Active topwater bite based on weather

[GoneFishingLTN]

I understand you can't put rules on bass fishing but in general what is a good hint that the morning should have a good topwater bite? or how do you know they probably won't be hitting a topwater as much, based on water conditions? 

 

I know the answer is just fish and try it out, but I'm curious to learn based on weather conditions when the odds will be in my favor.

[looking45]

I think you answered your own question as well as anyone else. You won’t know until you try it

[Swamp Girl]

These are the things that stack the odds in my favor:

 

1. This is the most important by far: Launching early, as in 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. Sometimes they won't hit for the first hour or so, but sometimes they hit on the first cast.

 

2. Fog. Luckily, the best time to fish in the fog is early in the morning.

 

3. Clouds. Clouds give you even more stealth.

 

4. No dinosaurs. By dinosaurs, I mean Great Blue Herons, bald eagles, and ospreys. I've found that bass are less likely to rise to the surface on water patrolled by flying dinosaurs and I don't blame them.

 

5. Being deliberate. In my canoe, I'm deliberate about moving my rods and my paddle. They can hear if something hard strikes my canoe. 

 

6. A south wind. Straight south, SE, or SW are all good. 

[GoneFishingLTN]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

These are the things that stack the odds in my favor:

 

1. This is the most important by far: Launching early, as in 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. Sometimes they won't hit for the first hour or so, but sometimes they hit on the first cast.

 

2. Fog. Luckily, the best time to fish in the fog is early in the morning.

 

3. Clouds. Clouds give you even more stealth.

 

4. No dinosaurs. By dinosaurs, I mean Great Blue Herons, bald eagles, and ospreys. I've found that bass are less likely to rise to the surface on water patrolled by flying dinosaurs and I don't blame them.

 

5. Being deliberate. In my canoe, I'm deliberate about moving my rods and my paddle. They can hear if something hard strikes my canoe. 

 

6. A south wind. Straight south, SE, or SW are all good. 

Stuff like this is what I'm looking for, I know its just experience and everyone is different. Just nice to hear what others think

[Swamp Girl]

@GoneFishingLTN, to be frank, I feel like one of the least learned fishers at Bass Resource. I've never pitched, flipped, or cast under a dock. I know far fewer lures than most of you. I'm subpar casting my baitcasters, although that might improve with a new rod arriving today. I've never used electronics, so I've never located mid-lake reefs and humps and fished them. I've never used a drop shot or Carolina rig. And on and on and on.

 

However, I am experienced in catching smallies and largies on the surface in the morning and have caught thousands and thousands (lifetime) on perfect, foggy, cloudy, south wind mornings. The weather forecast determines when I go fishing. 

 

Ask me any other question and I'll have to defer to the experts at Bass Resource. 

[galyonj]

22 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I know far fewer lures than most of you.

 

I cannot stress how little this matters.

 

To paraphrase Sifu Lee, it's better to practice one kick 10,000 times than 10,000 kicks one time each.

[Swamp Girl]

@galyonj: I concede to you and Mr. Lee.

 

I've also found that conditions can be perfect (foggy, south wind, overcast, early) and the bass still won't hit a surface lure. Then the Sun rises and that's supposed to be the topwater bite killer. However, I have had great success some mornings on the surface after the Sun is up and especially if they weren't topwater feeding before that. Likewise with early spring fishing before they're supposed to be surface fishing. The fish below was one of many caught on the surface long before the water was warm or there were leaves on the trees. 

 

 

 

[Bird]

This is coming from someone who has not done well on top water this year and I've been on the water at daylight 3 days per week.

I can only attribute my limited success to the amount of prop baits the fish see.

 

I did catch my best fish of the day yesterday on a top water jerk bait " Rapala" but just not getting hit like past years.

 

Cloudy, calm and early is where I've had the most success with top water " in years past " ?

Frogs in pads or mat can be all day if you can find it, our lakes are limited.

 

My personal favorites:

Devil's Horse - best this year 

Buzzbaits

Whopper plopper - terrible this year 

Frogs - most consistent when pads are available.

Top water Jerk baits.

 

[Catt]

@ol'crickety Your comments has done two things.

 

One: spot on with what to look for in a topwater bite.

 

Two: it shows how good a angler you are. You know your strengths & admit your weaknesses.

 

To be a successful angler you only need one topwater, one mid-depth, & one bottom contact lure that you have total confidence in. 

[roadwarrior]

6 minutes ago, Catt said:

To be a successful angler you only need one topwater, one mid-depth, & one bottom contact lure that you have total confidence in. 

 

[casts_by_fly]

I'm an inveterate topwater fisher as the first thing cast every morning from May to september.  I love a good topwater bite and if there is one around I'm searching for it.  No doubt my favorite way/thing to fish.  Katy's got it right above and my observations concur for largemouth.  largemouth have big eyes and don't like bright light (generalization).  Anything that reduces like like darkness, clouds, fog, shade, chop, etc (all things katy mentioned) are positive factors for largemouth looking up.  Then its a case of what they want to eat, aka how aggressive they will be.  That +/- 1 hours around sunrise is my favorite time.  Bass have been adjusted to the dark all night and are on the feed.  The birds aren't out.  The bait is sleeping, the frogs are moving.  And usually the lake is quiet and to myself.

