Don't let the big innocent eyes fool you, these little guys are viscous.

Topwater fishing is my favorite type of fishing. In calm open water nothing beats splashing a popper lure around. A surface strike on a popper can offer up some of the most exciting moments to be had in freshwater fishing. The added rush of adrenaline offered makes it one of the most appealing forms of fishing. Today dozens of lure manufacturers offer a wide variety of surface poppers. The Storm Rattlin’ Chug Bug has become one of the most popular in recent years. So I picked one up last season to find out why.

This large wide lip creates a noise you've gotta hear.

Right out of the box the Chug Bug features a great design, a brilliant one really. The body is slim and shares the general characteristics of a stick bait, while the head bulges out slightly. The lip on the front of the lure is wide and fat, which creates unique splashes and pop sounds. It’s so distinctive in fact, that you can tell someone is using a Chug Bug just by hearing it’s gulps and chugs. To boost it’s already noisy reputation it’s paired with loud substantial rattles inside. It’s a noisy little bugger, probably one of the noisiest poppers out. When you hold it and examine it closely it has an intangible aura of quality around it.

On my first cast with Storms Chug Bug, the difference in action and sound compared to other poppers was immediate, and nothing short of awesome. It chugs, bubbles, gloops, and glops ferociously while simultaneously rattling along the way. Its noise profile is something fierce, it flirts with being full out obnoxious. That’s a compliment. I just didn’t expect this inconspicuously slim and slender popper to be so vocal or well thought out. Even it’s slim stick bait like body grants it great performance abilities. Mainly it makes it possible to use the famed “walk the dog” technique as if you were using a Heddon Spook lure.

Storm Rattlin’ Chug Bug:

So it can walk, pop, rattle, and chug but can it catch fish? Man alive. One of the most satisfying feelings as a fishermen is catching a fish on a newly purchased lure. Not only is your line tight, but it somehow justifies you spending your hard earned money on that particular product. Three casts in and I was able to have that satisfying moment.  In the vast quietness of nature on cool glassy water, a largemouth bass exploded onto my Chug Bug. As I set the hook, the Chug Bug simultaneously cemented it’s permanent slot in my tackle box.

The Chug Bug after months and months of abuse.

Since then my Chug Bug has been through a lot. I’ve slammed it into rocks, bashed it into walls, and watched it take brutal strike after brutal strike from toothy fish. Still today, the very same one is in my tackle box just waiting for the opportunity to wrangle in my next trophy fish. I am amazed at how much abuse it has been through, yet it’s working just as it was the first day I bought it. What we have here is a topwater popper that walks, pops, rattles, catches fish, and handles the abuse to do it for a long, long time.

Rating:

10.0/10