Double Up....On Topwater

[papajoe222]

Catching two bass on the same lure happens once in a great while. With the exception of an A-Rig, you're lucky if it happens two or three times in your life. It's an experience few forget, but the actual fight is forgetful.  I love topwater (who doesn't?) and for more years than I care to admit, I've been using a little known, or should I say talked about, way of not only catching two bass on the same cast, but enjoying the fight from each of them.  That little gem is called a FrontRunner. It's a little, single treble hook, floating  lure not much bigger than a quarter that is exactly what its name implies. Attached to your main offering using a short piece of mono, it will dance in front of it.

The dog days are the best time that I've found when this combo really shines. Sometimes you'll catch them on that little piece of floating balsa, but most times that main offering gets 'em.. For some reason, during the dog days you'll get one on each and because the two lures are separated, the fish fight independent of each other. The fish will, more often than not, be the same size, but on a 'rare' occasion that main bait will get a big girl with a dink on the FrontRunner.

So why settle for two or three doubles in your lifetime when you could get two or three every summer?

[fin]

I'd be lucky to have two fish within a hundred feet of each other on my lake here lately. lol

 

I wonder if you could do the same thing with a small lipless, just remove the rear hook? Like a 1/8 oz Bill Lewis Tiny Trap. Or just break the lip off a small crank bait. I may have to try that.

[Captain Phil]

I have caught two fish on one cast numerous times in my life.  The first time was when I was about 16 years old.   I was fishing off a bridge and was able to see how it happened.  I hooked a three pound bass on a LS Mirrolure.  While the fish was fighting, a larger bass tried to steal the lure from my fish.  Both got hooked and I caught a three and a six on the same cast.

 

The funniest thing that happened was about 20 years ago.  I got a call from the Orlando Newspaper Fishing Editor asking me to take him fishing.  We went to the Butler Chain and launched the boat before dark.   I idled down a canal and started to fish.  It was just starting to get light. The writer was sitting in the back of the boat watching me fish.  I was throwing a Devil's Horse along a sea wall.   I got a strike and the fish went to the bottom.  I could feel it thrashing around, but it didn't feel right.  When I got the fish to the boat, there was two three pound bass hung on the lure.   The writer said he had never seen that.  He wrote an article in the newspaper telling everyone in Central Florida I catch two bass at a time!   I got a lot of kidding from that.

 

Here is a photo I took about two years ago.  These two fish hit a Rattle Trap in the bottom of Little Lake Harris. This was after my back surgery when I was fishing from a Pontoon boat.

 

 

[Munkin]

I have caught doubles on top water and crankbaits just not many. The main lure for doubling up is a jerk bait in the fall. Usually you hook one and another tries stealing the bait. Craziest was the drop shot double where one was on the hook and the other holding the sinker.  Actually boat flipped both of them.

 

Allen 

[DitchPanda]

10 hours ago, fin said:

I'd be lucky to have two fish within a hundred feet of each other on my lake here lately. lol

 

I wonder if you could do the same thing with a small lipless, just remove the rear hook? Like a 1/8 oz Bill Lewis Tiny Trap. Or just break the lip off a small crank bait. I may have to try that.

I'm living this right now. My local lake as been extra stingy this year, I mean like worst fishing I've had there in 20+ years. Think I've been skunked the last 3 or 4 times out. By this time of year I've usually caught well over 100 bass there, this year I've caught  maybe 15. Put that into perspective I've fished a lake 35 miles from my house 1 time this year for 2.5hrs and I caught 13. I'm just too busy on weekends, always got scrap going on. When I only get 2.5 to 3 hrs at a crack I don't want to spend half of it driving.

[fin]

47 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

I'm living this right now. My local lake as been extra stingy this year, I mean like worst fishing I've had there in 20+ years. Think I've been skunked the last 3 or 4 times out. By this time of year I've usually caught well over 100 bass there, this year I've caught  maybe 15. Put that into perspective I've fished a lake 35 miles from my house 1 time this year for 2.5hrs and I caught 13. I'm just too busy on weekends, always got scrap going on. When I only get 2.5 to 3 hrs at a crack I don't want to spend half of it driving.

 

On this lake I've fished for like 10 years, normally the bass will school up and feed on shad at a certain place. They still feed there, but only one or two at a time and not very often, when it used to be like 10 fish at a time much more often. I've caught doubles there before when they were feeding like that, but I think the odds of me catching a double this year are like one in a million.

[Bird]

Jerk baits are the only bait that has produced doubles twice and both times it was Smallmouth.

It's actually a mess trying to get them unhooked.

[J Francho]

I've doubled up on topwater and traps. 

Always smallies. 

[Bluebasser86]

I've doubled lots of times, and I've thrown a Frontrunner quite a bit. None of my doubles have been on a Frontrunner. 

 

Jerkbaits, traps, poppers, spooks, squarebills, and glidebaits have all accounted for my doubles. I've had 2 doubles on an A-rig, both times were 2 white bass. My most recent one was only a month or so ago on a squarebill with a largemouth/smallmouth double.