With all of the talk about the A-rig, has anyone ever tried connecting 2 poppers of any kind together to get 2 baits in the water at the same time? I'm thinking about taking the back treble off of the first popper and either connecting the split ring to the line tie of the second popper, or tieing a short piece of mono between the 2. I'm worried that there could be issues with tangling when casting, but could having 2 baits popping and spitting along a log or weedline be worth the trouble?

A couple of different companies have tried to market this idea. A lure called the "front runner" comes to mind. I think Norman used to make it, but I'm uncertain. I recall reading an article about it years ago in Bassmaster magazine, (8 or 10, maybe more, years ago)

It was a very light, shad shaped lure, with one feathered treble hook hanging from the belly. Basically it was made out of styrofoam and a thin wire internal frame. The concept was tying your main line to the nose of the front runner and then running a leader off the rear of the bait to either a walking or popper type bait. The notion was for it to serve as an attractor and present an image of a fish chasing fish on the surface situation.

I've tried it off and on again over the years - very mixed results. I never caught a fish on the front runner and it seemed to deaden the action of the trailing lure. I tried varying the leader from less than a foot to around a foot and a half.

I tried it with various brands of poppers and a spook and a sammy, and like I said it seemed to deaden the action. It was harder to get the sammy or the spook to walk right and it was harder to get the poppers to pop.

Overall, I thought it was a good idea that just didn't work for me. It must have worked for someone or it never would have been marketed. A classic case of "go figger".

Please though, don't let my experiences deter you from your experiments, you might hit on the next great thing.

Thanks for the insight into your experimenting. I have a very large popper and a bunch of smaller ones. I will tie it up this weekend with the large one in the back and see what the action is. Way to early for top-water fishing in NJ, but maybe it will tell me if it will work or not.