RAY SCOTT OUTDOORS
Presents
Bob Cobb

Topwater Fishing Is Addictive

The strike is it.  You SEE it, FEEL it and HEAR it….

The high bluffs loomed straight overhead.  The rocky outcropping temporarily blotting out the brilliant glow of the northern Mexico sun.  The shady spot along the cliff face, the only dark relief from the encroaching late-morning ball of fire as it peaked over the Sierra Madre Mountain range.

The red flashes on the bow-mounted depth finder revealed the ragged contour along the rocky shelf, dropping from 18 feet into the dark depths over 125 feet.

This morning, the perfect place for a topwater plug.

The thing about topwater fishing is it’s addictive.  The strike’s the thing.  All your senses are on full alert.  You see it, feel it and most memorable, hear it.

At first, we were both casting into the edge of the bluff.  The Texas-rig plastic worm, on my rod, working slowly into the depths.  Ray Scott, in the bow, picked up his topwater rod.

The big broom-stick shaped Zara Spook eased along the bank with the time-proven walk-the-dog retrieve.  The maneuver is deadly in the hands of an angler capable of doing the equivalent of patting your head with one hand and rubbing your stomach with the other.  Jerk the rod tip, throw the big plug in one direction, and crank the reel handles to remove the slack and pop the plug’s nose to the opposite side, and etc.

Ray’s retrieve walked the Spook a few yards down the bluff.   My eyes fixated on the motionless plug.   Now, a slight quiver.  The rings slowly widened around the lure.  Then, the rocket-like explosion.  The noise echoed off the steep canyon walls like a huge cathedral organ.

The crashing sound of a topwater strike is a full-blown orchestral embellishment.  Perhaps, the booming report of a kettledrum is a better description.

At the moment, Ray Scott was acting as a conductor wildly waving his six-foot casting rod in a vain attempt to control the largemouth’s aerial antics.  Both angler and the five-pound largemouth deserved a standing ovation when the piece played out.

Fishing a topwater over 100-foot plus depths hardly seems logical.   But, hard-fast rules aren’t in the true topwater fisherman’s how-to book.

There are those with true dedication who swear, “I’d rather get one strike on top than catch a dozen bass by dragging a plastic worm.”

As to why the largemouth were holding on the steep wall.  Shade, for sure, in the clear water of Lake Novillo, an aging reservoir on the Yaqui and Montezuma rivers in the state of Sonora Mexico.

Usually, the early morning or late afternoon will be the open window of opportunity for working the surface.  The low-light times when largemouth venture into the shallows to feed.  But, here along the bluff, balls of baitfish were scattered in the niches and crevices.

Getting a bass to respond to a stick jerked on the surface is one thing, getting a bass hooked on topwater is another.

“You don’t set the hook when you see the strike,” explained Charlie Campbell of Foysyth, Missouri, regarded as one of the best topwater fishermen on the Bassmaster Tournament Trail.  “You set the hook when you actually feel the fish.  Any sooner and, at times, you’ll jerk the plug out of the fish’s mouth.”

As to learning to “walk-the-dog”, Charlie says the addition of a small O-ring on the Zara Spook, rather than making a straight line tie to the lure eye, will give the big bait more action.

Most of topwater’s fishing appeal is visual – the actual witnessing of the strike and much of the fight.  But the method’s great popularity is also due in part to the fact that it can be among the easiest to learn.

Being able to “master” the walk-the-dog tactic will come with practice, but a topwater plug will almost fish itself.  For instance, with a chugger  like Storm’s

Chug-Bug – all the angler needs do is get it wet.

But, there’s the business of casting accuracy.  It’s important in the topwater presentation because where the lure is placed can make the difference.  Being able to drop a bait in a hole in a grass bed or lily pad field and/or parking the plug near a stump or stickup pays more dividends than random, inaccurate casts.

The most common mistake made by the topwater angler, according to Charlie Campbell, “is fishing too fast.  There are times when a lot of motion and sound will produce the most action, but generally it’s the softer approach that triggers a reaction with a surface plug.”

One tip repeated by the experts is hitting the same spot over and over again with a topwater plug.  This method works when bass are on the spawning beds, in effect, aggravating the fish into striking.

Another good practice when working a topwater bait is keeping the rod tip pointed roughly at the lure as it sits in the water.  A lower rod position enables the angler to strike when the bass bites.

There are times when topwater fishing is not the presentation to use.  But, let the bass tell you where and when.

The perfect example of not following bass fishing lore is how Jim Morton of Norman, Oklahoma won the Bassmaster Oklahoma Invitational on Grand Lake of the Cherokees.

An early-season cold front gripped the November tournament start in northeast Oklahoma.  Near freezing temperatures, seemingly, slowed the fishing and put contestants into the jig-and-pig mode.   But, Jim Morton pulled off the unlikely victory by fishing a buzz bait in shallow-water pockets off the main lake.

“As the day warmed up,” explained Morton, “the fish became a bit more active.  The cold weather sent the threadfin shad into shock and the bass were in there feeding up on the shad schools.”

Also, don’t make the mistake of thinking big baits and big smallmouth bass don’t relate.  As a common rule, a big awkward Zara Spook splashed across the surface isn’t associated with smashing smallmouth topwater strikes.

But, cast a Zara over a rock pile in the early a.m. when the bronze bass are in shallow feeding, and be ready.  Your every nerve will tingle.  Such smallmouth strikes are savage.

Yes, there are times when topwater fishing is not the method to use.  In the early morning or late evening, though, or when the season is right – and the bass seem willing – the topwater tactic, at least, to many bass anglers is the only way.