Some insights on why this rather unattractive lure is attractive to stripers and bluefish.
During the incredible rain bait blitzes in Montauk of the 90s and 2000s I caught many big bass on pencil poppers. Pencils were a mainstay that seemed to out produce anything else. Over time I’ve come to use pencil poppers far less. As my thinking about what makes plugs attractive to fish has evolved, I’ve also begun to wonder why is it that pencil poppers work? In some ways they really shouldn’t attract the level of interest from bass and blues that they do.
Super Strike poppers with a slow swim and small, slurping pops have mostly been the way I’ve replaced pencil poppers when I want a surface presentation. I believe that the swimming motion and vibration level of a popper are more solidly within the range in which bass usually react. They allow for a more subtle presentation, in tune with the kind, and intensity level, of signals that baitfish give off in the water. Pencil poppers, in contrast, are anything but subtle. They create tremendous – and I mean unnaturally huge splashes, water displacement and vibration.
Not A Natural Look
If you really look at a pencil popper with an open mind, it’s pretty clear it doesn’t look like anything in nature. Think about it – When have you ever seen a single baitfish create anywhere near, even say half, the commotion and splashes as a pencil popper? Why would a fish strike something that really doesn’t occur in nature: a single batfish thrashing wildly across the surface for 50 plus yards in a straight line? It’s true that blitzing fish do splash and create commotion. Again, I would note that when we throw a pencil popper we are presenting a single lure. Often there are no other fish around blitzing. Further, their action would be highly unnatural even in a blitz. Baitfish never beat the water’s surface in a straight line for long distances – they jump and roll in short spaces.
I’m convinced that the idea that pencil poppers look natural is wrong. In surfcasting, and really all fishing, there is a widely held idea that our lures are taken by fish to be accurate imitations of bait fish and that’s why they work. This is a kind of common sense, explanatory theory of behavior and like all theories, it tends to align our expectations to confirm the underlying model. We “see” what the model tells us is there, and ignore or explain away evidence to the contrary. If you can break free from this idea, then it’s obvious that pencil poppers are not accurate imitations of baitfish. They are not fooling fish because they are look “natural”.
Why They Work
Yet, pencil poppers work, sometimes spectacularly so. If they work, but don’t act naturally, then we need to account for why they do work. Maybe it doesn’t matter that they are unnatural, far too active and move in a straight line. I’m not sure one could draw any other conclusion, although I would add that it doesn’t matter most of the time. I use poppers for those times I believe it does matter.
The idea that a lure doesn’t appear natural yet works, raises questions about why bass and blues strike them? This means trying to understand the underlying motivational system that regulates their behavior. I’ve heard anglers confidently say that fish strike pencil poppers because the commotion annoys them. It took me a while to figure out that what they were really saying was, “pencil poppers are so unnatural that I can’t imagine fish strike them as food, so it must be that all that splashing triggers an annoyance response.” I’m always mystified how anyone could know this. I’m also of the view that their assumptions misconstrues what motivates fish to strike.
Trigger Responses
Unlike humans, fish can’t think. They don’t have a model in their brains that they can think with to decide what is food and what isn’t. Rather, similar to birds and reptiles, bass and blues have a genetically encoded array of innate biases. Innate biases don’t operate as a set of precise instructions, but instead act as an internal set of values that “weights” experience, inclining action in one direction and inhibiting it in others.
A good example with ample research are geese. Geese are well-known to fly in a “V” pattern, but geese don’t know what a “V” pattern is, or how to fly in it. They do possess a preset innate bias to fly where there is the least wind resistance, which happens to be slightly off the wing of the goose in front of it. This creates what looks like coordinated behavior; the classic “V” pattern. Similarly, newly hatched turtles must get to the ocean as soon as possible in order to survive. Yet, they don’t have the brain power to figure how to get to the ocean, nor do they have some precise genetic instructions telling them where to go. What they do have are internal biases or preferences to move toward downhill slopes and areas of increased light which guide them to the sea.
Pencil poppers trigger the most basic and fundamental innate disposition of striped bass and bluefish: to strike something that moves in the water. Yes, it’s a low bar, but I believe it is its greatest virtue. Things that move in the water and give off vibration are the most primary, basic trigger to strike. Things moving in the water in nature are almost without exception something bass and blues would want to eat. Millions of years of evolution have provided feedback that things that move are food. If it’s not, it can be spit out. Our lures, in all likelihood, are too recent in time to have much, or any, evolutionary impact.
Other Triggers
Pencil poppers, of course, have far more in their favor than just movement. They prominently possess two other factors that can act as triggers. Pencil poppers are splashy, and while its commotion may be unnatural, in my view that doesn’t matter. Splashing and high vibration are both trigger to some degree, and therefore can lead to strikes. My sense from experience is that high-intensity splashing and vibration are often not the highest order of triggers. Yet, most of the time they work well enough and in other situations they flat out fish anything else.
Pencils also have some horizontal movement. Extrapolating from the productivity of spooks, darters and gliders, horizontal movement seems to be a high-order trigger.
If pencil poppers provide triggers for bass and bluefish to strike, then why do I prefer poppers? The answer is versatility and range. With a popper I can slowly swim it across the surface. I can gently slurp it. I can give it a lot of big pops and reel it fast. I can even shake it like a pencil popper. This allows for different presentations with different levels of water displacement and vibration. I’ve found that the slow, back and forth retrieve is irresistible most of the time, but that each retrieve has its moment when it out fishes other retrieves.
Varying Retrieves
With pencil poppers I will often vary the type and speed of retrieve, but the options remain more limited. My pencil popper is pretty much going to splash, make noise and displace a lot of water. To their credit, pencil poppers possess greater horizontal, back and forth, movement than poppers. Despite their limitations in terms of vibration profile, horizontal movement may partially explain why under certain conditions they are highly attractive to bass and bluefish.
The showy, splashing presentation of pencil poppers can be fine much of the time. But other times bass, and less so bluefish which seem more consistently attracted to high-intensity presentations, can get moody and finicky. Sometimes the stripers aren’t looking for high intensity or taking a “let me eat anything at the buffet table” attitude. Rather, they seem to be clued into very specific triggers that one needs to figure out and be in that range. Most of the time, I find it much easier with a popper to find that range than with a pencil popper. That said, I always keep some pencils in my bag because of the numerous times the fish clearly preferred a pencil popper.
Striped bass are complex creature that react differently at different times for reasons we can’t always fathom. There are tides and particular bites where they just want something off the wall showy and loud. Pencil poppers, although not really like anything in nature, can be the ideal tools in those circumstances.
