Whopper Plopper issue

[sdfd29]

I had an issue with a whopper plopper today. I was unhooking a small keeper when I heard something metallic hit the boat console. emoScratch I found the hook from the body of the whopper plopper laying on the carpet. The split ring on the belly hook had stretched open and looked like a "S". The hook came loose from the split ring.

I had caught 20 or 30 fish on this lure, but most were small fish. The fish that it came off on, was about 1.5 lbs, but it had buried up in the grass. This could have put the pressure on the split ring, but both hooks were in the fish (belly and the tail).

The split ring was very weak and was easy to stretch out.emoBang I am going to replace all of the split rings on my whopper ploppers.

 

[davisjeremy1981]

that's not something that should wear out on a bait....never had that problem before

 

[lafae7]

This has happened to me a few times on lipless crankbaits. It happens just some more than others.

 

[HunterDuck25]

What size whopper plopper? I have a 190 and the split rings looked beefy, now I'll have to take a 2nd look. Thanks!

 

[jg1456]

I've heard other people say the same thing about the split rings stretching. Probably a good idea to change them right out of the pack! I watched a show a while back with KVD on it talking about crankbaits. He changes the hooks on his own baits right out of the pack! Lol

 

[sdfd29]

I was using the 90 size, the wire used in the split ring was very thin. After checking on the split rings apparently they come in three strengths. This was the smallest diameter of the wire used in the split rings.

I am going to check the 130 today.

I had heard about the hooks being an issue with the whopper ploppers, but these seem to be good quality hooks and are still sharp. I had heard about the split ring issue as well, but really did not see a problem with them until this happened. It looked like the hook had started to come off and just pulled the split ring apart. Probably caused when the fish was buried up in the grass, I had to put a lot of pressure on the bait to get the fish out of the grass.

 

[sdfd29]

I checked my other whopper ploppers today. Two of the 90's had the small thin wire split rings, the other one had a heavier split ring (shown in the attached picture). The smaller split rings were about half of the size of the one on the other lure. Also the "good" one had a combination of black nickel and silver nickel split rings. The smaller spit rings were on the last two whopper ploppers that I bought and the heavier split ring was on the one I got for Christmas???? emoScratch emoScratch



The 130's that I have all have a heavier split ring and did not flex like the smaller split rings.

Looks like the problem may have been corrected, but the smaller split rings were on the two most recent purchases.

 

[davisjeremy1981]

that should hold no problem

 

[Davo]

Yep, the older baits had crap rings. Fishnvol had a fish take both hooks from one. The newer Ploppers have very heavy duty hooks and rings.

 

[Slant8]

Very good thred. Now I got to go look and worry about mine lol
Speaking of whopper plopper though- it's been dead for me as of late.

 

[sdfd29]

It will be very obvious when you look at the split rings, they are very small and you can easily open the split ring by rotating hook.

I have not been out in the last couple of weeks, but the last time I went it was slow on the plopper. I think this was due to the amount of grass floating on top of the water.