The only mods I put on my Pop-R's is I change the trebles to the red Eagle Claw Lazers. It seams to make a difference especially with peacock bass down here. They love color, especially Tiger Shad so I use that color for a lot of my bass plugs. The one thing no one mentioned is something I've observed and learned over the years down here, he caught those huge fish on top, in the middle of the day, in the bright sun! I was always told not to fish on top in the sun at mid-day but I won many tournaments on Big O doing just that. The canals Ernie was fishing are especially good for top in those conditions because the fish are confined to a narrow U shaped channel and really have nowhere to hide so if they are hungry, they look up from the deep cool depths and react to what's on top before it gets away, grab it and dive back down to the cool water below. The bank will slope down for a couple of feet shallow and then drop quickly to 12-15 feet on both sides so those fish weren't hiding in Lillys to avoid bright sun and hot water getting stressed and having their energy zapped by it. They came from the deep at the edge of the drop. That's where the big fish stage in the summer after the sun passes the angle where it shines into the water, around 10 AM. That day was totally flat, 95 degrees and sunny. I had the same conditions on my backyard lake and fish were running baits on top around the ledge, which for my lake is out about 10 feet from shore, then it drops to 21 feet. Those would have hit on top too, even in the heat and sun but I just watched them and enjoyed the view. One thing i've learned about fishing the Florida Everglades. Conventional bass fishing wisdom don't apply, especially when it pertains to topwater bass fishing. Bass will hit topwater in the middle of the day and when there's blue skies. I don't get it but I like it!