Thursday July 11 headed up to fish Saginaw River tributaries for Bass, found no Bowfin. Fished a tributary to the lower Saginaw river where the current oscillates inbound and outbound. There was an easy roadside launch at a bridge. I started upstream leaving plenty of water for the four bridge fishermen. A 2/0 Chartreuse Dive Banger cast to the weed edge of the open channel quickly got a 14 inch bass. Switched to a 3/0 White Dive Banger and hooked two larger bass, got the skinny one with a wounded eye and and face but lost the chunkier one. As I went upstream got nothing else until I tried crossing the wide shallow weedy flat where I found a hidden deeper channel with a firm bottom of spawning gravel, Got two 12 and a 16 inches. That was all I could find upstream of the bridge.
Lunch break looking out across the wide shallow weedy flat, no action there, you can barely see the open deeper channel and beyond that another shallow flat and a hidden channel behind the trees.
Around 8:00 PM moved below the bridge, deeper water, bass were there, hitting along the weed edge, Finished with 8 landed for 13 bass hooked 14 to 17 inches. All the rest on 3/0 White Dive Bangers. More on the pattern and recipe below.
From Popovic's Bob's Banger, I adapted it to freshwater Bass and Pike using a wider, shorter foam cylinder and a big marabou tail with lots of over length Flashabou. White with Silver Holographic prism tape , chartreuse and black prism tape for those colors. Previously, my best popper was a diver so I tried some cutting the front face slanted about 30 degrees below straight vertical. It cast easier but didn't catch much until I up-sized the cylinders one step and the fish loved them. The head dips a bit more on the pop shaking the big marabou and long flash tail a bit more. The head throws the water more upward than forward and the sound is different. I'm convinced that is it... THE SOUND! Clop.. Clop.. Clop... in a steady crisp rhythm, medium loud.
Make the heads first, then tie the Tail and waist so the bare, thread based shank fits the cylinder length.