Poppers work in many conditions. Fish them subtly in calm water, or pop them harder in disturbed water. (Photo courtesy of Yo-Zuri)
August 08, 2025
By Frank Sargeant
All bass anglers love the excitement of a heart-stopping topwater explosion. However, enticing a strike can sometimes be challenging. Fortunately, topwater success can improve with good timing, a little fine-tuning and a few tricks.
TIME IT RIGHT First and foremost, fish topwater lures when bass are looking up. When fish are deep and the water is cold, topwaters aren’t the way to go. But once fish go into pre-spawn across the Midwest—typically when water temperature reaches about 60 degrees for largemouths and about 55 degrees for smallmouths—topwaters can come into play. Many fish move toward shallow water then, and most will remain there through the spawn and post-spawn nest guarding period, as well as into early summer as they feed on baby bluegills and other fry.
MATCH THE HATCH Throwing a lure that closely mimics what fish are feeding on is typically the best strategy. When the water is chilly in spring, cold-stunned shad are a natural target, and lipped floater-diver lures, like the Cotton Cordell Red Fin and Rapala Original Floating (F14), in chrome or silver finishes, come into play. Twitch-twitch-wait is the cadence.
During the spawn, bass often become aggressive toward bluegills that eat their eggs, so bluegill imitations like the Berkley Spin Bomb or Heddon Spin’N Image score. These lures work well when twitched in place above a bed for 30 seconds or so, then reeled fast enough to make the tail rotate and leave a bubble trail. Bluegill imitations also work well in fall, when young-of-the-year bluegills are big enough to be edible.
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Shad spawn in spring, typically soon after bass leave the beds. Both gizzard shad and threadfins seek out shell beds, docks, riprap and other hard structure in 2 to 6 of water. Find one of these and put almost any shad-imitating topwater over it, and you’ll likely get instant action. Examples include Cotton Cordell’s Crazy Shad and Rapala’s Skitter Pop .
After the spawn, adult gizzard shad return to shallow flats near the main rivers in many impounded lakes to feed on detritus in the water. When this occurs, a Triton Mike Bucca Bull Shad Wake Bait or Strike King Wake Shad 2.0 cranked just fast enough to create a nice V-wake at dawn or dusk will draw some humongous strikes.
In late summer and fall, young-of-the-year shad have grown to lengths of 2 to 3 inches, so smaller topwaters can be deadly. The Heddon Baby Torpedo is a classic, and the Skitter Pop is also good. Cast them around shad balls you spot on your sonar or where you see bait flipping. Anywhere bass are crashing bait is an obvious topwater opportunity.
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FACTOR IN WIND In dead-calm water, it doesn’t take much noise for fish to find your lure. Subtly twitching bobbing, pencil-type lures, like Cotton Cordell’s Pencil Popper , Yo-Zuri’s 3DB Pencil and Rebel’s Jumpin’ Minnow , works very well. Most sit tail-down, and some have a feather on the aft treble; bob them to make ripples around cover. Make too much noise and you risk turning off the bite—just bob the lures in place over submerged weeds, brush and stumps or around docks and seawalls.
Conversely, when it’s blowing 15 mph and you’re on an exposed shore, it will take more to attract attention. Prop baits and chugger- or popper-style baits worked hard and loud will lure in fish. Give the lure a big jerk to make it pop loudly, follow that up with a few twitches, then execute another hard chug.
The same goes for water clarity and current. Create less noise and action in clear, still water and more in murky or moving water.
WHACK ’EM IN WEEDS Completely weedless topwaters—including many frog designs—also have their place in a topwater arsenal because the biggest fish are often found in or under the thickest mats of hyacinth, lily pads, hydrilla and milfoil.
Double-hook rigs like the SPRO Bronzeye Frog are effective, but my personal favorite is Z-Man’s GOAT ToadZ , made of the company’s tough, high-floating ElaZtech. It readily floats a 5/0 extra-long-shank, wide-gap hook. This bait crawls through the heaviest weeds without snagging, and bass can’t resist it because the wafer-thin legs keep on moving long after you twitch the rod. The hookup ratio is good, though you must learn to allow the fish to have it for a few seconds before making a hard hookset. Add a touch of super glue to the shank when rigging this lure, and it will stay in place for multiple catches.
SOLID SURFACE BAITS These six topwater lure styles will set you up for success in any scenario. A well-stocked topwater arsenal should include a variety of options to tackle different situations and conditions throughout the year. Preferred food sources change seasonally, and wind conditions and water clarity can change daily. Below are six types of topwater baits to add to your tackle box.
WALK-THE-DOG LURES The classic topwater action is a zig-zagging motion often called “walking the dog,” created by rapidly twitching the rod tip while slacking line slightly between each twitch. The classic lure for this is the Heddon Zara Spook , but the Strike King KVD Sexy Dawg and Berkley J-Walker also perform it well.
POPPERS The Rebel Pop-R is everybody’s favorite, but also good is the Berkley Bullet Pop . Choose lures with a feathered or bucktail aft treble, which adds a bit of motion during the periods between pops. Lures that sit tail-down, like the Pop-R, are particularly effective.
PROP BAITS These are fished a lot like poppers, but they allow more finesse. Propeller lures include the Cotton Cordell Crazy Shad , Berkley Spin Bomb and Smithwick Devil’s Horse . The River2Sea Whopper Plopper and the Berkley Choppo are specialized prop baits with an oversized prop on the back. They work more like a buzzbait than a conventional prop bait.
FLOATER-DIVERS Topwater jerkbaits like the venerable Rapala Original Floating F-Series and the Rebel Minnow score via jerking the lure underwater and then hesitating as it floats back to the surface. After a jerk, let it return to the surface, count to 10 and twitch again—assuming a fish hasn’t already hammered it.
WAKE BAITS These are easy to fish because you simply reel them slowly, causing them to wobble along at the surface. The Triton Mike Bucca Bull Shad Wake Bait is an expensive but deadly lure for lunkers. However, the more affordable Strike King Wake Shad and Jackall Mikey also do the job.
WEEDLESS FROGS Most of these are double-hook designs with hollow bodies, and they come through anything. Also very good are soft plastics, like the Z-Man GOAT ToadZ , rigged on a large single hook to make it weedless.
This article was featured in the August issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe .
