Pick One Topwater Technique to Master

[Drawdown]

So I haven’t taken the plunge yet—but at some point I’ll start focusing on learning a go-to topwater technique (and hopefully mastering it).

 

What should it be?

Types of Water:

- mostly TN River Lakes from a boat (lots of grass, laydowns, some shallow shell beds, some sandy bottom)

- occasionally N Georgia Rivers and COE lakes from the bank (mostly rocky structure with plenty of current, but also some laydowns, more frequent sandy bottom)

 

Forage: Threadfin shad, gizzard shad, bluegill—but also, seasonally, soft shelled small turtles, and to a lesser extent perch (and crawfish, FWIW).

[ironbjorn]

Makes no sense to just do one. Nothing in bass fishing works that way. I'd focus on walking baits, frogs and Spooks. Covers a lot and covers open water and vegetation.

[hunterPRO1]

frog for grass/cover and spook for open water.

 

 

Or be like me and throw a frog regardless of where you are because you want to.

[Cbump]

7 hours ago, ironbjorn said:

Makes no sense to just do one. Nothing in bass fishing works that way. I'd focus on walking baits, frogs and Spooks. Covers a lot and covers open water and vegetation.

I thought a spook was a walking bait?

[TnRiver46]

@BassNJakewill throw a toad over deep clear water and still catch ‘em . 
 

Buzzbait is probably my all time fav 

[Mike L]

Walk most any top water in place. 

Learn to do that consistently with a frog and a whole new world opens up. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike
 

 

[Deleted account]

No techniques, top water or otherwise, so no mastering, just catching...

[king fisher]

Jitterbug.  Simply because I believe every bass fisherman should get to experience the hypnotic blurb, blurb, blurb, sound interrupted by a massive strike, at least once in their life.  After that the Top Water Monkey will take over. 

     

[Functional]

7 minutes ago, king fisher said:

Jitterbug.  Simply because I believe every bass fisherman should get to experience the hypnotic blurb, blurb, blurb, sound interrupted by a massive strike, at least once in their life.  After that the Top Water Monkey will take over. 

     

I have way too many double jointed black jitterbugs than I care to admit. from 7pm to 7am thats all me and my father would throw on our all night trips and used to have good limits each every time.

[flyfisher]

I would definitely go with learning to walk the dog in a small area and patience.  Fish need time to find topwater and we all want to fish fast but you will find many times the longer it sit, the more violent the hit.

remember bass are not that bright and they have no hands to check things out so when their curiosity is at its highest the only thing it can do is try and eat it

[scaleface]

Walking the dog takes  a little bit of dexterity . It should take just a few cast to get the  rhythm  down .Buzzbaits can be fished in woody cover . Toads and frogs in muck . Like everything else  ,good  casting is the technique that is most important .

 

Being I dont take a multitude of rods like pro anglers a Zara Spook sized walking bait is better than say a Spittin Image . I cant cast the Spittin Image  very well on the gear I use .

[Mobasser]

It took me some time and practice to learn to walk the dog with a Spook. Walking baits are great. I'd also say buzzbait and popper should be in there also.                               Many of the best top water baits are classics, and have been used for decades.     I read that the Zara Spook, was invented in 1922.

My best jitterbugs are black, 5/8 oz non jointed models. The old ones are better than the ones you buy now. Flip the bait over. If it says Fred Arbogast Co Akron Ohio, it's going to be better. The metal lips on the new Chinese ones are thin and bend easily.

My best jitterbugs are black, 5/8 oz non jointed models. The old ones are better than the ones you buy now. Flip the bait over. If it says Fred Arbogast Co Akron Ohio, it's going to be better. The metal lips on the new Chinese ones are thin and bend easily.                                                 I also forgot to mention a prop bait. Lots of good ones out there. I like the Heddon Torpedo.

[ironbjorn]

3 hours ago, Cbump said:

I thought a spook was a walking bait?

Poor sentence structure on my part. I used a comma instead of saying "such as" frogs and Spooks.

[Jig Man]

I only know of two guys who mastered the spook.  One was nationally known, Charlie Campbell, the other one was a rural mail carrier by the name of Dean Byrum.

 I don’t know how many ways Charlie could fish a spook as I never talked to him about anything but sports.  But Dean decided to give a friend and I some lessons.  He said he could do 17 distinct things with a spook and showed us 5.  He said he would show us 5 more when we got those learned.

