm conditions I do not throw a popper on choppy water. 
 

I want the wakebait when they’re aggressive and I want to cover more water quickly. I want the popper when I want to target specific areas and stay in the strike zone longer, and also when they’re pressured and I want something a little more finesse. 

Pausing a wake bait...............hmmmm. 

Get a spro rat 40 size and cast it out and let it sit there. the wake from it landing in the water is enough for the bait to move back and forth and it will get bit.

Never thought about comparing wake baits to popper!

Dog walking lures like a classic Spook isn't a Wake bait imo.

Wake baits are to me are rats and Lunker Punker type lures. Any floater shallow diver can be waked but not a traditional wake bait.

The old Hula popper is the blooping slow retrieve style popper. Storms Chug Bug is similar retrieved a little faster. Zeal Roland’s modified Pop-R created a faster retrieved spiting poppers like Splash-It’s. The surface doesn’t need to be flat to use skitter or faster moving spitting popper.

Breezy water surface is also good Spook/ Sammy style dog walkers and larger size wake baits like rats and Punkers.

Tom

Wake bait is for covering water, popper is for target fishing.