Two Lures For The Price Of One

At wintertime sports shows, nothing draws a crowd like the bargain bin of marked-down lures. Little do these bargain hunters realize they can find as good a deal throughout the year.

Several manufacturers have designed versatile topwater baits that are two-for-one bargains any time. While most topwater lures are created to perform one task, these special baits can handle dual roles equally well whether it’s spitting, chugging, splashing, or walking. Several classic topwaters like Storm’s Rattlin’ Chug Bug and Heddon’s Torpedo offer two-way action options. Several newer baits including Rapala’s Skitter Pop, The Viva N’ Splasher, Excalibur’s Poppin’ Image, and Ambush Lures’ Pop-A-Long also produce multiple triggers to call bass to the surface.

Twitchin’ and Buzzin’

The Viva N’ Splasher is a 2-inch propeller bait that sits in the water at a 45-degree angle and can be worked as a twitch bait to create a splash or reeled quickly so it skitters across the surface like a buzzbait. North Carolina angler Danny Joe Humphrey notes that the Viva N’ Splasher is perfectly balanced to prevent the lure from rolling during fast retrieves.

Early spring and late summer are prime times to throw the Splasher. In early spring, finicky bass often prefer smaller topwaters. In late summer, the lure matches the size of yearling threadfin shad, a preferred forage in many waters.

Humphrey, a former BASS Masters Classic qualifier, prefers using this prop bait in clear or tannic water. “The size, shape, and natural finish make it so effective in clear water,” Humphrey says. “In murky conditions, you’re better off with a more ostentatious and larger bait.”

The splasher produces best as a twitch bait on overcast days or early in the morning. On windy days, try ripping the Splasher across a choppy surface. On slick water in the middle of the day, Humphrey opts for buzzing the topwater plug.

Employing the same retrieve he uses for a jerkbait, Humphrey twitches the prop bait in a 1-2 or 1-2-3 cadence, then pauses the lure before twitching it again. For fishing specific targets, he twitches and buzzes the lure during the same retrieve, buzzing it up to a stump or other cover, then stopping and twitching it next to the target.

While fishing a sandpit, Humphrey accidentally discovered the Splasher’s buzzing qualities. After twitching the lure near stick-ups to no avail, he quickly cranked in the Splasher to make another cast, but a bass slammed the bait before it reached the boat. The Splasher’s buoyancy allows Humphrey to crank it fast or slow, unlike standard buzzbaits that sink as the retrieve slows. “The neat thing is you can reel it in and then stop it, then reel it 3 or 4 feet and stop it again,” he says. This type of dual action can be accomplished with several other propbaits as well, including Rapala’s Skitter Prop and Luhr-Jensen’s Spin-I-Diddee.

Walkin’ and Chuggin’

The Rattlin’ Chug Bug evolved from Storm’s original Chug Bug during the time of the Rebel Pop-R craze. Pro anglers Jim Morton, Ken Cook, and Cecil Kingsley worked on its redesign to make the lure spit more water. To this end, they lowered the line tie and sanded the plug’s mouth to give it sharper edges. Cook also recommended tail-weighting its body so the Chug Bug would walk from side to side. “We decided to see how much natural action we could build into this lure and make it a user friendly lure that anybody could fish,” Morton recalls. “We called it a ‘do-it-all’ topwater bait.”