I like to fish for largemouth bass with block-head poppers; a white one is pictured above. At times, the bass are hanging out along the inside edge of a patch of lily pads or inside pencil weeds. To fish for these bass I needed a weedless popper. I tried several styles of mono guards and found them to be unsatisfactory. The ones that are weedless are also nearly fishless. Testing this premise is difficult because hookups are missed and jumping bass do throw poppers with and without weed guards. I did, however, come up with a weed guard that will allow me to fish in reeds and lily pads and has as good a hookup and landing ratio as a popper without a weed guard.
I purchased the above wire at Fleet Farm and used it to construct popper weed guards. The wire also comes in 30 lb test, which I tried. I found it works but seems to be a little less effective.
Push a bodkin through the popper body, one hole on each side of the popper.
Cut two sections of wire and insert in the holes. Push the wire out the top side so it protrudes approximately the thickness of the popper head. Coat that portion of the wire with super glue and pull it down level with the top of the popper head. Glue the second wire and set aside to dry.
Once the glue is dry, bend the wire to form the weed guards.
Adjust the wires as needed. The wire can be adjusted easily after a catch. You can drag this popper over lily pads or through the reeds; however it will hang up if pulled too fast.
David DB
