Active topwater bite based on weather

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, Bird said:

@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 ?

 

Thank you, Bird.

 

Monday morning, I'll be fishing a new 500-acre bog with a fisher from Minnesota. He's game for launching at 4:00 a.m., so we'll see how it goes, but we won't see much at first for it's going to be dark. I'm putting him in the bow, i.e. the prime seat, because I want him to catch some Maine bass. The thing that worries me is that I don't know this bog, so I hope we can locate the fish. I have a pal who fished it and he said that they're not everywhere, but if we can find a few, they might be big. It's a quality, not quantity bog. 

 

If we fail, I'll take him Wednesday morning to a bog I know and say, "Cast there. Now cast there." 

 

Wacky worms work well for me too. When a bass swirls at a topwater, I drop a wacky on their head and love to feel that tug-tug. It's even more exciting when the line starts to move!

 

We'll start topwater and when they stop hitting (assuming they start hitting), I'll go to a Rage Swimmer paddletail. I like the Owner hooks with the underspins. I don't like when the bass bite off the tails, but that could be pickerel doing most of the damage.   

[Woody B]

The only thing I've figured out about topwater is I don't have a clue when it will work, and when it won't.   The lakes I fish have little to no vegetation.  I rarely see or hear any frogs.  (in my mind that's due to the lack of vegetation).   Most years the top water action heats up when bugs get active and start falling into the water.  Find someone mowing grass near the lake, throw something topwater in that direction.  

 

The strangest top water experience I've ever had was January of this year.   I was at a lake I don't fish much.  I caught 3 or 4 early (for January) relatively deep on an A-rig.  Then I lost them.   I couldn't find the bass.   It was a sunny winter day.  The water was fairly clear and calm.  I was skipping a dock and got hung on an underwater rope.  When I went to get my lure loose I could see bass in almost no water, facing the bank.   I cast a t-rig onto the bank, and crawled it into the water.  They ignored it.  Again, I could see these bass in the water, not on sonar.  I threw a jig onto the bank, and crawled it into the water, still ignored.  I tried both of these several casts, and at a couple different locations.  Finally, laughing at myself the entire time I tied on a Devils Horse.  (top water).   I didn't cast it onto the bank, but right to the edge of the water.....18 inches or so in front of a bass.   EXPLOSION!!!!!!  The bass was almost out of the water getting the bait.       I didn't even move the lure, and barely had my reel locked.  I caught several more the same way that day.   The water temperature was in the upper 40's.    I figured the bass were soaking up the warm Sun.   Was there something coming down the bank (or out of the ground) into the water for them to eat?   

 

I wasted a bunch of topwater casts in COLD water after that.  The only other topwater bites I had until April or so were one Bass and a 13 pound Catfish over cane piles.   (I thought the Cat was a hawg for a while)

[detroit1]

If your lure leaves a bubble trail, keep throwing it. ?

[papajoe222]

Everyone seems to like early morning and late evening. I, however, prefer mid-day.  That's not to say I don't catch them early or late (under low light conditions). The reason I prefer mid-day is because I just seem to catch bigger fish then. My biggest  bass this season was bagged at 1:30PM on a hot July day with only scattered clouds.  I was working my Spook over a submerged brush pile. Mid-day is also ideal frogin' time, so don't put away your topwaters when the sun is up, give them a shot anytime.

[Bankbeater]

Everything that @ol'crickety said.  

I've noticed that when we have a stretch of really hot weather then the bite on top is dead.  It doesn't matter the time of day.

[MIbassyaker]

On 8/4/2023 at 7:16 AM, ol'crickety said:

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.

 

Hmm. I'm going have to pay more attention to this as it relates to topwater.  I've understood predatory birds generally to be a positive sign of fish activity, as birds are expert fishers and do not waste time and energy on futile endeavors.

[Swamp Girl]

17 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

Hmm. I'm going have to pay more attention to this as it relates to topwater.  I've understood predatory birds generally to be a positive sign of fish activity, as birds are expert fishers and do not waste time and energy on futile endeavors.

 

I could be wrong about the dinos, but on lakes where they patrol, it seems like surface lures don't work as well. On one of these lakes, I parked beneath a barkless sugar maple tree and watched an eagle chow through what appeared to be a 14" bass. And I've seen both eagles and ospreys crash into the water to seize bass near the surface. 

