Whats in your topwater arsenal?

[Shady]

Striped Bass topwater action is heating up. What's your go to topwater lure for Striper? My go to for the past couple of years has been the Bomber Badonkadonk
I'm thinking about picking up an XRap walk, but not sure it's worth the price...

[yakersaltlife]

Its any type of popper, a spook, or the badonkadonk

[Redfish12]

I was a long time topwater hater but the past two years I've really come around. My favorite for rockfish is a full size heddon saltwater spook. They are cheap and they work great. That being said, I just picked up an xrap version from the outlet bait and tackle site that looks great. I'm not as skilled with the chug stlye poppers but I have caught a few fish on them. Bomber long-a's are another "topwater" plug you should have in your arsenal, reel them as slow as possible and then slow that down! A lot of the fish from my Boston trip came on topwater and I am ready for more!

[frettr00]

I have a few Cordell pencil poppers I bought before last season, but never used them much. They're black/chrome and 6 or 7"

[ictalurus]

The full size Stillwater Smack-It is my go-to topwater lure. It's big enough to usually weed out the little fellers, and it works well even if there is some chop. A full size Chug Bug is my #2 and is usually much cheaper.

For something more subtle, I use a small bargain bin popper, remove the hooks, tie an 18" leader of 40lb test to the rear eyelet, and tie to a 1/8oz bucktail to the end of the leader. A few years ago, I caught fish on that all summer long while my buddies using Spooks or poppers only caught 1 fish to my 2 or 3. I've only ever had one fish hit the popper and not the bucktail, and that was when I was using it after dark.

I second the shallow running Bomber Long-A. If I think fish are there but aren't hitting the poppers, I'll usually catch them on the Bomber. It works well trolled, too, especially in the evening around structure. Be sure to upgrade the hooks, though. I had a 16" striper bend the stock hooks, which is ridiculous.

I haven't had any topwater luck this year, though, which is sad. It's my favorite way to fish for stripers.

[ronaultmtd]

Tsunami 5 inch black and sliver popper- works fine- caught a bunch of keeper stripers on it- you and I fished together at PLO an evening a short time ago and I caught one on it-