 

Smallies seem a bit more sight oriented as hunters and don't seem to mind sun as much.  

[Pat Brown]

@ol'cricketyyou definitely inspire me to throw topwater this summer and it's been extremely educational and fun.  I'm thankful for your influence in that regard and now I can definitely say the frog is always in my hand as I walk the bank or take the boat out.  It may not be the best topwater for hookups but I have supreme confidence in it now and it's been catching me big fish this summer!

 

?????

 

[rangerjockey]

I'd prefer clouds and some wind but really the most important thing is bait. If they start herding shad they will usually bite a topwater.

Even if I'm dragging a jig it's smart to have a topwater of some kind ready if you see them start to bust .

[Swamp Girl]

58 minutes ago, Catt said:

To be a successful angler you only need one topwater, one mid-depth, & one bottom contact lure that you have total confidence in. 

 

When I return from a fishing trip, I feel like I should simply say "the usual suspects" for my lures. I did use a fluke the other morning and caught three on it and I use the occasional crankbait, popper, or a Mepps spinner, but 99% of the time, it's a Whopper Plopper, Rage Tail paddletail, and a wacky worm. In a bog, I can't drag a lure on the bottom without dredging weeds, but with the paddletail and wacky worm, I get close to the bottom and both work at mid-depths too. 

 

@Pat Brown: You catch such big bass that I'm your fangirl. Yep, catching them on the surface is so much fun. However, as we've all learned, keeping a bass pinned on a frog in the lily pads is no easy feat. I had a big one hooked a few mornings ago, but lost it. In the fight, you're outnumbered, for it's just you against the bass and the pads. Still, the thrill! I don't know why a bass hitting my frog shakes my nerves and rattles my brain, but it does. When other surface lures, I'm cool as a bottle of beer fresh from fridge, but when a bass hits my frog, I unravel.

 

@casts_by_fly, I like your explanations for why bass like the mornings I described. 

[Pat Brown]

I have felt this unraveling feeling you speak of.  When the blow up comes at the end of a 100 ft bomb cast before I have time to reel down in the pitch black after two hours of casting with no action, it WAKES YOU UP.  ?????

[galyonj]

7 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

99% of the time, it's a Whopper Plopper, Rage Tail paddletail, and a wacky worm

 

All hail the wacky worm.

 

But also I wanna see you try a buzzbait. Lots of noise like a plopper, but a beefier single hook for turning the big girls around.

[casts_by_fly]

agreed on the buzzbait.  Plus you can throw it in places that you can't throw a plopper.  The single hook (I also use a trailer hook) lets you slink it across the tops and sides of pads and wood.  It hooks up with less grass that's just floating on the surface too.  You can't stop it like a plopper and you have to be quick about getting it moving before it even hits the water at the end of the cast but fish one slow with that slow "blop, blop" and the squeal of the blade against the rivet and you're going to pull up some bass that weren't otherwise planning to eat.

[MassBass]

Where I grew up on a main-lake island, when the sunrise was very bright and would immediately trigger a stiff breeze, that was kind of a bad omen. Also sometimes lure choice would matter. Go-to would always be a walk bait, but once in a while it would be a popper day. As a general rule, if the top water bite is on, usually you know quick. If it is slow but still top water conditions try a different top water lure. 

[Swamp Girl]

@galyonj and @casts_by_fly, I own some bass-sized buzz baits and I used to catch muskies with them, so I look forward to trying them on bass now. Thanks for the suggestion!

[A-Jay]

Productive topwater conditions change all the time.

Low light seems pretty good.

Some wind and or cloud cover can trigger some action.

And when you know where & when to look,

Sunny, Hot and Flat Dead Calm can be very special . . . .

A-Jay

[roadwarrior]

  

 

                                                  

[LrgmouthShad]

@ol'crickety that is really sharp on the observation regarding herons nearby. Never thought about that. 

 

Thank you

 

I’m not strong with topwater but I do feel comfy with a few lures 

[Swamp Girl]

2 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

@ol'crickety that is really sharp on the observation regarding herons nearby. Never thought about that. 

 

Thank you

 

I’m not strong with topwater but I do feel comfy with a few lures 

 

I could be wrong, but at those ponds and bogs where ospreys and eagles are crashing onto bass and herons are wading to spear them, I seem to only surface-catch the bass in the black, when the dinos can't see them. 

[Bird]

@ol'crickety

Maybe my issue this year with top water.

A reckless abandonment approach without observation.

Thinking top water will pay dividends at daylight when it hasn't this year.

Wacky has trumped. ?

 

All I can add is....... you're putting on a clinic ?

[WRB]

Depends on the seasonal period, where the prey is located and gut feeling.

Threadfin Shad are the most common prey fish where I fish. 

In the cold water period the Shad are deep not much chance for bass feeding on shad on the surface. When trout are planted a few are surface swimmers and big bass will target a surface trout Lure like a Lunker Plunker.

Grebes are a good source of baitfish activity, if they are working shore brush that is where the Shad are and surface lures are effective.

The Shad spawn in shore cover and easy to see or hear bass feeding on them, surface lure time.

 I have always liked to use surface lures early and late low light times, they are fun to cast and work. Sometimes I just feel like fishing a surface lure.

Tom