Topwaters Over Clear Water

[Mobasser]

A black Arbogast Hula Popper was my first real topwater bass lure. I caught many bass as a kid in murky ponds casting to the shoreline with the Hula Popper.                                               Now, I'm fishing a clear water lake two or three times a week during season. Poppers have produced poorly here. What works are moving topwaters. Zara Spook, buzzbaits, or any topwater bait that stays moving across the surface are the ones that draw strikes. The Spook sometimes draws strikes from deeper areas also.                  We'll probably never know how far bass  can actually see. But in clear water, they get a much better look at your surface lure. This is my own explanation for why the fish won't hit poppers here. They can spot a fake, and reject it.    It's just a guess?    I've tried walking some poppers and fishing them quickly across the surface with no luck.                   Has anyone had this experience with poppers in clear water? I might add that I love poppers. They're a blast to fish, and I've got several. I just can't catch them on a popper over clear water. Any thoughts or similar experience?

[Bluebasser86]

Meet them in the middle with something like a pencil popper. The Berkley Cane Walker has done well for me in clear water in the right conditions. 

 

A popper can be good in clear water but I like something that covers more water when the water is clear. Walking baits and wake baits are usually what I go for. 

[A-Jay]

ALL I fish is clear water - like tap water clear.

Long casts are paramount. 

Walkers work for me but are a better choice when there's a little ripple on the surface.

Poppers ARE THE Deal in the Flattest, Calmest conditions. 

Walkers & poppers have accounted for several of my biggest brown bass.

Exhibits A & B from this season are linked below for your viewing pleasure.

Sexy Dawg ~ https://youtu.be/sOBk7MV01o8?t=104

Pop Max ~ https://youtu.be/sITpRNLz_04?t=413

A-Jay

[Mobasser]

2 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

ALL I fish is clear water - like tap water clear.

Long casts are paramount. 

Walkers work for me but are a better choice when there's a little ripple on the surface.

Poppers ARE THE Deal in the Flattest, Calmest conditions. 

Walkers & poppers have accounted for several of my biggest brown bass.

Exhibits A & B  for this season are linked below for you viewing pleasure.

Sexy Dawg ~ https://youtu.be/sOBk7MV01o8?t=104

Pop Max ~ https://youtu.be/sITpRNLz_04?t=413

A-Jay

 A-Jay, thank you. I'm not giving up on them yet. 

[gim]

I used to have dynamite success with a buzz bait when the water was murkier.  The fish would hammer it and it was a very entertaining way to target them.

 

Waters have cleared here in recent years.  Topwaters have gone almost completely dry.  But this makes me think that maybe I just need to speed things up.  Instead of just a standard retrieve, I might try burning something at a high rate.  I use spinnerbaits at a high rate, why not a topwater.

 

Since Xmas is over and our tree came down, the whopper plopper ornaments have also come down.  Maybe I will try one again next season.

 

 

[A-Jay]

5 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

 A-Jay, thank you. I'm not giving up on them yet. 

Sure thing.

Something I didn't add before but should have.

I fish walkers to sort of cover water or at least to fish 'an area'.

Poppers for me are target baits.

I'm usually throwing them 'over something'

Weed edge, point tip, isolated wood, dead jet skier . . .

You get the point.

A-Jay

[Dwight Hottle]

6 hours ago, Mobasser said:

A black Arbogast Hula Popper was my first real topwater bass lure. I caught many bass as a kid in murky ponds casting to the shoreline with the Hula Popper.                                               Now, I'm fishing a clear water lake two or three times a week during season. Poppers have produced poorly here. What works are moving topwaters. Zara Spook, buzzbaits, or any topwater bait that stays moving across the surface are the ones that draw strikes. The Spook sometimes draws strikes from deeper areas also.                  We'll probably never know how far bass  can actually see. But in clear water, they get a much better look at your surface lure. This is my own explanation for why the fish won't hit poppers here. They can spot a fake, and reject it.    It's just a guess?    I've tried walking some poppers and fishing them quickly across the surface with no luck.                   Has anyone had this experience with poppers in clear water? I might add that I love poppers. They're a blast to fish, and I've got several. I just can't catch them on a popper over clear water. Any thoughts or similar experience?

 

None of us knows but I always figured that the bass could see as well as I can regarding water clarity. If I can see bottom in 10' or 20' feet of water they see a bait above them the same distance. Also add a wake bait to your top water arsenal. 

[Jar11591]

Most of my lakes, including all my favorites would be classified as clear. Usually 6’ of visibility even on a poor day. Poppers are always a top bait for numbers for me even in clear water. Like @A-Jay, I have most success on poppers when it’s dead calm. Walking baits I generally prefer when there is a slight chop, and I’ve found that walking baits can also produce for longer after the sun is high than a popper.
 

