ICAST highlights: The Livingston Walk N Pop 77
Category: article
Jul 22nd, 2014 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Jul 22nd, 2014 at 12:00 AM
ORLANDO, Fla. – “Perfect” is a dangerous word, and one used all too frequently in the world of bass baits. In the case of Livingston Lures’ new Walk N Pop 77, though, it’s fitting. Just ask one of the most notorious (and knowledgeable) popper anglers in the world.
“I’m from East Tennessee, and if there’s one thing we know, it’s poppers,” says Team Livingston pro Andy Morgan, who in July broke the all-time FLW Tour single-season points record while winning his second consecutive Angler of the Year award. “Everybody is always on the hunt for the ‘perfect popper’, and I believe with Livingston’s Walk N Pop 77, we’ve perfected the popper. It has the best qualities of a great popper – killer popping, spitting, walking topwater action – plus the power of Livingston’s Electronic Baitfish Sounds, EBS MultiTouch Technology™. This thing is a piece of dynamite.”
Seating angle = immediate popping action
Dynamite: An apt word to describe the explosive popping action created by the near-vertical “seating” of the 3.0-inch Walk N Pop 77 in the water, and the deep-scoop L-face design, which produces a violent barrage of spray and sound immediately upon the first twitch/pop of your retrieve.
“The Walk N Pop 77 sits at a complete 90-degree angle in the water – the only thing you see when it hits the water is its face – but the bait’s deep mouth scoops up a ton of water immediately when you start to retrieve it,” says Robert Castaneda, Livingston’s creator and lead bait designer. “The mouth is like a cereal bowl: it scoops and pops and spits and makes a lot of commotion, which is exactly what a popper is supposed to do. Combine that with our new EBS MultiTouch Ttechnology™, which allows you to customize the sound of the bait to mimic the baitfish present in your specific fishery, and you have what we like to call the ‘perfect popper’.”
Castability counts
Thanks to its precision weight-transfer and balancing system, the Walk N Pop 77 also casts like a laser, which, according to Morgan, is one of the most critical characteristics for a bait that is especially effective in tighter quarters than a more broader-actioned walk-the-dog topwater bait.
“I’m throwing the WALK N POP 77 into smaller spots than I would a walking bait, so I need to be precise when I cast it, and I need it to ‘engage’ immediately,” Morgan says. “We worked for a long time to perfect the weight and balance of this bait, so it sits in the water at an angle that allows the L-face to pick up water right when I start to pop it. This popper is perfectly weighted, and the action is just right. You don’t want a popper to move all over the place like a fluke-type bait. You want it to be tight. That’s what the WALK N POP 77 delivers.”
Livingston’s new EBS MultiTouch™ and Team Livingston line
The Walk N Pop 77 is part of the all new Team Livingston series of baits introduced at ICAST in Orlando. The Team Livingston line combines new, innovative designs, with Livingston’s new EBS MultiTouch Technology™, which allows the angler to “program” the baits with four different sound modes (EBS™ Original, EBS™ Craw and EBS™ Shad and silent, stealth mode). Team Livingston baits are all designed with premium components (stainless steel split rings, advanced rattles, etc.) and all come with Daiichi 4x Strong hooks.