Tantalize Hungry Fall Bass with the Right Topwater Lure

Look through a dozen tackle bags and you’ll find myriad baits intended to address situational needs. Plenty boast versatility, but if there’s one category of lures you need to have tied on just about year-round, it’s topwaters.

Western stick and Bassmaster pro Ish Monroe knows that fall and spring tend to see concentrated topwater work, and he’s definitely all over that deal. However, Monroe’s so convinced of the topwater’s ability to entice bigger fish that he’ll always have at least one on his deck.

“I consider May to October prime time for topwaters, but even during the slower periods of winter to early spring, I can still catch fish on these baits,” Monroe says. “Also, during the summertime, when the early morning and late afternoon are usually best, I still catch fish throughout the day.

“The bite definitely slows down during the day, but the majority of the 6-plus pounders I’ve caught on topwater have come midday. You’re not going to catch a lot, but the majority will be your bigger fish.”

The thought here is that bigger fish are more efficient feeders that prefer ambushing a few big meals to running around all day and chasing dozens of smaller baitfish. Presentations require greater patience, but the payoff can be astounding.

WHEN IT’S RIGHT

For the fall timeframe, topwaters play a key role because a lot of bass are driven by feeding instinct. With cooling temperatures approaching, the fish are feeding up for winter, and migrating bait schools top their hit list.

This is definitely the time of year when schooling could happen just about any time, but most largemouths would rather grab a few big meals than burn a lot of energy chasing down dozens of smaller baitfish. Knowing this, savvy anglers often put a lot of stock in fall topwater presentations. Major League Fishing pro Brent Ehrler agrees, but points out the two forms of schooling.

“You have the highly mobile fish, but then you have fish that are holding on a point, in a bay or the back of a creek or on a bridge piling,” he says. “These fish are not necessarily chasing bait, but when a school of baitfish comes by, they’ll push them to the surface.”

The key here is alertness and a quick reaction. And, as Monroe reminds, keep those topwaters rigged up on deck and ready for action.

WHAT TO THROW

Offering a glimpse into his topwater arsenal, Monroe has a trio of favorites for the fall.

• Walking Bait: The three-hook River2Sea Rover is designed for an erratic, side-to-side, slashing motion that mimics a frightened baitfish. Such vulnerability is an undeniable temptation for bass looking to grab an easy meal, while the dressed rear treble adds a lively enticer. Monroe matches the 3 7/8-inch Rover 98 or the 5-inch Rover 128 to the local forage. “That’s a bait I can take anywhere on the West Coast and catch fish,” Monroe says. “My two primary colors are bone and translucent. The bone color is best first thing in the morning and late in the afternoon, but you can throw bone all day. I feel like the fish eat the translucent bait better in sunny, clear conditions.”
• Frog: Favoring the River2Sea Phat Mat Daddy, Monroe says he’ll send this bait where no other lure style can work effectively. Conversely, with the right rod work, he can make this bait saunter lazily or pop and spit for open-water appeal.
• Plopper Bait: Like Frisbee, Jell-O and Coca-Cola, the River2Sea Whopper Plopper has become synonymous with the category of torpedo-shaped baits with segmented propeller tails. Monroe says this is a straight-up bite getter.

Other dependable topwater styles for fall bass include:

• Poppers: These are best for targeting specific areas such as dock posts, isolated weed clumps and shade pockets below overhanging trees.
• Buzzbaits: The ultimate noise and commotion maker, the buzzbait presents a large profile with a gurgling bubble trail that’s hard to miss. Bump up to a double buzz and the twin blades create the kind of obnoxious display that seems to really irritate big bass. When Western tournament pro Nick Salvucci is fishing around wood, docks or sparse cover such as hyacinth or primrose, he throws the Brabec Double Buzz. The fish that attack this bait mean business. “When you get around that stringier grass, the single buzz will stay in the strike zone better and be more productive,” Salvucci says. “Once those blades [on a double buzz] get boogered up, your cast is done.” For that more compact, grass-resistant single buzzbait form, Salvucci likes the Prototype Lures Guerrilla Buzz. A low-profile head gets the bait up quickly and keeps it in the strike zone, while the oversized blade is designed to hit the head with an enticing knock.
• Soft Jerkbaits: Be it a Zoom Fluke, a Yamamoto D-Shad or a Strike King Caffeine Shad, an unweighted bait on a wide-gap hook is kind of a pseudo topwater, provided you keep the rod tip up and the bait moving. Imitating the skipping and darting movements of a fleeing baitfish is the objective, and that soft bait can move in ways a hard bait cannot.
• The Followup: Sometimes, our best efforts fail to push a hesitant fish over the edge. Window shoppers just won’t commit. But if a bass boils, nips or simply misses a half-hearted strike, a subsurface presentation might close the deal. A soft-plastic stick worm tops the choices, as its slender form won’t overwhelm a fish that might be a little touchy following a surface encounter. Unweighted Texas-rigged stick worms work, but wacky-style creates more enticing action with both ends wiggling.

