Coon Pop heads are made of a bullet shaped lead with a piece of ½-inch PVC pipe with BBs in it glued to the head. A wire runs through the lure, projecting from both ends.
A soft plastic tail, most often a queen cocahoe or curly tail grub, is mounted on the rear wire. The front wire is wrapped around the shank of the circle hook.
Circle hooks are preferred over J-hooks because drifting for tarpon is done at slow speeds and it is preferred for the fish to hook itself when it turns away from the boat. Circle hooks almost invariably hook tarpon in their hard and bony upper jaws.
1) A Coon Pop head, a soft plastic tail, and a 16/0 circle hook snelled or crimped on the line are the components needed to make a finished Coon Pop.
2) Using needle nose pliers, sharply bend the tail wire back on itself.
3) Use side cutters to cut off and discard the excess wire 1 inch beyond the bend.
4) Push the front wire from the back of the hook through the hook’s eye. The front of the Coon Pop head should ride right behind the tip of the hook.
5) Wrap the entire length of the wire around the hook shank, starting at the eye and going down the shank. Secure the end of the wire to the hook with pliers.
6) Push the bend of the rear wire into the head of the soft plastic tail until it rests snuggly behind the Coon Pop head.
7) The finished Coon Pop is ready to fish. The idea behind using the small diameter wire is that it is desirable for the lure to break off the hook after hook-up, giving the fish less leverage to throw the hook.