So I haven’t really noticed water clarity related to success with poppers. I have witnessed one interesting instance while fishing clear water at a mid-lake pile of boulders that came within 2 feet of the surface, surrounded by 60’ of water on all sides. I would cast a popper over the rocks, and every single cast would result in a half dozen blowups from smallmouth, but not a single one would even touch the bait. They were clearing excited over it but we’re unwilling to actually make contact. I assumed they were not liking what they saw at the last second, so I switched to a walking bait and worked it quickly as to not give them a chance to see it. Well that resulted in a complete shutdown of the topwater action. So there’s that. I was able to pick a couple off with a drop shot and spinnerbaits around the boulders but found no rhyme or reason to why they were unwilling to actually eat the topwater bait they were so excited over. 

[scaleface]

I havent fished a lot of clear water but when I have  buzzbaits have been my best top water followed by Spooks .

[softwateronly]

5 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

 

None of knows but I always figured that the bass could see as well as I can regarding water clarity. If I can see bottom in 10' or 20' feet of water they see a bait above them the same distance. Also add a wake bait to your top water arsenal. 

 

Because of the power of a silhouette I'd guess they can see double the distance when looking up.

 

scott

[casts_by_fly]

6 hours ago, Mobasser said:

A black Arbogast Hula Popper was my first real topwater bass lure. I caught many bass as a kid in murky ponds casting to the shoreline with the Hula Popper.                                               Now, I'm fishing a clear water lake two or three times a week during season. Poppers have produced poorly here. What works are moving topwaters. Zara Spook, buzzbaits, or any topwater bait that stays moving across the surface are the ones that draw strikes. The Spook sometimes draws strikes from deeper areas also.                  We'll probably never know how far bass  can actually see. But in clear water, they get a much better look at your surface lure. This is my own explanation for why the fish won't hit poppers here. They can spot a fake, and reject it.    It's just a guess?    I've tried walking some poppers and fishing them quickly across the surface with no luck.                   Has anyone had this experience with poppers in clear water? I might add that I love poppers. They're a blast to fish, and I've got several. I just can't catch them on a popper over clear water. Any thoughts or similar experience?

we have clear water basically all year here too with a couple exceptions. By clear, I’m talking 4-10’ typically. Sometimes more, rarely less (the exceptions aside). A spook (sexy dawg) colored to match the light conditions and a black buzzbait are my two top producers. Ploppers also do well at times (black typically). If I’m fishing a spook or plopper, I find it’s hard to fish it too fast. For a buzzbait, it’s hard to fish it too slow.

[FishTank]

A lot of the strip pits I have fished have super clear water and all the fish are line shy and bait shy.  Anytime I go to these spots either in my kayak or just fishing from the bank, it always means two things.... down size everything and long casts.  So that means small baits and light line. I generally will go with a small topwater popper, a spy bait, little jigs and small trout size lures. It use to be spinning gear and either 4 or 6lb test line but now I have come to like BFS gear for this type of fishing.  When the bite is on, it's a blast. 

[padon]

im with ajay. if you have a little wind or clouds hard to beat a walking bait especially if bait fish are high in the water. if its dead calm a slow twitched popper can sometimes pull them up.

[Revival]

Have a friend that kills it with a Sammy 100 on clear to gin clear water.  Catches largemouth, smallmouth and stripers with it.

 

I’ve had some success with a Yo-Zuri pencil in Ghost Prism. 

[GreenPig]

Our water clarity is normally 4 - 9' and if I've got fish located I'll walk a Rico(especially if they're actively feeding) in the area. If I'm covering water it's with the Evergreen 105 Showerblows, worked just slow enough to keep it from taking flight.

[Spankey]

My water clarity can vary a lot from week to week and month to month fishing primarily the river. I’m a bit old school mostly throwing the puppy spooks, Pop-R’s and Tiny Torpedoes. The Chug Bug another productive lure. I use the on the river and the lake. I’ve thrown some MegaBass, Googan, River2Sea, Berkley stuff, have caught fish but I think the older baits truly work better. Confidence thing????Maybe, maybe not. 

[WRB]

Iovino’s Splash-It’s Assasin shad and blue neon shad are both excellent clear water poppers.

Tom

[papajoe222]

In clear water during the post-spawn through fall transition, speed is your friend. I can't say that it's because the fish don't get a good look at your lure, but that seems to be the most common theory, I just know what works. 

I, personally don't like working a spook quickly as there are others that do the job easier for me. Ripping a prop bait quickly has produced plenty of smallmouth from deep, clear water.

[Koz]

Love me a good popper!

 

I just bought a Shimano World Pop 69F popper but haven't had the time to try it out. It's semi transparent and has a foil in it on springs so when you pop it, it flashes.

[Captain Phil]

I am not a big fan of poppers in fresh water.  However, the best bass popper I have found is the Yellow Magic.  They are somewhat costly, but they work. Made in Japan, they have the best action and hooks of any top water lure I have seen.  Fish this lure on light line. Great in clear water.

 

 

[Dwight Hottle]

Yellow Magic popper fish. They are extremely effective. Like @Captain Phil said the hooks are super sharp.