Poppin' and Walkin' for Bass
Two of the most productive methods of topwater fishing are using a popper, or chugger type lure, and "walking-the-dog" with a surface walker. When it comes to popper type lures, you may remember the old Heddon Lucky 13, Bass Oreno, or the Heddon Chugger Spook.
Lure design has changed drastically since the first production of those aforementioned lures, and now we have such poppers as the Berkley Frenzy Popper, Tsunami Talkin' Popper, Rapala Skitter Pop and the Lucky Craft G-Splash.
For topwater walking-the-dog applications, we have the Heddon Spook and Super-Spook, which have been around for many years and are, still to this day, top producers.
Some other surface walkers include Lucky Craft Sammy, Rapala Skitter Walk, Salmo MAAS Marauder and the Yo-Zuri Banana Boat.
While all of these lures produce fish in different situations, I have discovered a lure that is producing topwater hits for me on a consistent basis when water and light conditions are right. The lures I speak of are made by L & S Mirrolure. The popper is called The Humpback Mule and is actually a jointed topwater popper. The walking-the-dog style surface walker I prefer is called the Top Dog Jr.
Both lures are extremely good quality and have extra sharp hooks, which can really come in handy when you have a bass that might strike you a little bit short, or not hit the lure very hard.
Let's start by taking a look at when the best time to use a topwater lure would be, and then the techniques involved in producing the most strikes. I have caught some of my largest bass, by far, on topwater lures.
My reasoning behind this occurrence is that back in the old days, everybody I knew threw topwater lures. They threw them for 2 or 3 hours in the mornings and 2 or 3 hours in the evening.
From an industry perspective, topwater lures are not among the top sellers these days. The majority of the people I fish with these days mainly throw spinnerbaits, plastics and crankbaits. More>
