EAR PLUG MOD! THOUGHTS???

Hey there all my Top water lovers!

I have been meaning to try something for a while. Take a regular foam ear plug and put it inline with a bait. I have used this technique to put in front of a Sebile topwater frog in preparation for the Berkley tournament on Lake Fork.

Since the Pure Fishing company doesn't have much currently available for a topwater presentation, I have come up with this. Now I know that there are still some Frenzy Poppers out there on Ebay, but I really don't want to pay the inflated price and shipping for some.

I am also interested in trying this with a weightless trick worm and have a floating soft plastic worm presentation.

Anyway, I will be testing this setup out tomorrow afternoon, but I wanted to see what you guys thought about this, any tips or advice from anyone that has tried this before?

Some other ideas I had was the ability to soak the foam ear plug in some scent; like the Berkley Powerbait liquid that you can buy separately. Hopefully the foam would adsorb a decent amount and provide another aspect for the fish to key in on.

Interesting idea. I might consider trimming 1/2 off plug to reduce it's long profile.

That's a good idea,

I had thought about that as well...my reasons for keeping it at length is I will be throwing this in low light/dark conditions and I was wanting a larger profile. I was also concerned that taking the back off the plug might effect the rigidity of the cone shape and reduce the popping effect....of course these are all just thoughts, nothing put into practice yet.

Testing went well today!!

I took this out to a local pond and threw it around for a little bit. First impressions were more than I expected. This ear plug gave the frog the effect of a spitter and a popper. It would spit water, but could also occasionally make a “blurp” sound. I also noticed that it would absorb water, but still float. This re-affirmed that the ear plug would hold attractant well and would realease it steadily. My next test would be shortening the the earplug and see if it would still be ridgid enough to pop and spit. I will upload pics later.

Here are the best pictures I could get of the bait in action with the ear plug popper.

did anything bite it?

What's the point of scent on a topwater? I don't think bass sniff a frog before they anihalate it.

They do, similar to what dogs do to eachother.

Wow. Those plugs really swell up when they get wet. I truly commend you for thanking outside the box. Keep us posted. Thanks for sharing the conclusions good or bad.

There was one that sucked it down and the cool thing was that because of the fluorescent ear plug I saw it go under the water and dart before I set the hook! It was a tiny one, but I really only threw it around for like 10min to test it out.

It would creat a scent trail that could help the bass key in on it from further away if the water is stained.

I am glad to share, and the plugs did swell up, it was very interesting cause I thought it would effect the presentation of the bait, but it didn’t. I am hopping this works well during Berkley.