Today Alex from @Oklahoma's Worst Angler schools us on how to rig and fish a topwater popper. During August, Monsterbass subscribers may have received a BassHik Big Anthony Popper, so you can use Alex's tips right away!

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Video Transcript:

Alex Epperson:
What's up everyone? Welcome to the Monsterbass channel. My name is Alex Epperson, and I go by Oklahoma's Worst Angler. Here's the link for my channel down below. Shameless plug, but we're not here to talk about me today. What we're here to talk about today is my second favorite version of topwater fishing. Now my first favorite is definitely frogging. And Burly, he came in, he did an awesome, fantastic video about frogging. If you haven't seen it yet, check on the Monsterbass channel to watch that. But what we're talking about today are poppers. Now I got two of my favorite poppers right here, but we're not going to be talking about these, okay? I'm going to mention these ones, but what we're talking about today is the bass hick, Big Anthony that came in the August topwater takeover box for Monsterbass.

Alex Epperson:
Now the Big Anthony, I haven't even taken this out yet, this is brand new in the box, all right? Big Anthony has got a fantastic paint job, look at this guy. He is white, chartreuse on the head, a little bit of orange under the belly, around the mouth with some red flake in there. This little popper looks absolutely killer. Okay? Now poppers are my second favorite, like I said, second favorite version of topwater fishing. I really love frogging, I love poppers. Now I want to talk about the popper that really kind of got me into it. And that was the Megabass, or sorry the Monsterbass Mad Max. Now this guy right here, take a look at him. He is ate up, he is chewed up. This one in particular, this little sexy [shad 00:01:47] pattern on this Mad Max popper was one that I took out and just absolutely destroyed some Sand Bass on.

Alex Epperson:
I actually had to replace the front treble hooks, I got some Mustad treble hooks on the front treble right there, but there was a day that I caught over a hundred Sand Bass on just this guy right here. Poppers are an extremely effective way of getting topwater activity and topwater bites. Now frogging, while it is my favorite, is not quite as versatile as a popper. I don't think, this is my opinion guys, so don't get mad at Monsterbass get mad at me, I don't think that there is a more versatile style of topwater bait than a popper. a popper that you can take out and you can walk like a spook. You can work at just like a walking bait or another one that you can work just like a frog. Not the same spots as a frog all the time, thick grass. Now submerged grass, you're golden.

Alex Epperson:
Pads, not near as much. But these are a bait that you can take out and you can hit open water, you can hit along grass lines, you can hit in some really grassy areas with poppers. You can walk them, you can pop them, you can pause them. You can do whatever you want with these guys right here. But these are my absolute favorite. Now, because like I said, I haven't even thrown the Mega Bass or the Bass Hick, I'm all caught up on words here, the Bass Hick Big Anthony yet, we're actually going to go out and we're going to throw it today. So I'm going to tie it on here and I'm going to talk a little bit about the hardware that I like to use when I'm throwing a popper.

Alex Epperson:
So when I'm throwing a popper, I generally like to throw it on like a monofilament or a braid. I don't like co-polymer near as much. The copolymer is kind of in that in-between between monofilament and fluorocarbon. It does sink a little bit and I have noticed, especially when I was throwing the Mega Bass Pop Max, this guy right here being a bigger profile, a little heavier, even throwing 12-pound copolymer. I found that it would sink just a little bit. That line, if you're not working at fast enough will sink. So that's why I like monofilament. And that's why like braid.

Alex Epperson:
Now, not everybody is able to go out and have two dedicated topwater setups. Two or more, okay? So if you have one setup, one to rule them all, when it comes to topwater, your spooks, poppers, frogs, crawling baits, anything like that, I'm going to recommend that you throw it on a braid, okay? Now the pound of braid is really dependent on where you're fishing and the region that you're fishing, okay? Guys up North, fishing, not near as much and vegetation or thick pads, thick grass, stuff like that, probably aren't going to need as heavy of pound of this braid as say the guys down South, okay? I like 50 pounds. I found that 50 pound braid is my sweet spot when it comes to braid, that's what I've caught all my frog fish on. And that's what I throw on my poppers if I'm not throwing it on like a monofilament.

Alex Epperson:
So what I've got right here is a 50-pound braid. I've got it on a heavy power rod with a fast action tip. Now this is the Favorite from White Bird or the White Bird from Favorite. I'm getting all twisted up here, guys. Let's just take a second, let's compose ourselves. Let's have a little bit of Monster for Monsterbass, okay? Don't copyright strike me. Oh yeah. That's the stuff.

Alex Epperson:
All right. So I got the White Bird from Favorite. Now, the reason I like the White Bird from Favorite, I probably shouldn't even talk about this, but I'm going to, this is your heavy power, it is a fast action. Now this rod in particular has a much more soft tip. So what I like about this rod in particular, having that softer tip, when it comes to treble baits, you're not going to want a super fast action, okay? Because when that rod loads, it's going to snap back even faster, being a fast or an extra fast action. So your moderate-fast to moderate, it depends on the power of the rod, but this guy in particular, the White Bird, it's a pretty soft tip compared to say, your typical fast action. So we're going to tie this guy on right here, and we're going to go out to a pond and we're going to throw it really quick.

