Well actually he wasn’t using a beetle spin in the traditional sense. We had removed the split tail body and placed a lime green rubber shade body on it. Worked like a charm, as always.

After about an hour I hear my son yell “Hey dad, what’s wrong with this fish?” I looked over and there is my son holding what seemed to be a largemouth bass head by the lip, but the fish had a skeleton for a body. It looked similar to something from a cartoon.

After further examination it seemed this largemouth bass at one time was more than likely around 3-4 libs easy, if not more. I base this on the size of his head. However the fish had swallowed a hook, which was caught in his thoat. The hook still had some line and a lead weight attached,, which hung about 2-3 inches out of his mouth.

The fish had been basically starving to death. My son decided to name him Skeletor since the rest of his body looked like nothing but bones covered with scaley skin. After examing skeletor the largemouth bass, I grabbed my clippers, reached down his big mouth and clipped the line as close to the hook as possible. There was no way to remove the hook as it was down in his throat with just the eye and part of the shank showing. We placed skeleto back in the water and watched him slowly swim away.

The likelyhood skeletor made it through the winter and lived long enough for the hook to rust and dissolve is very unlikely. He was so hungry at the time we cuaght him that, knowing he couldn’t swallow, he hit the beetle spin shad my son was throwing anyway.

That’s our story of Skeletor the Largemouth Bass.

One must patient to use this bait. The Hula Popper should be fished very slowly and can be jerked to create a loud popping noise creating lots of vibration in the water or it can be twitched lightly and allow the tail to do the work. I use both methods depending on the water condition and what the bass are keying on. When starting out, I will run the popper close to the bank and other cover. If the water is clear I will twitch it lightly to allow the flash of the skirt and movement of the lure to do all the work. If the water is darker I give it the harder jerk to illicit the loud popping noise and create more vibration so fish can home in on the bait in the darker water.

The Hula popper is made by the Fred Arbogast Company. They come in a handful of shapes and sizes. The price range typically runs between $5 and $7 dollars depending on the size and your particular market. For me the frog pattern 2 inches long and 3/8 ounce is always the best producer. However I am not all that big on the color as most Hula Poppers I have seen have the same color underbelly, which is what the fish see. When it comes to color I typically look at the color of the skirt.

Typical sizes of the Hula Popper are below:

1 1/4″ long – 3/16 ounce weight
1 3/4″ long – 1/4 ounce weight
2″ long – 3/8 ounce weight
2 1/4″ long – 5/8 ounce weight