What a Gift

As a youngster growing up I was truly blessed, because I had both a dad and granddad that loved fishing as much as I did, and they took me with them as much as possible. Without that, I doubt I’d be doing what I’m do­ing today. They gave me the most pre­cious gift of all—a gift that lasts a lifetime!

Even though he has been gone for many years, I can still hear my granddad saying something I heard him say many times.

“I’d rather catch one bass on top of the water than 10 below the surface.” He may have been exaggerating just a little, but it’s something that has al­ways been true for most of the bass anglers I’ve known. No lure produces more ex­citement than a topwater! This is because you not only hear the strike, but you see it, too.

Rare indeed is the fisherman who doesn’t thrill to the sud­den strike of a bass exploding into a lure on the top of the water. I think most of us will have to admit we’d rather catch a bass on top than any other way.

There are five keys to topwa­ter success that are impor­tant to remember: the first concerns water temp and water clarity—slightly stained to clear water is best when the surface temp is above 65 de­grees. Second, you should fish your lure as close as possible to an object or irregular fea­ture. This can be either visible or submerged. Third, whenever possible, cast toward the sun. Fourth, establish a rhythm. It’s the rhythm of a lure that at­tracts bass. And fifth, don’t set the hook until you feel the weight of the fish.

By fishing a topwater plug near objects, the shoreline or ir­regular features, you’ll in­crease your chance for a strike, because bass use these features as a blocking force.
Predator fish like to trap their prey against something such as a log, stump, weed-bed, the bank itself or whatever.

By casting into the sun, your lure will produce a better sil­houette on the surface, plus it will appear slightly larger than it actually is. This helps hide the fact that it’s an artificial of­fering instead of the real thing.

When a fish hits a topwater bait, it’s critical to wait that extra second or two until you feel the fish. This is one of the hardest things to learn about this type of fishing—you have to give the bass enough time to get the plug into his mouth so you can get good hook pene­tration when you set the hook.

When a fish hits a topwater lure, regardless of what kind it is, he’s sucking in water, air and your lure all at the same time. If he’s in vegetation, he’s got that to cope with as well.
The way you retrieve the lure determines the rhythm. Rhythm is determined by the length of the jerks or pulls and the length of the pause be­tween them.

Perhaps my most productive rhythm or presentation is a twitch, twitch, twitch, pause, twitch, twitch, twitch allowing the lure to sit for approxi­mately three seconds or so in the pause posi­tion. It’s impor­tant to experiment with differ­ent re­trieves until the fish tell you what they want at that time.

To obtain the best action with this lure, it’s best to use a medium-light rod with mod­erate flex and soft tip. This type rod action will allow for better casting control and permit you to work the lure with less effort!

To entice strikes on a bait of this type, it should look, sound and appear vulnerable as well as edible. The action should sug­gest that it’s in trouble. An in­jured, unwary forage fish will unknowingly convince a bass to bust it!

Many fish are caught off structure, as simple as this sounds. When most an­glers hear the word structure, they think of a submerged creek channel ledge, a ridge, bar or drop-off way out in the lake, but let me tell you, there’s plenty of shallow structure in close to the shoreline. To de­fine structure for those not familiar with the term, consider “structure” to be the floor of the lake extending from the shallows on out to deeper wa­ter. More precisely, it is the unusual or irregular fea­tures on the lake bottom that make it different from the sur­rounding bottom areas.

As a general rule, for any type of structure to be produc­tive, it needs to have immediate access to deeper water. This rule applies regardless of whether the struc­ture is a foot deep or 35 feet deep.

Bass consider the quick pas­sage to deeper water an escape route from predators or any type of danger. Call it instinct or habit, bass normally won’t wan­der very far from that es­cape route. Like a submarine, bass want the option of crash diving when they feel the need. Also this change of depth af­fords bass the opportunity to escape light penetration, and it gives them more latitude in choosing both pH and tem­perature ranges they prefer.

The two most important con­siderations regarding structure are depth, the basic structural feature or type of spot and the ambush point in the area.

As I said earlier, we’re con­centrating on structure along the shoreline—any place where there’s noticeable depth change, like a point where the contour lines from a depth change on the right side, at the mouth of a ditch, creek or de­pression where the deepest water occurs, a shallow rise in close to shore, a deeper bank and a pocket or cove where a depth change takes place.
Naturally, the farther these lo­cations are separated, the more productive they’ll be, and if cover is present, whether visible or not, they’ll be even more attrac­tive.

I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing to­day if it were not for my Dad and Granddad taking the time to introduce me to this wonderful sport. The legacy they left me—a knowledge of and love for fishing—really was the most precious gift of all, and for me, it has been a gift that will surely last a lifetime! Why don’t you think about giving the same gift to some young­ster real soon? I’ll see you next time.