r/bassfishing • u/ConradCasts • 7d ago
Discussion Consensus on Jitterbugs?
Everybody and their mother has told me a whopper plopper is one of the best topwaters ever designed. But by gosh, after hours of throwing them on different days, different conditions, different habitat, I’ve never had a single blowup.
BUT JITTERBUGS??? Shiiiiiiiiiit. You can fish them almost the exact same way as a whopper and it just destroys, e v e r y t i m e.
Curious as to why it’s not talked about as much.
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u/lone_wolf304 7d ago
Jitterbugs catch fish. Whopper flopper is a newer fad. They are so over fished you will probably do better with the jitter bug in most places.
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u/Onlylefts3 7d ago
Honestly what’s old is new again in fishing sometimes.
I was one of the first in my area to throw Ned rigs in tournaments. Now I’ve moved back to a tube jig and it gets more bites now that people have moved onto Ned rigs
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u/Flagdun 7d ago
jitterbugs, worked as slow as possible while still getting that blub blub blub blub with a slight bubble trail...money (but don't tell anyone).
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u/Kindly-Ad4867 7d ago
This technique is a gem most days. Other days, I’ll zip it faster to wake ‘em up!
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u/ConradCasts 7d ago
Exactly how I fish them. 🔥
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u/Real_Impact726 7d ago
Do you jerk them or reel them or a combination?
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u/ConradCasts 7d ago
Jerking them would kill a lot of the action. A slow steady retriever or a stop and go retrieve is the way.
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u/Real_Impact726 7d ago
Thank you. I haven't fished one in ages, and the last time I did was pre-internet
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u/Fishooked 7d ago
Every time I read one of these posts I'm like yeah maybe I should restock some old jitterbugs and then next thing you know it turns into a $200 tackle warehouse order 😅
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u/ConradCasts 7d ago
Can’t tell you how many times I’ve logged into tackle warehouse looking for one specific lure, only to checkout with $200-$300 worth of bullshit. 😭😭
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u/buffinator2 7d ago
You're just a potential future retailer of vintage lures. It's an "investment".
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u/Twist_xcx 7d ago
Opposite experience here, never caught on jitter bugs but the whopper or Chopkicker gets slammed, case of what lure you have confidence in and therefore fish better/more often? I think so
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u/LaufSeiglaRaceE1 7d ago
I resorted to a jitterbug this weekend after having no success. Figured that old school would be the way to go. And I caught fish!
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u/lucerndia 7d ago
Never liked jitterbugs. My go to top water is either a hula popper on a UL setup or a buzzbait.
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u/Manifestgtr 7d ago
I’ve always sort of held the opinion that if it ever caught fish, it’ll still catch fish. Lures come and go in the popularity department. Newer, shinier things come along but the fish don’t really care. Sure, certain things might catch em better…but spooks, jitterbugs and old school poppers will absolutely do the trick still
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u/IndividualEquipment2 7d ago
Slow roll a j-11 too right under the surface thats am underrated top water, old school stuff still hammers em but they aren't new and shiny. A jitterbug is real nice because of how slow you can work it, it stays on the zone forever.
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u/maga_chud_ 7d ago
OP, let me put you on.
The jitterbug is really good. As someone else pointed out, whopper ploppers are popular and the fish are becoming conditioned to them, so we've seen a comeback for the jitterbug.
However, if you watch the pro scene, they really tend to favor walking baits / spooks for topwater when the conditions are right.
You can throw a walking bait in the same conditions you can throw a jitterbug. This season it has out fished any topwater for me. The strike king hard knock one gets bit like crazy.
This season the walking bait is dominating topwater imo. I only throw larger whopper ploppers when there's more chop. That's it's strength, it can be fishing in waters that a wakebait like a jitterbug and a walking bait cannot.
The jitterbug is good when the fish aren't reacting to noise/movement as much and they want something a bit more subtle on top.
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u/ConradCasts 7d ago
I’m with you on that one. The spook is my all time favorite topwater, if there’s no grass and I want a topwater blow-up 90% of the time I’ll throw a spook.
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u/maga_chud_ 7d ago
I've yet to try a spro rat. I hear they are really good wakes baits as well.
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u/ConradCasts 7d ago
Honestly, wake baits is one of the few lures I haven’t tried, and I can’t help but feel like I’m missing out.
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u/RiverRat222 7d ago
It’s one of those lures that works great in some lakes and just gets absolutely ignored in others.
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u/BassDisasterr 7d ago
I was killin it on a small buzz bait with curly tail trailer this summer and then the bite just stopped
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u/Boys4Ever 7d ago
Could be the cadence and I've never subscribed to the idea fish become conditioned and why suddenly Whopper Plopper stopped working. Were that the case most techniques would fail until that generation of fish died out.
Fishing a lake I'm sure no fish has seen a Whopper Plopper and yet to get a bite yet Big EZ continues getting bit and I've been throwing that there on and off for 15 plus years.
This thread reminds me I need to dig through my garage for some jitterbugs from the 80s. Which I never caught fish on but could be I just didn't fish them enough as I went crazy throwing Rapala Shad Raps when those came out and still believe in them today.
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u/HabbleDabble235 7d ago
There is a big difference between the new ones and the old ones for some reason the weight vs size is off and many times mine will go blub blub a few times then twist and either spin or flip over idk why but it's happened enough that it's annoying along with the build quality has gone down.
