Pick One Topwater Technique to Master

[WRB]

Have you ever watch bass chase shad?

The shad panics racing across the surface and bass blast it.

Fishing poppers anglers think of a  slow Hula Poppper that plop plop plop rest rest twitched, plop rest slow and tedious.

Pop-R poppers were modified Zell Roland and Japanese anglers to be fished like a panicked shad or other bait fish racing across for it’s life, fast spitting splash pops for several feet before pausing a few seconds. There is more to skilled popper retrieves then plop and sit.

Good dog walking surface lures tend to sit tail down and walk easily. My favorite is Activa-Owner Zip n Ziggy and Lucky Craft Wood Sammy. 

Then we get into the prop surface lures, double prop Devil Horse, Spin Rockets, Whopper Ploppers and buzz baits.

Whole world of surface lures some are cast wind, some require working skills like walk the dog or stop go receives all work.

Tom

 

[casts_by_fly]

2 hours ago, Bankc said:

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.  

 

2 hours ago, gimruis said:

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

 

Buzzbaits get my vote.

 

I do love the plopper as a cast and wind bait.  I catch a lot of good fish on it.  I think it has a place in the arsenal next to a buzzbait.  However, the treble hooks really limit where you can throw it.  Almost any type of vegetation either catches on the hooks or wraps around the prop shaft (which is a pain to clean on the water if its fine grass that gets inside the prop).  Overhead cover and wooded cover you really have to watch where you land it and what's under it since it dips 6-10" under when it lands.  Docks with carpet and rope are a pain too.  A buzzbait is a lot more forgiving of bringing it through slop, around docks, and over wood.  For a beginner, that will lead to a lot less frustration and a lot more casting tight to cover.

[hunterPRO1]

on the topic of poppers, i have personally not had as much success with them as other topwaters, and when i have it was by walking them; not popping.

 

i did however fish with someone once who would fish a popper and another bait simultaneously. 

he would cast the popper, let the ripples disperse, and pop it lightly 3 times.

he would then set the popper rod down and make a cast with whatever else, fish that bait back to the boat, pick the popper back up and make one small blurp before putting the rod back down and then casting the other lure back out.

 

the first two times i fished with him he never got hit on it and i just wrote it off altogether.

 

the third time we fished together he did it again, only this time, about an hour into our excursion, i heard a massive splash and turned to see an eight and a half pound bass that had lunged clean out of the water to eat that popper.

 

to this day ive never tried this mostly from lack of patience with a bait i dont have confidence in, and to be honest I had forgotten it until the posts in this thread about poppers brought it back up.

ive had similar experiences with fish eating frogs after long pauses, including a 7 pounder that ate it after I counted to 45.

[Bankbeater]

I'd start off easy with something that will give you a feel for the vegetation.  Maybe a popper, frog, or buzzbait.

[rangerjockey]

I'd pick up a plopper or 2 and just heave em out there , vary the retrieve some and no matter how many swats you get keep it coming.  One Bone or Loon and one natural color on 50lb. braid and you can pull it out of most anything.

The advantage the WP has over a buzz bait is that it casts easier and you can pause it.

 Some are going to miss it but I've caught enough of them that I'd rather watch them blow up a topwater and not get a hook than I would catch them dragging something.

 

[Darth-Baiter]

walking and poppers so far have been my most successful.

 

i love it when a Striped bass decides to get involved. 

[Drawdown]

Buzz bait is the only topwater I’ve ever really fished and caught a fish on (white Booyah with a clacker and a fluke for a trailer). But it strikes me as very aggressive and loud. And since you can’t really leave a buzz bait to pause long lest it sink, it’s going to be moving a lot.

 

So I guess I’ll be hoping to get more of a “visual + water displacement” approach only to complement it.

I’m thinking of picking up some “pencil poppers” like Yo-Zuri (sp?) makes.

[Bankc]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned toads or Torpedoes.  I've done fairly well on both.  They're both very effective and easy to use topwaters.

The good thing about a toad is it's easy to retrieve like a buzzbait, but weedless like a frog.  I prefer the paddletail frogs.  And unlike a frog, the hookset isn't nearly as difficult. The good thing about Heddon Torpedoes is they can be retrieved any way you want and still catch fish.  Fast and steady, or in slow spurts. 

 

Still, a Zara Spook and Rebel Pop-R are my most productive topwaters.  Both require a bit more skill to use, but nothing that can't be learned in an hour or so.  However, they seem to excel when the wind and water is calm, which isn't that often for me.  So they're more of a treat than a meat and potatoes lure for me.  

[Drawdown]

19 minutes ago, Bankc said:

However, they seem to excel when the wind and water is calm, which isn't that often for me.  So they're more of a treat than a meat and potatoes lure for me.  

 

A funny part of living in a part of the country where you’re in between mountains and ridges is you almost never get the kind of wind one sees on the Plains.

For us in SE TN, a 15mph day is pretty gusty. March seems to be the only time we consistently hit 20mph. So I fish and hunt a lot of relatively calm water here.

[BassNJake]

On 8/28/2022 at 11:38 PM, Drawdown said:

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).

I fish a toad as my primary topwater bait.

I view it as a finesse type of buzzbait, that's weedless and skips well.

It's an excellent search bait.

Honestly, I dont have the patience for walking a frog over the same water.

I fish Norris Lake in east TN and its deep, clear and has no weeds.

I'll catch em' over open water but that because underwater there are rocks, submerged laydowns, depth changes all the things that hold fish

[schplurg]

I'd say it gets no easier than a popper. Caught my first bass ever on one.

[Munkin]

Popper and buzzbait will be the easiest. 

 

Allen 

[Deephaven]

There is no topwater I am eager to fish more than a frog.  That being said it may not be the best first topwater lure, but definitely make it your 2nd or 3rd.

[CrashVector]

Frogs for grass, etc

 

Devil horse for more open areas

 

Floating weightless worm in pockets in the thick stuff.

[Chris Catignani]

To me...it all depends on the presence of grass. I'll throw a frog of rat on grass.

I cant say enough about a Spook. It casts like a scud missile and catches like no other bait.

All bass hate that thing...snakes will bite it...birds will dive on it.

[Drawdown]

10 hours ago, Deephaven said:

There is no topwater I am eager to fish more than a frog.  That being said it may not be the best first topwater lure, but definitely make it your 2nd or 3rd.

I guess what gives me pause about frogs is I’ve heard the hookup ratio can be terribly iffy. I suppose the hook design makes it to where fish have to really commit to it or hit it at the right angle.

 

But, that may just be the cost one pays to be relatively weedless.

[Bass Rutten]

On 8/29/2022 at 10:16 AM, 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.

Very curious, would you mind sharing the 5 techniques? 

[casts_by_fly]

8 hours ago, Drawdown said:

I guess what gives me pause about frogs is I’ve heard the hookup ratio can be terribly iffy. I suppose the hook design makes it to where fish have to really commit to it or hit it at the right angle.

 

But, that may just be the cost one pays to be relatively weedless.

nah. You’ll get blowups that don’t commit to it, but you don’t set the hook until you feel the weight of the fish. Just keep working it until the line comes tight (that’s true for all topwaters). One of the YouTube guys did a test where he let a bass hit a frog and swim with it until the bass spit it out. After 8 or 10 seconds he was still swimming with it. You don’t have to be fast to set the hook and if you pull too quickly you will pull it out of the strike zone and eliminate any chance of that fish hitting it on that cast.