Whopper Plopper Review

The Whopper Plopper by River2Sea is versatile top water lure. We purchased a few in different sizes and color combinations to give them a try and write a review.

Our first impression was that the 190 size was huge. Really huge. Almost 8 inches in length. It was originally designed to catch pike and muskie in northern waters, so we get it. It needs to be big.

The 90 size is pretty small. Almost to the point where it sinks under the weight of it’s own hardware (hooks, metal tubing, etc). But it still works for bass. They only make this smaller one in a few colors.

The happy medium is the 130 size. This one 5 inches in length, which is a standard bass fishing size. Of course, if you are after bigger or smaller fish, use one of the other sizes.

The Whopper Plopper has a very unique tail action. The tail is like a one bladed propeller and it’s angled in such a way that it rotates as you retrieve it. It displaces a lot of water and creates a lot of bubbles. It also makes a nice chugging sound as you bring it back.

The shape and weight allows you to cast these a mile. These go in the same category as heavy spoons and heavy lipless crank baits in terms of castability. We were easily getting this out to 50-60 yards without any issues. We like when we can really cast a bait out there.

Like any top water, we cast it out. Let it sit for 15 seconds. Then begin maneuvering it in different ways. You could jerk it which causes it to pop and chug. You could walk it from side to side. You can burn it back and watch it throw water out the back, almost like a boat doing a rooster tail with its outboard motor. You can slow down your retrieve and have it buzz along. You could try any combination of the above. It’s very versatile. When you pause it, the back end drops below the water line and the nose and eyes stay above water. Sort of like what some of the newer frog lures do.

We used the 130 size the most frequently. We had the black color. It definitely catches bass. We caught quite a few. Below is one of our catches.

You can see it hooked up nicely on the back treble hook. That’s the exact lure and color we were using.

You can see the internal metal tubing that it’s built on. This makes it very strong and very stout. It’s not going to break or fall apart. It’ll last a very long time.

We had a lot of fun fishing this lure. We never lost a fish or lost a hook up. It did what it’s supposed to do and very well. We especially were impressed by the amount of water it can throw when you are burning it back.

It’s a great top water option when you’ve tried others. We didn’t catch as many fish as we’d hoped, but we still caught some and were pretty happy with it.