PROPBAITS
& nothing else!
... well, almost ;-)
by DAVE RAE

INTRODUCTION by Editor Nick "Doc" Caine
Well, we've got articles on Buzzers, Surface Lure fishing, and Choppers & Poppers but it seems that, to judge by our eMail Inbox, popular demand means that an article about propbaits and nothing else, is required .... not sure what's triggered the interest in this particular group of surface lures but nevermind .... this left us with the problem of finding a Propbait Nutcase who could put-together a few words for us.

So we cast-around and networked to the anglers we know and eventually came-across dyed-in-the-wool Scotsman Dave Rae who it seems is a dab hand with the old propbaits, using them almost to the complete exclusion of every other topwater lure. Seems hard to believe, I know, but Dave says that they're simply the easiest and most effective surface lures on this Planet .. and who are we to disagree ... well, some of might, if he hadn't written this article for us ! So here, by Propbait demand, is what Dave has to say ....

THE CASE FOR PROPBAITS
Years ago I became completely hooked on Probaits within days of buying my first one, a Woodchopper; can't remember whether it was made by Ozark Mountain or Luhr Jensen, but you know the one I mean. When I bought it, the bloke in the shop, a charmless individual who unsurprisingly soon went out-of-business, sort of sneered at me as if I didn't have a clue about lure fishing (which was true at the time) and told me in no uncertain terms that I was much more likely to catch something with a Creek Chub Pikie than a lure with a propellor at each end.

I was more than a little deflated, to say the least, by Mr Grumpy, and I wondered why the bloke was in business at all .. it certainly wasn't to sell a wide range of lures. Maybe he just tried to sell me the lures on which he made the maximum profit margin .. whatever. Anyway I never went back to his shop again, so he never knew just how wrong he was.

BIG SURFACE SURPRISE
Looking-back, it didn't take me very long to realise just what a lucky-break I had had in choosing, of all surface lures, and indeed of all propbaits, the twin-prop-bladed Woodchopper: what's special about the Woodchopper is the blades: they are made of heavy-gauge stainless steel and are of a radical design. The are not like the thinner metal props on most other non-Luhr Jensen propbaits ... but more of that later.

Not having fished with surface lures before, and with no help from Mr Grumpy in the Tackle-shop, I decided that I would practise a bit on a nearby river: actually it was more of a stream than a river. I knew that it had big trout and sea-trout mainly, with a few dace and chub, and I had heard of one or two "nuisance" pike having been caught in the past.

Anyway, I flicked my newly-acquired Woodchopper into the river, upstream, and brought it back rather chaotically through a narrow channel of slightly faster water between some overhanging trees. All the happened totally event-free .. I'm not sure what I was expecting ! But as the lure swung round into a slacker eddy on the nearside bank, there was a massive eruption and simultaneously I got drenched with water and, more importantly, my line went tight! I struck firmly and then realised that I was into a serious tussle, a very serious tussle indeed — I even wondered if a sea-lion might have swum upstream with the sea-trout.

After a short time though, I managed to get control of the situation and to ease whatever had hold of my Woodchopper, away from the underwater snags, into the small pool in front of me. The water was crystal-clear and I immediately saw that I had hooked a mega-pike .... well, it was a mega-pike both for me and my tiny river. Netted & weighed and then quickly returned, it was a pike of 18 lb 4 oz. — so you see why I became hooked on the Woodchopper — OK, so there were a few teeth-marks in it but the strong propellors were as new, not twisted or anything. Magic !

SURFACE LURE TRAIL
This bit of Beginners' Luck made me think, wrongly as it happens, that all surface lures could potentially deliver just as good results as my Woodchopper, so I started a collection of surface lures, including all the classics .... and I know I said that this article is about Propbaits and nothing else, but I am going to allow myself to digress for a for lines, OK?

Crazy-crawler, Jitterbug, Heddon Torpedo & Dying-Flutter, and the Nip-i-didee, a Woodchopper look-alike but with much inferiror prop blades, the Devils Horse, and so-on and so-forth. I tried them all, and, OK, they all delivered, but as soon as I went back to my trusty Woodchopper, my results seemed to improve very quickly. Obviously my extra confidence in and persistence with the Woodchopper were important factors. No matter! It's results that count.

RETURN TO PLANET PROPBAIT
It's fair to say though, that most propbaits are pretty good, with the twin-prop probaits having the edge, probably. To be honest, at first I could never quite fathom-out the differences between them .. I mean, compare the Devils Horse (left) with the Dying Flutter (right) .. see what I mean?

Both are equally good twin-bladed propbaits in my opinion, but with blades of much inferior quality & design than those mounted on the Woodchopper. Likewise, the Crazy Shad and Zara Spook are twin-prop propbaits but again they have similar prop-blades to the Devils Horse and Dying Flutter

If you need a smaller propbait than the Woodchopper, then you really have to use a single-prop propbait like the classic Heddon Torpedo (left) or Rapala's newer SkitterProp (right) Again, they're OK, but whenever I can, I use the Woodchopper, even on quite small venues.

I have even toyed with the idea of cutting-down my wooden Sugar-pine Woodchopper to half its normal size; that would make an even better lure but I'm not sure if the body would still have enough buoyancy left, to support the weight of the pair of heavy blades ... we shall see ..... no worries ! It work fine (see right)

WOODCHOPPERS & NIP-I-DIDDEE
The good news is that Woodchoppers come in more than one size, oh yes! There's the Big Game Woodchopper (left), and the Slim-line Woodchopper too (right)

But for me, and my quite modest venues, compared with the huge expanses of water in Canada and the USA, the bog-standard Woodchopper does me just fine.

That said, I did scratch my head for a while, over the differences between the Woodchopper and the rather oddly-named Nip-i-Diddee (see photo below, top) , but if you look closely at the photo (below), although they look virtually identical, they are in-fact different in one respect and a most critical one at-that, the prop-blades — only the Woodchopper (bottom) has the tough, heavy-gauge stainless-steel radical-design props.

BUZZBAITS & OTHER PROPBAITS
Although they are not my own personal favourites, but as they may do the business for you, and for the sake of completeness, I must mention some other Prop-baits that, instead of using conventional mini-propellors, they use a big Buzz-blade (see right). These Buzz-baits (below, left & right) are quite versatile though, because, with some of them, they can be retrieved sub-surface as well as across the top, creating quite a commotion, which is what you need, in my opinion.

That said, you can retrieve virtually any propbait like the Woodchopper in a very controlled way.

You can rip 'n' stop, wind-in very quickly, or very slowly, stopping and starting and so-on.. all pretty-much guaranteed to trigger heart-stopping strikes.

But the Woodchopper, in its standard form, RULES, OK?!

Enjoy your Woodchopping Prop-baiting !
Dave Rae

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