[king fisher]

I like to fish topwater, lures in clear water except when they are crushing them in shallow, flooded muddy water, on cloudy days except when they are hitting on sunny days, when there is no wind, except when the wind is causing a ripple over rocky flats, and only on days that end with the letter Y.  I do believe I catch bigger bass on topwater, so no matter the weather, or water conditions,  I always give them a try.

[Bird]

@king fisher

Um what condition would you deem top water something to avoid ? ?

[Pat Brown]

Yesterday evening, I actually got my first real blow up on a real clacking buzzbait on a real public lake in North Carolina from an actual boat during daylight hours.

 

2-3 ft deep clear water rocky flat, 6 pm ish,  with a gentle ripple on the water and cloud cover produced that bite and it seemed big. 

 

It slurped it down more so than blew up.

 

I set the hook too fast because of course I did.  ?

[king fisher]

12 hours ago, Bird said:

@king fisher

Um what condition would you deem top water something to avoid ? ?

[Darth-Baiter]

i only have two.  early wee morning hours and way late loosing sunlight evenings.

 

i dont wake up early enough or stay out late enough..in general.  

 

other than that, i always have my ear and eyes on the wide open waters.  there is no rhyme or reason for the fish that herd and eat fish out in the deep.  but a popper sent into the foray, is such a good time.  be ready.  thankfully i have a fast kayak.  i can join in fairly quickly if it isnt that far away. 

[Functional]

I'm with @detroit1, I'll throw a frog as soon as I get on the water and if it leaves a good bubble trail its going to be an excellent day for frogs/top water. If its flat then odds are top water is not the lure to use. This rules is less important during dark and dusk hours. 

 

@ol'crickety : trys to stay humble and say she doesnt have great knowledge.

Crickety 2 deconds later: drops a pic of a 5+lb bass ?

 

Seriously though I'm going to have to try an approach with the dinosaurs. Historically if I see one at an area I plan to fish I'll target right where they are. Always read they are feeding on bait fish (which they do) and bass should be near by. My record thinking back on it isnt high though around them. Might have to try the out skirts of those dinosaurs if I'm fishing their area. 

[Pat Brown]

The only time I like to Heron is when I see 4 or 5 in a small area.  That's when it's go time in my experience. That means there's a whole lot of bait fish in the area and I can catch a few bass in that area when it gets like this often times.

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, Functional said:

Seriously though I'm going to have to try an approach with the dinosaurs. Historically if I see one at an area I plan to fish I'll target right where they are. Always read they are feeding on bait fish (which they do) and bass should be near by. My record thinking back on it isnt high though around them. Might have to try the out skirts of those dinosaurs if I'm fishing their area. 

 

Sometimes, I feel like I'm fishing in Jurassic Park and I don't see the ospreys, herons, eagles eating bait fish, but bass. And those mornings sunny mornings with dinos crashing into bass, it seems like the bass are deeper. 

 

1 hour ago, Functional said:

@ol'crickety : trys to stay humble and say she doesnt have great knowledge.

Crickety 2 deconds later: drops a pic of a 5+lb bass ?

 

Thank you, but I can only wish it were that easy. I truly do fail a lot.

[GoneFishingLTN]

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

What would you say was the highest percentage summer mid depth lure?

 

 

@ol'crickety does weather trends matter much to you when fishing a topwater? or barometric pressure ?

example lets say the weather has been very consistent but there was some pop up thunderstorms the day before, but the day your going the pressure is going to be 29.75 and low mph wind. Is that a good stable day to try it since the pressure is lower?

[Swamp Girl]

28 minutes ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

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

What would you say was the highest percentage summer mid depth lure?

 

 

@ol'crickety does weather trends matter much to you when fishing a topwater? or barometric pressure ?

example lets say the weather has been very consistent but there was some pop up thunderstorms the day before, but the day your going the pressure is going to be 29.75 and low mph wind. Is that a good stable day to try it since the pressure is lower?

 

The weather tells me when to fish. I am 67 and mostly retired and the remaining work I do is from home on my schedule, so I'm free to fish whenever. However, I do have a fishing boss and that boss is the weather report. I rarely fish N, NW, or NE winds for they bring higher pressure. However, a pre-cold front slot, where the colder air is lifting the warmer air in front of it can trigger feeding, but that's a pretty tight slot. 

 

I also look at wind speed for two reasons: My solo canoe is 15' 6" long and its high sides mean that it catches a lot of wind. If the wind is over 5 mph, I waste too much time correcting my position. Winds over 5 mph also make it harder to visually track a surface lure.

 

Rain is good. Not a cold front pounding rain, of course, but a warm front steady rain. It increases my stealth by obscuring my mistakes, like bumping my canoe.

