Kopper Live Target Bluegill crankbaits...a test.

[Garry2rs]

I recently purchased some of the new Kopper Live Target Bluegill and Pumpkinseed crankbaits. There are two patterns, and two sizes in each pattern, and two finishes, gloss and matte, in each size...That's 2x2x2= 8 possible choices...Being on a budget, I only ordered four. Two of each pattern, one of each in shallow and mid-range models, but only one, was in the smallest size, and only one was in matte finish.

I reasoned that it's almost always sunny here in Yuma, so the gloss finish would be the most useful.

There's no doubt these baits look great!
The baits have rattles and use a long-cast type shifting weight system, so they are quite heavy and cast nicely.
Deep and shallow models in both sizes ran true, out of the box.

The water here is muddy, so it's hard to see what the bait is doing. However, the medium diver must have a head-down attitude in the water because although it hit some shallow weed beds, it didn't snag or pick-up much with it's hooks.

The shallow model appears to be a more horizontal running bait. It swam over shallow weed beds without touching. This shallow-lipped bait will fish as a jerkbait, but as I mentioned above, in the muddy water it was hard to really assess the subtleties of it's action.

I tried straight cranking, jerking, ripping and stop and go retrieves, with all four lures. The baits didn't spin-out and, as far as I could tell, they remained happy no matter what I did.

All these tests we conducted away from our favourite area. When we moved to our prime spot my friend took the small size, medium running, Bluegill to use on a spinning rod.



I threw one of the larger shallow models on one casting rod and a mid-range Pumpkinseed, of the same size, on another rod.



On his first cast Kelly hooked-up with a nice LM Bass.


With this great start we were sure it was going to be big day. Unfortunately, while we had been practicing, the wind had gone from light to heavy. The birds had stopped moving, and everything seemed to shutdown at once.
Oh well, at lease we are still soft water fishing GRIN.
Garry2R's

[bassboogieman]

I just bought a couple of the crawfish baits, haven't tried them yet - will have to wait until spring. They are a good looking bait and the reviews (including yours) seem pretty favorable.

Also bought one of the shad lures.

Cabela's is carring the Kopper Live Target now.