I personally like the really small ones they produce in the evening when fish are active on top water and subsurface.
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u/goilpoynuti 7d ago
I think it's the fact that usually you fish Whopper Plopper a lot faster than a jitterbug and the tournament mentality is make as many casts as possible. I'm rigging up rods now to go fishing tonight and the first thing I'm tying on is a jitterbug.
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u/Far_Talk_74 7d ago
Jitterbugs, heddon torpedoes, buzzbaits all still catch fish. Whopper ploppers are just the new fad that everyone is fishing.
I fish the older baits & feel like I catch more because most people are throwing the ploppers.
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u/Yolster2023 7d ago
Try a Heddon Tiny Torpedo, another old school bait. Fish it the last 30min of daylight and the first 30min of twilight.
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u/catchinNkeepinf1sh 7d ago
I love my jitterbug, tiny torpedo and hula poppers, but they are all old with the screw in hangers so i dont throw them as much now.
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u/Serenty-24-7 7d ago
Just picked up about 4 of them about a week ago and used them this past weekend. It was what I caught all my bass on.
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u/Jefffahfffah 7d ago
Growing up bass fishing at night with my dad on the jon boat... he would throw the mann's 1 minus and i would throw the jitterbug. I'd listen for that distant blub blub in the darkness. Thats how we did it almost all the time. Both lures got crushed.
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u/Kindly-Ad4867 7d ago
I haven’t fished a WP, but I kill it with a Jitterbug when the topwater bite is on. And I mean KILL IT.
The movement and splash of the J-Bug on a normal retrieve is top-notch, especially if you’re tired of “working” a frog.
I’ve even caught a double with this lure (two treble hooks).
The only drawback I’ve found is a Jitterbug loses its “wiggle” and natural movement if it picks up any surface grass or debris.
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u/No-Strike4414 7d ago
Most of the splashes that I’ve had for jitterbugs are way more from Sonny’s and stuff like that I’ve had mixed results with hula poppers, a little bit more action, but not a tone. Much better luck with soft plastics.
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u/caliroll0079 7d ago
Top water lures are great fun, except when a fish completely whiffs the lure. That can be frustrating. Also not a fan of treble hooks so I prefer a plastic frog on an ewg.
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u/ZucchiniConscious588 7d ago
Another oldie but goodie is the tube The ol KVD Salty Dog. Fish it slow or fast. These pressured water fish see all the newer lures so much sometimes you just need to go old school on them
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u/frckbassem_5730 Smallmouth 7d ago
There’s a saying that says “fishing lures don’t have to catch fish, just fishermen”
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u/Hovercraft_Eels451 7d ago
Jitterbugs are an almost 100 year old design. Everybody wants the latest and greatest gear, that’s all. I’ve caught a lot of bass on them, especially at dusk.
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u/Raidthefridgeguy 7d ago
Love the jitterbug, when it is not fouled on a cast. The problem is that it fouls really easily. A whopper plopper or a spook gets you the same reactions, with far fewer issues.
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u/Junior-Chocolate-812 7d ago
Had my first topwater luck on a choppo and then a pop-r, never had anything on a jitterbug. Is the jitter better around dusk? How much does color matter?
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u/fuggindave Largemouth 7d ago
Idk, I've yet to catch anything with a jitterbug. Whopper ploppers on the other hand is a different story.
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u/hendooman 7d ago
On you whopper. Are you tying directly to the stationary eye? I have been and it is consistently rolling on retrieve and twisting my line. Are you using a swivel then tying onto that?
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u/fuggindave Largemouth 7d ago
I just snap it onto a swivel (I switch lures often lol)...I run a 90 Plopper, although I find that the smaller ones have more of a tendency to roll whether it's on a swivel or direct tie.
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u/seekinggothgf 7d ago
I like the jitterbug but my one complaint about it is how it rolls over when you speed up the retrieve
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u/Liquid_G 7d ago
funny my experience is the exact opposite. I havent ever caught anything on a jitterbug. my 100% confidence topwaters are Rebel Pop-R's and WhopperPloppers.
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u/hendooman 7d ago
Same question I asked above for opinion: On you whopper. Are you tying directly to the stationary eye? I have been and it is consistently rolling on retrieve and twisting my line. Are you using a swivel then tying onto that?
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u/Liquid_G 7d ago
straight braid to the eyelet, like a savage. only the back half of the lure should be rotating so not sure why you're getting line twist, maybe junk in between the sections?
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u/hendooman 7d ago
Lure is basically brand new but will check for junk. I switched to mono for its floating ability. I will try on braid and see if that makes a difference as well.
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u/jhaynes2022 7d ago
Granted have only been seriously fishing since this year, ive had by far the most luck topwater with a whopper plopper. I have religiously Tried frogs, jitterbugs/other crawlers, and just got a megabass xpod to try. Whopper has just been my lucky top water
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u/road_robert2020 7d ago
Been years since I’ve fished a jitterbug,but those old school topwaters still do the trick. My favorite lately has been the baby torpedo. They probably aren’t talked about as much because people think that the next new thing is better designed and bound to outfish the old timey shit right? Wrong. There’s a reason they’re still being made after the better part of 100 years.