What Top Water When?
Wakers and Frogs, Punkers and Rats, Oh my!
by Tom Leogrande
Photos provided by MonsterFishingTackle.com

With the summer in full swing and the temperatures continuing to rise, top water is on every “left coast” angler's mind. After all, top water is about as fun as you can have fishing.

A list of the the top “left coast” top water baits include the wake baits such as a A.C. Plug, JSJ Bluegill or MattLures Bluegill, jumbo spook baits like the Lunker Punker, rat or mouse baits like the Rago Rat and twitch baits such as a Shellcracker or JSJ Snack Size Trout. On top of these new age baits there are the age old standards such as buzzbaits, poppers, spooks, a dozen different brands of hard and soft plastic frogs and others. With all these options for fishing top water, how does an angler decide which one to throw on a given day?

Confidence
Nothing is more important than having confidence in the bait you are throwing. It's vital that when you are working that bait across the top of the water you can feel that next giant explosion coming, you just know that bait is going to get bit. This feeling puts you on point and allows you to be in tune with the bait and get that action exactly how it needs to be to get that big bite.If you aren't confident in the bait then you just aren't going to fish it as thoroughly or as effective as you will a bait you believe in.

Structure
Docks – Docks are areas where smaller forage fish hang out for protection from the bigger fish and other predators. Docks are also areas where a mouse or rat would hang around to pick up food from the boaters using the docks. Frogs don't generally hang around large packs of docks, but frogs can still certainly work around docks, especially docks that don't have a lot of traffic.

Rago Rats are excellent around docks and rocky banks

Weeds/Grass/Tules – Weed patches and/or grass especially near the shore or near trees are always great areas to fish a frog because big fish use these weeds and grass to get themselves out of the sun. Small forage fish also hide out in the grass for protection so fishing wake baits, buzzbaits , poppers and twitch baits around the outside edges of the grass or in open pockets in the grass can be effective as well.

Rocky Banks – Large rocky banks like a reservoir damn or a Delta levee make great homes for varmints like rats, mice and similar rodents. Fishing a rat down a rock bank can provide for some moments of a lifetime. Lunker Punkers and Wake baits are also a good choice in these areas as trout or other large bait fish will cruise these areas searching for an easy meal.

 

Match The Hatch:
Nothing is a better example of matching the hatch than the yellow headed black bird frog at Clear Lake . Clear Lake is loaded with yellow headed black birds and the bass eat them as often as they can. Just a few years ago Scott Green noticed a yellow headed black bird choked up in his livewell after landing a fish and turned to Snag Proof to match the hatch for him with the “tweety” frog.

The Snag Proof "Tweety" Frog is almost a perfect Match of the Yellow Headed Blackbird

Other lakes have other forage that are bass forage. It might be a blugill, crappie, bait fish, baby steelhead/salmon/striper, baby ducks, rats, mice or snakes. Figure out what the bass on your pond are eating and “Match the hatch.”

Different Strokes:
With the amount of information available to anglers these days a hot bite doesn't stay secret for long. A good buzzbait bite won't last very long if everywhere you look there are anglers throwing buzzbaits. Same goes for every other type of top water. So find a “different stroke” that works for you. If a buzzbait has been the hot bait but, it now seems like the whole world is throwing buzzbaits then switch to a soft bodied frog with kick tails. It's got similar action but, just might be different enough to entice that buzzbait weary fish to eat.

Another example would be if the frog bite is off the hook and everywhere you look you see people throwing frogs. Switch to a popper, and work it around the weedlines, again a similar action but, enough of a difference that the fish just might like take well to the less available offerings. There are more similar baits punkers and spooks, rats and wakebaits and more.

Use the following three variables size/shape, speed/action and noise. Then change just one of those variables from the “popular choice” and you might put yourself in position for a stellar day. In the examples above the soft plastic frog is a change in noise but, not necessarily size or speed from buzzbait. A popper has a different noise than a frog as well. A punker and spook have similar speeds and noise but, different sizes and lastly a rat and a wakebait have similar noise and speed but, with a tail a different shape.

Buzzbaits and Soft Frogs can make similar actions and noises.

With so many options of top water baits there is always a good option for the water you fish. Just recognize the structure, match the hatch, sometimes vary from the norm and always be confident in your selection. then fish hard, hold tight and enjoy those “toilet bowl flush” bites because nothing beats a sunny day on a gorgeous lake and an off the hook top water bite!