by Bruce Middleton, October 10, 2006

Wait for the weight when top water lure fishing…

Top water lures lend themselves to thinner lines, making long casts, using smaller lures on active bass and most importantly of all, waiting for the weight of the fish on the lure before you set the hook. These are just about the most repeated words in the world when people talk about top water lure fishing and for good reason, they are sound advice. While light lines are not always used, most fishermen do recommend them because the line lies on the surface of the water and can be seen by the bass. Heavy lines also retard the action of the lure and make it much harder to get the full range of motion out of your top waters. As for the phrase ‘wait for the weight’ this is because when a bass first inhales a top water lure, he also takes in a lot of air with the water. He then must expel all that water and air before he can fully close his mouth on the lure. If you set the lure too quickly his mouth will still be open and you stand a good chance of loosing him but if you wait until his mouth is shut before you set the hook you will have a much better chance of setting the hook inside the bass’s mouth. The same can be applied to an underwater hook set.

Long casts are used around spooky bass. Unfortunately this hurts your ability to get a quick and sharp hook set if you using monofilament line. If you’re going to make long casts ensure you use a non-stretch line for hook-setting capabilities. Most casts are of a medium range, that is, not as far as you can cast but as far as you can cast easily. This range is best for imparting action to the lure with the rod tip.

Floating minnows, poppers, chuggers, surface dancers, floating plastics like worms, prop baits, stick baits, buzz baits, scum frogs and floating baits are all floating or surface lures. There are a lot of choices when it comes to choosing the type of top water lure you want to use. Most people start using top water lures when the water temperature reaches 70 degrees or more. This coincides with the post spawn when most bass are off their beds and actively feeding. Shallow cover is a good place to create a ruckus. Top water lures are made to be noisy and attract attention. They are made to imitate a dying or crippled fish and some are made to look like big fat bugs, frogs or small snakes, all on the bass’s menu. Top waters provoke the bass and by repeated casts you can actually irritate a bass into striking the lure. Main lake structure like points, humps and drop offs are also good spot to use top water lure. Around docks and old piers, near weed lines and lily pads are great area for this type of lure. To make thing easier, think of top water lures in four basic categories; chuggers, stick baits, prop baits and soft swim baits. Chuggers are the spitters and poppers group. When twitched they chug, gulp or spit water to make noise. Stick baits, like the ever-popular Zara Spook, are the "Walk-The-Dog" twitches baits. Prop baits or propeller baits are the easiest group to use since the propeller makes all the noise for you. And the soft plastic jerk baits are increasingly becoming more popular because they are hooked weedless and can go where no other top water can. All top water baits are fished slowly and all are fished in heavy cover areas like fallen trees, brush piles and the like.

When fishing poppers, patience’s is a must. Allow the lure to sit motionless after the cast until all the splash rings have dissipated, and then wait a little longer. A slight twitch after this wait will draw the best strikes. If nothing happens, use a twitch, pause retrieve and recast. Use the rod tip to pop the lure giving it slack immediately after each pop. When it comes to poppers a white mouth gives off more flash than a red or black mouth. Red hooks work better than silver hooks and rear hook shirts are better than no rear hook skirts. Rear hook shirts made of feathers are better than plastic. Using poppers around the inside and outside edges of vegetation can be very fruitful. In dingy or muddy water use a darker colored bottom on the top water lure, as silver and chrome will disappear. Black will give a much better silhouette. Prop baits work best when there is a chop on the water. The added noise of the propeller(s) can be heard over the noise of the waves beating on the shore. Propeller lures have really been popular; they get gummed up with vegetation at a drop of the hat. And some people believe the noise they make will scare fish nor attract them. As always, what you tie on to the end of your line is a personal choice but propeller lures are still being made and sold today so somebody still thinks they work. When bass prefer a subtle top water presentation turn to a stick bait or a floating minnow. Between side-to-side twitches let the lure set for several seconds to create a more finesse approach.

The dirtier the water the louder the top water must be. Dirty water; use a prop bait that is orange and easy to see. Remember at the last second a bass must see what he is to strike or he will not bite it. A Tiny Torpedo™ in flooded brush in muddy water is a great choice for a top water lure. In clear water the softer the color from silver to white the better. Walkers do very good in clear water as do poppers but you have to make long casts with them to get as far away from the boat as possible. A black walker does well in clear water but in-between colors (between black and white) are not so good. You may need to pause a walker for up to a minute between moves, so experiment by starting out with a few second pause and extending it a little at a time until you find what the bass want. Most top water lures are fished very slowly. Enough to give you an anxiety attack, that slow. Wind creates a ripple on the water and a ripple is mandatory for most top water lure.

