Lucky Craft Gunfish 117 Pencil Popper Topwater — 4.5 in, 3/5 oz

Most topwater baits make you choose: pop or walk. The Gunfish 117 has a cupped, concave face that throws water like a popper and a slim tapered body that walks tight side-to-side. Same cast, both actions, decided by what your rod tip does.

Short version: 4-1/2" pencil popper, 3/5 oz, floating, three treble hooks. Built for distance and for pulling fish up out of heavy cover.

Why the 117 Casts Further

Lucky Craft gave this size a thicker taper through the rear than the smaller Gunfish models. More mass behind the center means the bait carries better on the cast and tracks straighter in the air — which matters when fish are boiling forty feet past where you can reach.

That's the whole argument for the 117 over a 95 or a 115: it isn't just a bigger profile, it's a longer cast at the same effort.

Where It Earns Its Keep

• Schooling fish. When they come up out of range, the extra distance is the difference between a cast and a wish.
• Pulling fish from deep cover — brushpiles, cane piles, and standing timber. The concave face throws enough water to call fish up off structure.
• Blueback herring water. Lucky Craft calls this out specifically, and the long slim profile is why — it matches a herring better than a fatter walking bait.
• Open water search. Distance plus a bait that both pops and walks lets you cover a bank fast and change the message without changing lures.

How to Work It

To walk it: short, rhythmic twitches into slack line. The bait needs slack to turn — a tight line drives it straight and kills the side-to-side.

To pop it: harder, sharper snaps. The cupped mouth grabs water and throws it. Use this when fish are deep in cover or the surface has chop on it and you need to be louder.

Mix them. Two walks, a pop, a pause. The pause is not dead time — it floats, so it holds position in the strike zone, and a lot of fish eat it sitting still.

Three Trebles — What That Changes

The 117 carries three trebles: #5, #5, and #4. That's a hooking advantage on a bait fish tend to slash at rather than eat cleanly, and it's the reason short strikes convert more often on this size than on two-hook topwaters.

It also means more hardware to keep track of. Check that hooks aren't fouled on the body before you cast, and use a rod with a forgiving tip — three sets of trebles in a fish will find a way out if you horse it.

Standard and Limited Run Colors

Lucky Craft splits the Gunfish 117 lineup into standard colors and limited-run colors. Three of the four we carry are limited run — Aurora Black, Ghost Minnow, and MS American Shad. When they're gone, they're not automatically coming back.

Fishing It Around Santa Clarita

The topwater window on the local lakes moves week to week, and a long-casting bait earns its money on the days stripers are boiling out of reach. We publish Castaic Lake fishing reports with current conditions — worth reading before you commit a morning to the surface.

Recommended Gear

• Rod: medium to medium-heavy, moderate action, 7' or longer. Length helps the cast; a forgiving tip keeps three sets of trebles in the fish.
• Line: braid to a fluorocarbon or mono leader. Braid moves the bait; the leader gives you abrasion resistance around cover.
• Avoid heavy fluorocarbon straight through — it sinks and pulls the nose down, working against the float and the walk.

Pro Tips from the Tackle Express Crew

• Twitch into slack, not into tension. The single thing that separates people who can make a pencil popper walk from people who can't.
• Wait to feel weight before you set. Setting on the splash pulls it out of the fish's mouth. This costs more topwater fish than anything else.
• Use the pause after a miss. It floats. Let it sit — fish come back for a bait that's stopped far more often than for one that ran.
• Check the trebles for fouling. Three hooks on a slim body will tangle on themselves, and a fouled bait won't walk at all.

Common Mistakes

• Fishing it on a tight line. The bait needs slack to turn.
• Only popping it, or only walking it. You bought both actions. Mix them until something answers.
• Too stiff a rod. Costs you fish on every strike.
• Setting on sight. Wait for the weight.

Specifications

Specs confirmed against Lucky Craft's published Gunfish 117 chart. Colors offered vary by production run — the selector above is the live list.

What's Included

One Lucky Craft Gunfish 117 in the color selected, factory rigged with three trebles. No spare hooks or split rings included.

Frequently Asked Questions

How big is the Gunfish 117?
4-1/2 inches (117mm) and 3/5 oz (19 grams). The number in the name is the length in millimetres.

How many hooks does it have?
Three trebles — two #5 and one #4.

Does it pop or walk?
Both. Sharp snaps make the cupped face throw water; rhythmic twitches into slack line make it walk tight side-to-side.

Does it float?
Yes. It holds position on the pause, which is where a lot of the bites come from.

117 or 115NF — what's the difference?
Different models, not just different sizes. The 117 is a pencil popper with three trebles and a thicker rear taper for casting distance. The NF models are the no-feather versions of their respective sizes.

Why does it cast so well?
The rear taper is thicker than on the smaller Gunfish sizes, so more mass sits behind the center and the bait carries and tracks straighter in the air.

What rod and line?
Medium to medium-heavy with a moderate action, 7' or longer. Braid to a fluorocarbon or mono leader; avoid heavy fluorocarbon straight through.

Are these colors coming back?
Aurora Black, Ghost Minnow, and MS American Shad are limited-run colors on Lucky Craft's list. Chartreuse Shad is standard. Call the shop and we'll tell you what's inbound.

Related Gear

• Lucky Craft Gunfish 115NF — no-feather 115.
• Lucky Craft Gunfish 95NF — no-feather 95.
• Lucky Craft Gunfish 95 H3 — three-hook 95.
• Topwater Fishing Lures — poppers, walking baits, and stickbaits.

Buy It From People Who Fish It

We're on Soledad Canyon Road in Santa Clarita, twenty minutes from Castaic, and we fish these lakes ourselves. Not sure which Gunfish you want, or whether today's a popping day or a walking day? Call the shop or come in — that's a short conversation and it saves you buying the wrong one first.