 

I am fishing topwater 85% of the time simply because it's the most fun, but I'm also fishing those weather-right mornings 95% of the time. 

 

I remember one day last summer and one day this late spring/early summer when they did not want topwater, but were quite ready to feed beneath the surface. In such cases, I will switch and merrily catch them sub-surface. Here are those two trip reports and note the quality of the air both those mornings, i.e. low humidity:

 

 

 

[gim]

Nice post @ol'crickety.  You've obviously developed a pretty good feel for when a specific technique or strategy is going to be in your favor based on the conditions presented.  Plus being in a canoe I can see not wanting to get whipped around either.  Boat control, or in your case, canoe control, is an important factor.

 

Topwater fishing has pretty much completely gone away from my arsenal in recent years.  Everyone is obviously aware of my disdain for the whopper plopper being a completely over hyped, over marketed lure, but the truth is that pretty much EVERY topwater I've tried in the past 3-4 years now comes up empty.  They don't even slap or strike at it anymore.  I still try one for a little bit almost every time I'm out there, because its arguably the most entertaining way to fish, but I can't keep beating a dead horse back to life when its already dead, so I move on to a more trusted and confident presentation.

 

Low pressure and rain is like a big white flag for me this time of year.  Especially when it comes after several days of warm, sunny high pressure.  It screams to me "get out there and start chucking an aggressive lure" at them and quite often these days are the most productive outings of my entire season.  Lately the bite has been worse than it was before because we had a heat wave, but there appears to be several of these low pressure fronts on tap in the next 10 days, so I am going to take advantage of it.  I might even muskie fish too, as these rapid weather changes often trigger a strike.

[Swamp Girl]

Thanks, @gimruis. You're a young man with a family to support, so you're not free to work for a weather boss. If you were, I think you'd find those slots when bass hit surface lures. 

 

If you were to vacation in Maine to go surface fishing with me, you'd be saying, "So, WHEN ARE WE GOING TO FISH, 'cause all we're doing so far is eating lobster and climbing mountains!!!"

 

And I'd say, "Wait for it, wait for it," while I kept checking weather.com.

 

7 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

Low pressure and rain is like a big white flag for me too. 

 

Dinner bell, for sure. 

 

9 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Plus being in a canoe I can see now wanting to get whipped around either.

 

My canoe also weighs 32 pounds. Being light, high, and long, it acts like a sail on a breezy morning. I sometimes use a friend's low, wide, and heavy Royalex canoe. That canoe doesn't give a whit about wind. 

[Catt]

1 hour ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

What would you say was the highest percentage summer mid depth lure?

 

Totally depends on the overall depth. On Toledo Bend the majority of the bass are being caught dragging a Ridge Worm in 18-22'. Not many coming from the mid-depth range. 6th Sense Cloud 9 Series C15 Shad Drone accounts for those fish. 

 

[GoneFishingLTN]

17 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

Totally depends on the overall depth. On Toledo Bend the majority of the bass are being caught dragging a Ridge Worm in 18-22'. Not many coming from the mid-depth range. 6th Sense Cloud 9 Series C15 Shad Drone accounts for those fish. 

 

Oh so you don’t mean mid water column not mid depth like a Swimbait in 8 foot out of 16ft? You just mean something to fish in the midrange depth 

[Catt]

@GoneFishingLTN If the bottom depth is 22', 11' is what we  call mid-depth. Fish suspended at 11' over 22'. 

 

I'm not worried about what it's called, I'm worried about how I'm gonna fish it.

[LrgmouthShad]

@GoneFishingLTN I think @Catt‘s point is that you gotta decide what those lures are for yourself. It’s just what you like to use and what you have confidence in. There’s a bit of knowing the lake too. 
 

My mid-range lure pretty much year-round is a spinnerbait. I just catch em everywhere I go on it, at some point or another. Might not be today, but over the course of the year, a spinnerbait is going to stack up lbs of bass for me

 

Topwater is my greatest weakness

[MN Fisher]

@Catt - I hear you, man. Yesterday the good size ones were hanging out at about 10'-12' in 22' of water attacking bait clumps. Could not get them interested in Shad Raps, DTs or anything else I had with me that could fish that level.

[LrgmouthShad]

The funny thing about mid depth lures is I’m pretty sure that the fish In actually catching are usually off the bottom. I don’t know for sure, because I don’t have livescope, but I’m pretty sure I am calling fish up.

 

I really dislike suspended fish