Alex Epperson:
The real I got on here, just an SLX. This is my 82 gear ratio. Now talking about let's kind of go back and talk about a setup to rule topwater. Seven gear and up on your gear ratio. That's it. Some guys will battle and say that you need faster than seven gear, I don't believe so. I've got an 82 on here because I do throw more frogs than anything right now during the summer, we're switching over frogs are about to be put away. And I'm about to be pulling out all my poppers here. But let's compare these two really quick, the Big Anthony compared to the Pop Max. The profile on the Big Anthony is much smaller. This I think is going to get a lot more bites in particular because this is much smaller, more of a bait fish profile, Clearwater, stained water, that chartreuse head with that little orange on the belly right there, this is going to get their attention. So enough talking, let's get out to a pond and let's go fishing.

Alex Epperson:
All right, guys, we are heading out to a little pond. I haven't been to this pond in probably year and a half and I'm very unsure of the condition it's going to be in. We've had a lot of rain, a lot of changes around these neighborhoods. I do not know. Wow. There used to be really, really tall grass over here and it has all been cut down. It looks like a lot of it has been cut down, a lot of the grass. Water looks good though, but yeah, this is pretty wild. It does not look near the same that it used to. Water looks a little more clear, could be a good thing, could be a bad thing, but we're going to toss this old Bass Hick, Big Anthony in there and see if we can get a couple of bites.

Alex Epperson:
All right. Big Anthony on deck. Now it is not ideal fishing time of the day at all. Wow. Okay, there's still fish in here. Catfish or carp I'm betting. Not ideal time of the day to be fishing. It's middle of the afternoon. Got a little cool last night. So hopefully that kind of helps out. Got overcast finally. Went fishing the other day and I had nothing but blue bird skies.

Alex Epperson:
Big Anthony walks pretty well. He's got a short little twitch walk to him. Let's try to pop him. Good little pop to him, nice little splash, kind of subtle splash. Probably due to that little bit of smaller mouth bait fish that we've seen here and I'm seeing right now, it's like quite a bit of frying some Baby Blue Gill. Throw this along that bank line there where I'm working just a little more subtle. The thing with throwing a braid and a popper is you can't sit there and pop it too hard. You pop it too hard and then what it can do at times is it'll jump out of the water. Look at that. We're on already. That's why you like a fast or a little softer tip.

Alex Epperson:
That's a good fish. What in the world? What in the world? That's a catfish. Are you kidding me? Are you freaking kidding me? This is why I'm Oklahoma's worst angler. Like I thought you were a good fish, it turns out you were. All right, pal. Slimy bugger. Took a bit of a dip in the grass, but going back. Yecch. Slimy, blech. Catfish. Love catching catfish, hate handling them. That was unexpected. So I thought there might be some catfish in here. I saw a swirl behind little Big Anthony there and just kind of stopped it. The thing about poppers work them a little more subtle. Change your cadence up. I did a video on my channel about how to work a popper, if you guys are curious. Different ways to work them, different techniques. That guy saw a swirl after it was working it kind of fast and I just let it sit there and he just came up and just smashed it. We don't want a catfish, we want a bass.

Alex Epperson:
Now, like I said, this bait walks nice and tight, works well. I personally like a popper that spits just a little bit more. I think probably with some monofilament on there and not having the braid get wrapped up around the trebles it would spit even better. Probably take that split ring off of the front as well. So just some ideas for you guys that have the Big Anthony. Just saw a couple of swirls down the bank here. Let's see if we can call them out. (silence) There we go. Look at that and we've got a target species.

Alex Epperson:
Look at that. Look at this little guy. But be careful working with these guys and poppers. Those treble hooks will sneak up on you real quick. (silence) He's no monster, but he is a target. Throwing him back, buddy. Thank you. Let's see if we got a lot of that. Cut down mode, dead branches and leaves and grass all down here. I'm trying to work that edge there without getting hung up hopefully. (silence) Holy crap. I got a shot out of there for it and missed it. You kidding me? Come on now. ... That was the one we needed. Completely missed it. I missed him. (silence) That's where braiding helps you out in a lot of that thick stuff. Dang, I wish we would've caught that one. That would have been nice.

Alex Epperson:
Hoo! Well started to rain on me. I don't know if you can see that on a shirt or not, but it started to rain. First impressions of Big Anthony, let's talk about him. I'm going to say you're going to throw a Big Anthony Little lighter line, 50 pound might've been a little too heavy for this little guy. Preferably monofilament. I would take the split ring off as well. Take the split ring off and probably upgrade your hooks. The popper, the body, the action on this thing is great. Simple little terminal replacements though. I would replace the hooks. I've got two barbs that are been out that catfish did a number on it and whatever that big one was, I don't even know. Look at me, I'm sweating. It's hot. It's humid, raining out. I don't make it pretty. I give you real fishing. That's what I do over on my channel on Oklahoma's Worst Anglers channel.

Alex Epperson:
That's it for me guys. That is it for me for Monsterbass. Do me a favor, okay? We're going to touch our fingers so everyone knows what we need to do. Like the video. Smash that subscribe button, it's right down there. Is it over there? I always get that mixed up, I don't know. One of the subscribe buttons, probably over here. I don't think it's over there, I think it's over there, but thumbs up, subscribe, go check out my channel. If you're not subscribed to Monsterbass yet definitely do so. Give it a shot. See what we're all about. Thanks for watching guys. I'll see you next time on the water.