APRIL 2018 I FLWFISHING.COM
43 muskies on it in the first 30 days he
fished it,” says Dahlberg. “I showed
everybody how to make it on my TV
show [The Hunt for Big Fish] and how-to
videos, and it ended up going into pro-
duction with River2Sea. We caught all
kinds of big bass – largemouths and
smallmouths – on them, too. Then
Simon [Chan] took a gamble and made
a few smaller sizes for the bass market,
and the rest is history.”
Incidentally, Dahlberg’s original name
for the lure was retained by River2Sea.
Considering its unique “plopping” sound
to be its most distinctive feature, he
called it the Whopper Plopper.
COURTESY
going to sell itself. Otherwise, he might
have to offer it to a lure company based
on a persuasive sales pitch. If he’s lucky,
he’ll also present his idea to a marketing
guru with the instincts to know some-
thing good when he sees it.
Larry Dahlberg’s latest, greatest lure
design is an example. Though the
Minnesota angler is an icon in the fly-
fishing world – having created the
famous Dahlberg Diver among other
patterns – his fishing expertise covers
everything from saltwater big game fish
to walleyes.
Decades ago, Dahlberg started work-
ing on a lure reminiscent of the old top-
water tail-spinner musky plugs made by
companies such as C.C. Robert’s Bait
Company. His alterations to a proven
design had far-reaching implications for
the bass-fishing world.
“In a nutshell, its development actu-
ally began when I was about 12 years
old and a company in Wisconsin didn’t
respond to my letter requesting spare
tails for their tail-spinner lure I was using
to catch muskies,” says Dahlberg. “I had
no option but to repair the broken ones,
and in the process I realized the tail
could be improved. Almost 50 years
later I was inspired by a young musky
fishing friend to go with an idea I had
been toying with in my head since dis-
covering 80 durometer urethane rub-
ber. I increased the tail size about six
times and the bend in it, plus I radically
changed the balance and buoyancy to
get that super loud hollow plopping
sound rather than a sloshing noise.”
Once his handiwork was finished,
Dahlberg knew he had something that
musky fishermen would buy, so he
approached a friend who ran a California
lure company and for whom he had
designed other baits.
River2Sea President Simon Chan
also saw the promise in Dahlberg’s lure,
and the pair made a deal. Along the
way, Chan’s design engineers went to
work refining the topwater bait so it
could be mass-produced for the bass-
fishing market. Eventually, when all the
bugs were worked out and a few down-
sized versions were put in circulation
among River2Sea’s pro-staff, the lure
became the subject of hushed conver-
sations among bass tournament
anglers who would rather have kept it a
secret. It wasn’t long before the bait
was making headlines.
“The first one was the big musky size
– 7 1/2 inches. One of my pals caught
Larry Dahlberg's fondness for a venerated type of topwater musky plug led him to design a lure that
has been a hit in the bass fishing world as well.
WWW.BAGLEYBAIT.COM
THE
ORIGINAL
SQUARE LIP
KISS OF DEATH.
Some things are the opposite of fl ash in the pan: relent-
less, visionary, enduring. In the end, that’s what you build
on. 60 years ago, 60 years from now , Bagley delivers.
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