There are few moments in fishing as purely electrifying as being a topwater strike. It’s a sensory experience that transcends the sport: the quiet anticipation, the visual of an wake forming behind your lure, the sudden, violent explosion of water, along with the adrenaline that follows. For many anglers, it’s the pinnacle of freshwater and saltwater fishing.
While catching fish is always the goal, fishing tackle shop is about the show. It’s an active, engaging, and frequently theatrical method that targets a fish's most primal instinct: the need to ambush prey from below.
Why Fish Topwater?
Topwater lures can now be worked on the top of water, mimicking anything from a struggling baitfish to your hapless frog or possibly a buzzing insect. They excel in specific conditions:
Low-Light Periods: Dawn and dusk are prime time. The dim light gives fish the confidence to move into shallow water to feed.
Cloudy Days & Calm Water: Overcast skies can extend the topwater bite the whole day. Calm water is perfect, as it allows fish to find out and track your lure with less effort.
Around Cover: Whether it's lily pads, submerged grass, laydowns, or dock pilings, topwater lures could be worked in places where other lures would snag, provoking reaction strikes from lurking predators.
The Main Cast of Topwater Lures
The critical for topwater success is matching the lure and its action on the conditions as well as the mood of the fish. Here are typically the most popular types:
1. The "Plopper" or Prop Bait
What it can be: A lure which has a propeller (or two) about the front, back, or both.
The Action: A steady retrieve causes the prop to churn the river, developing a distinctive "bloop-blop-blop" sound along with a significant wake. It’s a aggressive, noise-making lure that calls fish in from your distance.
Best For: Actively feeding bass, pike, and muskies. It’s a fantastic "search bait" to hide water quickly.
2. The "Walk-the-Dog" Lure (Stickbait)
What it can be: A long, slender, often cigar-shaped lure without built-in action.
The Action: This is often a finesse technique. Using a rhythmic "twitch-and-pause" with the rod tip whilst keeping your line slack, you are making the lure dart side-to-side (or "walk") over the surface. It mimics a wounded, zig-zagging baitfish.
Best For: Clear water and wary, pressured fish. The subtle, tantalizing action can trigger strikes when louder lures fail.
3. The Popper
What it can be: A lure using a concave or scooped-out face.
The Action: Sharp, short twitches of the rod make the face to "pop" and "chug," pushing water forward and making a burbling sound and splash. It mimics a feeding baitfish or possibly a large insect.
Best For: When you want a far more rhythmic, "pop-pause-pop" presentation. Excellent for targeting bass, bluefish, and trevally.
4. The Buzzbait
What it's: A wire-framed lure using a propeller-like blade that spins on the retrieve.
The Action: Retrieved steadily, it makes a constant, loud, whirring noise and a bubbling wake—a pure reaction-strike machine. It’s one from the most exciting lures to use.
Best For: Murky water, in the evening, or if you want to draw fish out of heavy cover. A classic for big bass.
5. The Frog
What it really is: A soft-plastic or hollow-body lure designed to imitate a frog, skittering in the thickest cover without snagging.
The Action: It’s worked using a "walk-the-dog" action or a series of short hops and pauses right on the tops of lily pads, matted grass, and slop.
Best For: The heaviest cover imaginable. The strike is usually explosive, like a bass must burst with the vegetation to consume it.
Mastering the Art: Tips for Topwater Success
Patience can be a Virtue: The biggest mistake is setting the hook prematurily .. When you see the splash, wait! You need to have the weight with the fish in your line when you cross its eyes which has a powerful hookset.
Embrace the Pause: The moment after having a pop, twitch, or chug is usually when the strike happens. That pause provides the fish time for you to locate and commit on the lure. Let it sit.
Match the Hatch (Loosely): Try to mimic what the fish may be eating. A frog lure over mats of grass, a stickbait over open water, or a popper around schooling baitfish.
Don't Be Afraid of Color: In topwater, action and sound in many cases are more important than color. However, an over-all rule is bright or natural colors for clear water/low light, and darker, more visible colors for stained water or bright days.
Use the Right Gear: A medium-heavy rod with a moderate-fast tip is perfect. It provides the backbone to get a good hookset but has enough "give" to prevent tearing the lure out of the fish over a violent strike. Always use a braided line for topwater; it's no stretch, ensuring solid hooksets and helping you to "walk the dog" more effectively.
Topwater fishing isn't necessarily the most consistent approach to fill a livewell. There will be era of frustrating misses and refusals. But the trade-off is surely an experience unlike another. It’s a visual, visceral, and heart-pounding kind of fishing and prepare memories long afterwards the ripples have faded. So, the next occasion you're around the water in the beginning light, tie on a topwater lure. Be ready for the explosion, and prepare to become hooked.