Jackall Chop Cut Jr. topwater

[Eric]

Friend and central Illinois river smallmouth guide Jonn Graham clued me in on this neat lure from Jackall Lures that he and his guide clients have been having lots of success on. Now if Jonn is gonna recommend it, I know it's gonna be a good one! I ordered some online, and last Saturday was the first time I fished it ... on the Fox River, of course! I caught 31 smallmouth on it that outing. 😮

While topwater prop lures have been all the rage in bass fishing due to the success of the Whopper Plopper, a few things stood out on this lure that I really liked:

1. The hooks are thin wire and nicely proportioned. Not too big, not too small. They pin the fish nicely but don't trash them.

2. The overall proportions of the lure don't seem to easily snag bass in the eye, gills, and pectoral fins like a lot of topwater lures do. (*Although it will still happen on occasion.) It probably helps that this lure only has two treble hooks. The lure lays on its side, with one hook off the back and one off the side. 

3. The oversized prop spins or rocks freely with very minimal current. This means when you pause the lure, it still has some subtle action from the prop and really looks like it's still struggling a bit. This drew some ferocious strikes.

4. The lure didn't require any extra tuning. It fished just as well for the 31st bass as it did for the 1st bass. The fact that river smallmouth didn't trash it speaks volumes. 

5. I fished it on 15 lb PowerPro braid and it didn't have much body roll at fast retrieves, and I didn't notice any line twist. Although Jonn might disagree, because he recommends fishing it on a few feet of heavier mono leader and another barrel swivel. He felt it did cause some line twist throughout the course of a day on the water. He also felt that braid wrapped around the hardware on the front of the lure if it tumbled on splashdown. I didn't have too many issues with it slinging low with a baitcaster. 

6. It has a unique "bloop" sound. I think it's just different enough to get the fish curious. Perhaps something different than the Whopper Plopper and other prop baits they've become accustomed to.

It's fun to experiment with various methods and cadences. Steady retrieve, burning it, gurgle, twitch-pause, rip-pause, etc. It would occasionally get hit upon splashdown. I think this lure is a winner! If you like topwater, don't sleep on this one.

Jackall Chop Cut Jr. 

BIG THANKS to Jonn Graham for the recommendation on this!  👊

[John Gillio]

Thanks for sharing.

[Paul Trybul]

Jonn knows his stuff, is out field testing all the time, and with paying customers. If he says something is a winner, I believe it too. He was the first to tell me about the lucky craft pointers. 1,000's of smallmouth later, that is still a big part of my cold water smallmouth arsenal. 

[Paul Trybul]

So I went out and got one of these that looks exactly like the one Eric pictured. I took it out this morning and did some field testing. I've got a mixed review at this point. The negatives, were it was expensive and I found it to be kind of clunky. For a bigger heavier lure it doesn't cast as far as I would have thought. Due to the clunky up front hardware, I had two line tangles in the first hour that resulted in me needing to cut the line and retie.  It makes a huge splash when it lands. It one of those lures that goes to extremes. It's either going to spook everything in a general radius or its going to create some violent reaction strikes.  On a positive note it works. I caught a sweet 17.5" within the first hour of field testing it. I feel it has good essox catching possibilities as well. Probably a good smallmouth/pike/musky combo lure and a good alternative in waters that have been whopper plopped to death.

[MikeF]

Cool looking bait. I've thrown the Jackall Pompadour Jr a few times for river smallies. That's the one with the metal "walking" wings. Extremely loud and annoying. Cast well and gets bit too. Though nothing has replaced my go-to, the whopper plopper.

Jackall Pompadour Jr Walking Bait - Tackle Warehouse