Here’s a look at how two pros fish the Zoo Pop, Zoo Dog, and Zoo Pup.
The Snag Proof name is synonymous with frogs, but they have expanded their offerings with a new line that came out last year. The Zoo Series is a unique lineup of baits made from proven hard topwater styles but with a softer plastic material and hooks like a frog. Major League Fishing pros Jeremy Lawyer and Greg Vinson have been fishing all of them and have now learned how effective they can be in certain situations.
Jeremy Lawyer – Zoo Pop
The Zoo Pop is Bass Pro Tour angler Jeremy Lawyer’s favorite right now, and he says he’s been having fun with it all summer.
“That Zoo Pop is my favorite Snag Proof bait right now. It’s a bad little dude,” he said. “We’ve had a bunch of rain this year, and all the lakes in the Midwest have been up all summer, and I’ve been having a ball with that bait. I have thrown it around bushes, under willow trees, and stuff like that.”
Lawyer has fallen in love with the bait because it reminds him of one of his old favorite poppers, both in the profile and sound it produces.
“It gets a lot of bites because you can fish it where you fish a frog, but it has a different profile,” he said. “The popping sound is like the old P70 Pop-R, with crisp ‘bloop, bloop’ sounds. It’s a fish catcher and catches numbers and big ones.”
The bait is ready to go out of the package, but Lawyer makes one slight modification. “One tip I have is to bend those hooks out a little,” he said. “They are a little too close to the body, in my opinion, to keep the bait from getting snagged. I still like to bend them out a little to get a better hookup.”
Lawyer likes to fish it on a 7-6 heavy Denali rod, high-speed Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris Signature Series reel, and 50-pound Sunline braid and has done some experimenting with colors.
“It’s hard to beat bone or black, but traveling around the county, I’ve tried some other colors,” he said. “When we were on the James and Chowan rivers on the Bass Pro Tour, there was a lot of tannic tea-colored water, and the brighter colors worked great. Some off-the-wall colors like sunrise frog were a lot better.”
Greg Vinson – Zoo Dog and Zoo Pup
Vinson is also a huge fan of the Zoo Pop but has developed confidence in all three baits. The two walking-style baits have opened up many possibilities for where and when to fish them.
“One of the biggest advantages of these two is how weedless they are,” he said. “Every other bait like them has always had treble hooks. The other big feature is the ability to skip them, something you can’t do with a hard walking bait.”
This ability to skip and fish through cover has made Vinson explore what is possible with a walking bait. “It opens up where you can fish a spook-style bait, and now you can skip it under bushes and docks,” he said. “I’ve always thrown topwaters around docks, but you had to walk on the outside edge of the dock, hoping to draw those fish out to get it. Often, they don’t want to chase that far and are unwilling to leave the shade.”
Besides just skipping, Vinson has found success with both the Zoo Dog and the smaller Zoo Pup by fishing in places where he would have reached for a frog in the past.
“Around the house, here on the Coosa River lakes in Alabama, there is a lot of water willow,” he said. “These baits allow me to fish in the holes in the grass and not get hung up. I use the same setup as I do with a frog or swim jig, so I have the power to get them out of there.”
Vinson likes to fish these two baits on a 7-2 Halo Rods BB Frogging rod, high-speed reel, and 40-pound Seaguar Smackdown braided line.
“That 7-2 heavy is my favorite for so many options with braided line,” he said. “It’s got the perfect load to it with a parabolic bend for casting, but still has the right tip for skipping a bait.”
He will fish these two baits in even more locations and generally keeps his color selection simple, just like he does with standard hard plastic walking baits.
“Bone is still my first choice, but Tennessee Shad and Dark Gill are two other good ones,” he shared. “The baits also work great over topped-out milfoil and duckweed, and you can even throw them around brush sticking out of the water.”
The Snag Proof Zoo Series has opened a new world for topwater fishing. These soft baits are unique in that they have the same great action as the proven classics, but their durability and weedless properties allow them to be fished anywhere.
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