During the post-spawn, a lot of us like to rely of poppers as one of our main baits to target those bass who are guarding fry not to mention the females who are now recovering and feeding heavily.
The Livingston Lures Walk N Pop 77 is one of the new poppers that we tested this season.
The Nitty Gritty
The Walk N Pop 77 is 3-1/8” long carrying a solid 1/2 oz in weight. Two sticky sharp trebles take care of business with the rear hook dressed with feathers and some mylar strands. The colors have been upgraded as we have mentioned in other recent reviews of Livingston products as have the molds which now feature scale patterns, gill plates and a groove top of center on the sides.
We obtained the new Red Rum color which is a deep oxblood back fading to a realistic wine color along the sides and a light belly underneath. The 3D eyes are a red color to complement the paint scheme and the cupped mouth is large as well as deep to move a bunch of water with every pop of the rod tip.
The line tie is just above dead center in the lip. This is important because, depending on where the line tie is located within the cup, it will affect the action of the bait when you give it a tug. Whenever we see one positioned as this one is, we know that we can either use a snap or tie directly to it to alter its action slightly.
At a sturdy 1/2 oz, this bait casts extremely well. There isn’t a lot of wind resistance so holding your line to your target even in the wind is not difficult.
One problem that is common with some hard baits that employ two trebles is that they aren’t sized properly. They can catch each other in mid-flight. The Walk N Pop doesn’t have this issue. These hooks are surprisingly large but cannot get fouled on themselves.
The Bells and Whistles
This lure shares the same Electronic Baitfish Sounds MultiTouch technology with all the recent Livingston releases. It allows the angler 4 distinct modes to choose from. Three are the electronically generated sounds – EBS Original, EBS Craw and EBS Shad. The fourth mode is silent.
The bait has no internal rattles so choosing the mode you think is going to work the best is part of using this lure. It is also what gives these baits the versatility they are known for. As opposed to having to tie on a different plug, simply touch the line tie at the same time as the belly hook hanger and presto, you’ve changed the bait by altering the sound coming from it.
We’re all familiar with the “plop, plop” or “bloop, bloop” that most popping lures emit on the retrieve. The Walk N Pop does this too as well as having the ability to walk the dog fairly easily. Combine that with the EBS and there is a lot going on when you’re throwing this bait.
At rest, this lure will sit tail down, almost dead vertically. This can be an advantage in that we have had a bunch of strikes on the rear treble only because the fish aren’t willing to come completely to the surface.
However, this can be a disadvantage when there is almost no clearance between the top of the weeds or grass and the surface of the water. In that case, we like to keep the bait moving ever so slowly to avoid the tail sinking and getting fouled in the grass.
You can, similarly to other baits in this genre, be over aggressive with your retrieve and drive the head of the bait completely underwater. To avoid this just keep your rod tip at waist level or higher and pay attention to your cadence.
As far as the “pop” goes, the Livingston popper makes a louder than average noise as well as spits or sprays above average amounts of water. This adds to its appeal for hungry fish especially when combined with all the other features that are standard equipment on this bait.
The finishes are durable, the components are solid, the action is good and it is something that the fish are not conditioned to avoid.
The Livingston Lures Walk N Pop 77 is another well thought out bait from the design team at Livingston.
It is not cheap but for what you get, it isn’t overly expensive either.
| Livingston Lures Walk N Pop 77 | |
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |    |
| A popper with a lot more goin' on | |
See ya’ on the water …