 I worked on them for years and only could do 4.  I never got the 5th one to work let alone master it.  Sadly Dean and Charlie have both passed taking all of that good knowledge with them.

[Dogface]

11 hours ago, ironbjorn said:

Makes no sense to just do one. Nothing in bass fishing works that way. 

 

?

 

There are so many top water baits and so many ways to work them. Do not limit yourself. I fish a lot of top water baits and experiment all the time. One of the things about top water I find most satisfying is that you can watch the bait and see what is happening. 

 

 

[Bankc]

Whopper plopper would be easiest, followed by the buzz bait.  

 

But I'd get myself a popper and focus on that if you're wanting to learn a new technique.  Learn how to work a popper, and you'll open up a bunch of other baits like walking baits and frogs that also work really well.  It's just that the popper has better feedback, in my opinion, so it tells you when you're doing it right easier than a walking bait.  

[casts_by_fly]

If you don't know ANY topwater techniques or fish any topwaters right now, then either a buzzbait or a frog as your first and the other for a second.  You can fish a buzzbait in open water up to loose slop and sporadic vegetation.  After that you need a frog.  A buzzbait is a simple cast and retrieve bait to get started with and it flat catches fish.  Then move to a frog and start with a basic hopping retrieve and a popping retrieve.  Then learn how to walk one.  If you learn those two, there isn't much else on topwater that you need.  A walking bait like a spook would be next once you get the motion down because you can cover a ton of water and fish eat them hard.  

[Catt]

Walk The Dog ?

 

It works with Spook, it works with frogs, it works with a popper, it works with Flukes, it work with Senkos, ect.

[WRB]

You are talking 2 lures; 1 weedless for grass beds and 1 with treble hooks for open water areas.

Weedless spoons can be used universally both on weed beds and open water areas.

Threadfin shad feeding bass react to shad size and color poppers like a Splash-it or dog walking lures like Sammy’s.

If you choose a hollow body popping frog use a pearl white that can also be worked around weed beds and lay downs plus more open water areas.

Tom

[gim]

Don't waste your time with those dumb whopper ploppers.

 

Buzzbaits get my vote.

[Mobasser]

36 minutes ago, Jig Man said:

I only know of two guys who mastered the spook.  One was nationally known, Charlie Campbell, the other one was a rural mail carrier by the name of Dean Byrum.

 I don’t know how many ways Charlie could fish a spook as I never talked to him about anything but sports.  But Dean decided to give a friend and I some lessons.  He said he could do 17 distinct things with a spook and showed us 5.  He said he would show us 5 more when we got those learned.

 I worked on them for years and only could do 4.  I never got the 5th one to work let alone master it.  Sadly Dean and Charlie have both passed taking all of that good knowledge with them.

I was lucky to meet Mr. Campbell years ago at BPS in Springfield Mo. He told me his favourite rod for Spooks was 51/2 ft, with a good tip flex. He liked 14lb mono, and round ABU reels. He was a very nice man, and gave his info freely. He also mentioned weighing Spooks and experimented with this.            He liked Spooks in Black Shore Minnow, Frog, and the Heddon Silver Shad, with the glitter on the sides. A great fisherman. I learned a lot about Spook fishing in the short time I talked with him.

[Chris Catignani]

37 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Don't waste your time with those dumb whopper ploppers.

 

Buzzbaits get my vote.

[Jar11591]

Some poppers can be walked too, such as the Megabass PopMax and the Storm Chug Bug. But like everyone is saying, I wouldn’t limit yourself to one topwater technique. There are times where a popper fished painfully slow is the key, other times where burning a spook is the best choice, and times when you need a hollow body frog to fish over the slop.

 

Topwater fishing is completely addicting, and also extremely effective at times. Spooks, Chug Bugs, and Pad Crashers are good baits to start out with, and together will cover a lot of bases for topwater. 

[Dwight Hottle]

Learn how to fish a simple popper. That will cover it all. My research shows more big bass caught on poppers than any other topwater. I love walk the dog baits & whopper poppers but poppers just produce better for me. They do require patience to fish. 

[LrgmouthShad]

10 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

My research shows more big bass caught on poppers than any other topwater

That surprises me. Very interesting.

OP I tried typing something but think I should just sit this one out and shut up because I don’t catch much on topwater, all things considered + I am realizing people are commenting better advice than I could give.