Performance Enhancers

A lot of your topwater success will come through repetition, which leads to muscle memory and situational familiarity. To hasten your productivity, consider this quintet of rigging tips.

• Gotta Be Braid: Monroe throws all his topwaters on braided line for three reasons: strength, flotation and zero stretch. With any type of prop bait, he’ll add a 6-inch monofilament leader to prevent hooks from grabbing the limp braid.
• Feeling Froggy: For dock fishing, Salvucci pulls the skirt off a single buzz and adds a Zoom Horny Toad trailer. This increased bulk and surface area helps him skip the buzzbait into shaded spots where bass are not used to seeing such disturbances.
• Such a Drag: Topwater walkers deliver with or without a dressed rear treble, but the feathers aren’t just for aesthetics. Feathered trebles add drag, which keeps a bait in the strike zone longer. A missed bite can occur when a fired-up fish creates such a wake that it pushes the bait out of its reach. A little extra drag might make enough difference to score the hook-up.
• Weight a Minute: Salvucci does his frogging with the 2 3/4-inch Jackall Gavacho. The bait weighs 2/3 ounce, but Salvucci modifies it for heavy mat fishing by adding BBs or a tungsten weight. “When you’re in thick cheese, weighting the frog makes it sink down farther in the vegetation so the fish can see it better,” Salvucci says. “It’s not skimming the top, it’s leaving a little groove across the cheese.”
• Back in Black: Two-time Bassmaster Classic champion Hank Cherry offers a closing tip worth considering anywhere you throw your topwaters: Adding a black feather to a popper’s rear treble ups the game with a two-stage strategy. As Cherry explains, bream often follow the bait and nip at what appears to them to be some sort of insect prey. When they do, opportunistic bass pounce. “That black feather looks like a fly or some kind of insect a bream would eat,” he says. “If the bluegill start popping at your bait, it will get the bass a little more active.”

HOPE FLOATS

• When power topwaters fail, try a little finesse.

When fish are playing hard to get, the float-n-fly (FNF) rig can work wonders. It’s more of a finesse deal than a power-fishing bait, but the FNF complements the more aggressive fall baits.

Western FNF ace Aaron “Legit” Britt uses this rig to target spotted bass that are fixated on petite forage. In his experience, the FNF is the most consistent way to present a modest bait and keep your distance.

“In our spotted bass lakes, the pond smelt are very small,” Britt says. “We’re not trying to imitate shad, we’re trying to imitate that pond smelt. The FNF is just a convenient way of doing that.”

Noting that the FNF is similar to a slip-float crappie rig, Britt adds a bobber stop, then a slip float to his fluorocarbon leader and finishes by tying on a SPRO Phat Fly (basically, a hair jig). Setting the bobber stop up or down his leader determines his fishing depth.

As Britt explains, the lengthy rig’s easier to cast than it may seem because it collapses. When he loads up the back cast, the bobber slides down to the bait and remains there until it hits the water. At that point, the fly’s weight draws the leader through the float until it reaches the bobber stop.

Giving each cast 25 to 30 seconds, Britt might wiggle the rig a little or let the wind work the bait for him. Most times, a natural presentation seems to work best.

“A lot of times, they’ll hit it when you’re not doing anything. If you don’t get a bite in about 20 seconds, reel up, make another cast about 8 to 10 yards ahead and just keep repeating that process until the float goes down.”

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