Thoughts on Topwater and "Big" bass

[tennsopher]

Apparently,you have never heard of the late Lj Brasher.I read of his exploits years ago about night fishing with musky jitterbugs.I have a twelve lber on my wall with the one that caught him in his mouth.Before you panic about catch and release,I caught this fish twenty years ago.Anyhoo,google the name and read the second article.I did after seeing this thread.The man caught hundreds of ten plus in his day.Enjoy the article.

[scott000]

is 18in and 4lb big? i got one on my rebel popper this summer. amazing hit. you cant ask for a better hit than topwater

[Raul]

Without the usual ammount of 5, 6, 7, 8 pounders, yes I 've caught big bass on topwaters not a big bunch of them, Jitterbugs and Zara Spooks but I think it has more to do with a dumb bigun striking the bait than the actual hunt for the bigun with a topwater, topwaters are just not the kind of bait I tie for the hunt.

Let 's say that I cast the bait and a bigun hits it ----> luck.

[George Welcome]

Raul,

I will have to see if I can dig out my pictures from Huites - all of our big fish came on chug bugs and soft jerk baits out of the brush and tree tops. On a three day trip we managed to catch 9 between 9.5 and 12.5. Don't let me forget to mention that our slowest day was over 100 bass with the majority coming on top water. No luck in it: quite intentional as a matter of fact.

[kfx400rob]

4 lbs is the bigest iv caught on topwater, but then again the bigest i have caught is only 5 lbs. i dont see a huge difference with size on topwater

[jomatty]

i havent caught many big bass on topwaters with the exception of frogs (soft and hollow) and larger buzz baits.  these are baits that i think of as fairly big fish baits.

many of my largest fish this summer have come on a bronzeye.  

[Fish Chris]

Hmmmm. I have caught a couple big ones while dead sticking a floating swimbait on the surface.... Does this count as top-water fishing ?

Here's a 13.4 that sucked my Castaic right from the surface.... Cool sound too ..... Slurp ! :-)

Peace,

Fish

[senko_77]

I've seen big bass on topwaters, but usually when I'm fishing a topwater in a tourny, its being worked real fast and aggresively so the size tends to stay in the upper 3lb range for biggest fish.  But I have caught a few 7 and 8's on a sammy

[Guest avid]

I consider top waters to be a big bass bait.  Many of my 5lb or bettr fish have come off topwaters.

As far as luck, well there is always an element of that, but in my experience big bass will inhabit the best spots.  There are certain locations where the big ones hang out, if I can get them to bite it's a good fish.

I would urge anyone seeking a new PB to make topwaters a key part of the arsenal.

[senile1]

I've caught a couple of 6 lb'ers on Rapala original floaters, and quite a few over 5 on the large Zara Spook.  I think that you will catch more smaller fish if you're fishing topwaters fast because they are more likely to strike quickly due to their aggressive instincts.  

[5bass]

I have caught fish up to about 6# on topwater......mainly a buzzbait.Anything over 6# has been caught on plastics and the occasional deep crank.

A question for those of you that have caught 8+ pounders on a topwater bait.Did they come up and bust the lure and make a big commotion or did they just kinda suck it under?Every bass over about 5# that I've caught on topwater has just sucked it down with hardly any splash.

[Brian_Reeves]

I've caught pretty good fish...nothing like Fish Chris, but a reasonable share of 6-8+# bass, which is good in just about any tournament.  "The one that got away" was estimated between 10-12#.  I hooked into him during a tournament and he got off right at the boat.  The bait was a Spit'n Image.

[what]

Hmmmm. I have caught a couple big ones while dead sticking a floating swimbait on the surface.... Does this count as top-water fishing ?

Here's a 13.4 that sucked my Castaic right from the surface.... Cool sound too ..... Slurp ! :-)

Peace,

Fish

what r u talking about thats a lol

[RoLo]

Topwater lures peg the needle on my "Fun Meter", but that doesn't answer Dustin's question.

I've always believed that the fatter and older the bass, the less energy he's likely to expend.

For this reason, I personally will never choose a topwater lure in the quest for a trophy fish,

be it a bass, pike, striper, bluefish, you name it.

Paradoxically, I've caught several lunker fish of various species on topwater lures.

It may well be that the angler himself and not trophy fish determines the best lure to use.

Quite naturally, the lure that we fish the most has the best chance of catching our largest bass.

In answer to the question posed by FiveBassLimit:

The largest bass I caught on top fell for a Rapala Original Floater while sitting completely motionless.

The bass sucked it in silently with remarkable gentleness. If my eyes were not fixed on the lure

I would never have known I had a strike.

Roger

[Rattlinrogue]

I guess it depends on where you fish,when you fish,and under what conditions.I've caught my 4 heaviest bass on floatinf Rogues used as topwaters.

[Bassassasin12]

I like topwaters and defenitly think they will catch big bass. It's kind of like a senko, it will catch a bunch of little bass and every now and then a big one as well. All the bigger bass in the pond by my house are mostly caught on topwaters and every now and then the occasional senko or fat ika. I prefer a popping type bait over a walk the dog bait for topwater as far was getting the bigger fish. I think the big fish like the splash and it attracts them.

[Captain Cali]

A friend of mine caught a 10.25 on a pop-r at night. I wouldn't rule 'em out as big bass baits.

[MuchyMan]

Ive never had good luck with a pop-r or a sammy but a topwater that works for me is a LPT Zellamander from YUM fished with an unweighted rig

Ive caught about 5 3lb bass using that technique

[jiangtao]

Well, I have to take what I said about buzzbaits and small Bass back earlier on this thread. This past weekend started off with 2-3 pounders and then a 6 pounder!! After that I pulled in 5 more small ones for a total of 8 Bass in one morning! The next day I managed to pull in 13 Bass!!! All were small, but were on a buzzbait. [my specially designed one!]

[Siebert Outdoors]

Everytime I see the thread makes me think.  And after this weekend I have realized these hollow frogs, spro, bobbies, etc are big fish catchers.  From my experience nothing around here produces bigger fish.  Even fishing the things in open water produce fish.  The frogs just rule.

[orey10m]

with all these posts i might as well not even say my opinion. haha, but what the heck. Personally i think i would have to agree with the original idea stated about not a lot of big fish being caught on topwaters. I throw them all the time, but rarely am I expecting a monster. However, Randall might have a different opinion...

[fishingJ]

That's why I only fish worms.