Popper, chuggers and walkers are all good choices in a light ripple. In a heavier choppy ripple a buzz bait is probably better with walkers and chuggers doing ok. Some pros believe that the color of top water lures is unimportant because a bass coming up from below sees a profile and light or dark colors. Others say colors make a huge difference. The profile, light against dark background makes the most sense. While they differ on color they both agree that size is critical. Small baits are used in the spring when prey fish are small and larger top waters are used as the year progresses. Keep an open mind on your retrieve. Sometimes you can take a Zara Spook™ and burn it straight back to the boat and it really works. Other times you have to walk the dog with it to catch bass. The sun is a factor because top water lures are low light level lures. They work best at dawn and dusk than at noon. But the largest bass of the day will be taken on a top water lure at noon, but you will get only a very few bites during the day. Remember too to follow up with a worm should a bass short strike you.

Bass will hit top water lures through out the day under overcast days. For daylong action try working chuggers and poppers with a stop and go retrieve. You’ll find most strike occur during the pause when the lure is setting still. If the bite falls off, switch to spinner baits and buzz baits. By tying directly to a popper or chugger and darting it across the water surface in a fast and erratic fashion then letting rest in a stop and go action, the bass will literally explode all over it before it has a chance to get away. They just can’t stand it and they will attack it as hard as they can. Then again a small grub attached to a popper but say 6 inches behind it can land many bass after the morning bite has fallen off. This trick is used when bass are interested but not enough to break the surface for the lure. Use a Palamar Knot to tie the Popper on with and an improved Clench Knot to tie the hook for the grub on with.

Surface darter or dancers are lipless floating lures like a Zara Spook™ and others. With or without rattles this type following that use nothing else for surface fishing. "Walking the dog" that zigzag pattern of twitch the lure left and right is the only way to fish this lure. No matter what shape top water lure you use from large cigar shaped to smaller minnow shaped darting action, a fisherman’s objective is the same. Imitate a wounded prey and catch a bass on it. A good cadence is important to develop with top water lures. It sets the stage for how you fish the lure and how that lure will act in the water. Work the rod tip more than your arm once the lure is in the water.

In spring around wood that has sunk to the bottom, a good choice of lures is a jerk bait. Soft or hard jerk baits are the anglers choice but a soft jerk bait seems to work best in shallow areas while a hard stick type jerk bait seems to work best in more open water and deeper water. Jig and worms still work best around docks and other stationary objects and for brush piles a top water lure or spinner bait is the best. With top water lures like a Zara Spook a really quick snap of the rod tip and a no slack left in the line, the lure walks in a straighter line but creates more surface commotion. With a slow rod tip snap and more slack in the line, the angler will get more side-to-side action but the lure will make less noise.

Zara Spooks work best in clear water and is a great choice for night fishing. Black with small white markings is the top color for day or night. Tie a Zara Spook with a loop knot. This will let the lure travel left and right to its maximum extent without interference. To tie a loop knot start with a single overhand knot, then run the lead end through the eye of the top water lure. You then run the lead end through the loop of the overhand knot and tie another overhand knot at the end of the line. Pulling the two knots tight first and then pulling them together will give you the desired loop knot. You only need practice getting the knots as close as possible. Clip any long loose tag end.
On fall days when the water temperature is around 60 degrees and a small ripple is formed by the wind, that’s the time to bring out the Zara Spook™ top water lure and walk the dog with it. It’s a dandy top water lure that really talks to the bass. There are other top water lures that will cover more water in less time but a spook will land more bass. When fishing a top water lure in fall look for green weeds. Weeds will absorb the suns rays and heat the surrounding water, which will draw bass to it. Also brown and dying weeds use up oxygen in the decaying process leaving little for the fish to breath. Green weeds will still produce oxygen. Poppers and chuggers are good choices in green weeds.

Surface wobblers have a metal plate in front of the body that runs perpendicular to it. They work best in low light. Cast along shorelines, lily pads and weed beds. Use 20-pound test line as they catch very large bass indeed. Wobblers unlike other top waters are never stopped. You always use a constant retrieve. Slow and steady is the way of the Wobblers. Also use a long rod with them for long casts, as they are somewhat light.
Top water lures like Strike Kings Spittin’ King™ in a gizzard shad color, fished in shallow water over submerged grass beds can be a real thrill in the first few hours of the morning. Top water lures are low light level lures and work best in the morning, evening and in the shade. White colored top waters are easier to see than reflective colors. Stay with more non-reflective colors and don’t use chromes or flashy reflective surfaces at first. Black, white, blues work just fine to start the day with. Remember that top water lure work best with a ripple on the water too and a light wind and a drizzly rain actually help the fishing.

Then there is the old reliable walk the dog retrieve where you cast the lure out and with the rod tip snap the rod tip forward then back so slack is left in the line. This slack is the most important part of walking the dog. It allows the lure to dart in any direction the lure is pointed to at the time and the slack lets the lure glide to a stop in any direction it choices. In addition the lure will vibrate to a stop.

Green frogs with white bellies and blue or black rats are good top water lures. But like all top water lures you really have to wait. The first attack is usually to kill or cripple the prey. The second attack is usually the bite.

This brings us to soft plastics used as top water lures. More and more the top anglers of the world are turning to plastics to skim the surface of the water in order to catch monster bass. Yum’s Buzz Frog has flipper feet on it that act like hard plastic buzz bait blades as it is pulled through the water. Other soft plastic are now on the market with lots more appendages to create extra sound and commotion in the water as they move like the new Gary Yama-moto Kreature. The new Yum Shad has a sideways split tail to create a gurgling noise as it crosses the surface.

Hook selection is critical with these new plastics now too. Instead of using a 4x of 5x EWG to fit these larger plastics, I recommend that you use a TX3 EWG from Excalibur because of the double extra wide opening. This still retains the shortness of the hook shank bit gives you the gap you need to get a good hook set.

When throwing a top water lure, if the bass has the lure deep in its mouth you have chosen the best possible color, size and shape. If the bass is lightly hooked you may not be using the optimum color, size or shape or your retrieve may be too fast. Just because you have caught a bass doesn’t automatically mean you have exactly done everything you can to optimize your presentation. You can learn just as much from catching a bass as from not catching one. Always try to learn everything you an every time you go out fishing.

If you love the sight of the sun lighting up the clouds first thing in the morning over a lake you a great candidate to be a top water fisherman. Every fisherman needs a small arsenal of top water lures at his or her disposal. While they catch black largemouth bass in the early morning, the also catch them all day long. Every top water lure you have will catch fish. Which one to use, under what given conditions and season is the key. Trial and error and experience will help you eliminate some lure some of the time. But time on the water will always teach you more if you just watch and learn. Three factors influence top water lure use. Wind, watercolor and intensity of sunlight.

The swish of a Zara Spook™ to the splat of a chugger or a slurp of a spitter, the bass may want anything. A quite style of a Spook or the noisy sound of a Rio Rico ™ or and even louder Rio Grande™. They may even want more great sound say from an Ichiban Minnow ™ or the irresistible splashy sound of a Super Spook™. It’s up to you to experiment to find out exactly what the bass want and when they want it. Bass are extremely active feeders during the warm water periods of late spring through early fall and they will eagerly chase down and attack surface prey. Since dawn and dusk are prime feeding hours these are some of the best times to use top water lures.

Remember to use a floating line like Monofilament or fluorocarbons as they help keep the lure on the surface and acting correctly.

Cadence is the next thing that comes into play. It is second only to lure choice in determining how many bass you will catch that day. Again you must experiment with cadence until you find what the bass want to see in order to take the most fish. And finally is where to use top water lures. They are made for use out in deep water. They are made to go over the top of structure and cover. They are perfect in and around weeds and lily pads. They can even produce well over the top of rocky areas where the bass can see the bait above them, rise up to strike it and dive back down again. But the water must not be too deep.

The anticipation of a huge bass smashing your top water lure worked slowly across the surface is the ultimate thrill. When they hit the lure they come flying out of the water, lure in mouth, like the magazine pictures you’ve seen. Bass blast top waters for two reasons, to feed and out of reflex. This makes top waters a ‘double your odds lure’. You have two reasons for the bass to want to strike it. And believe me when a big bass comes out of the water with your lure embedded in its mouth, these is no bigger thrill.

Bruce Middleton

bpmiddleton@peoplepc.com