Hey, Fix Up That Topwater!

Almost all lures are ready to fish with right out of the box,but some can use just a little tuning up.

When it comes to topwater baits,I feel changes are mandatory.

Since I have been using poppers and chugger type lures almost all the time, I will address the most important mod in this blog.

First thing you have to do is put a number #4 feathered treble hook on the rear of your lure.Some baits come with them, but most have a funky fake feather.

Chunk that thing and get yourself some real bird feathers on there.

My favorite ones to buy are made by Excaliber.Since we are talking bass fishing, stick with a white or chartreuse color.Night bassin' may require a black, or red feather on back, or even dark blue.

I lack the patience or time to tie my own, so it off to BassPro for me.

And while your at it, go ahead and replace the front hook on your lure as well. My favorite bare treble hook is a number #4 made by Owner. I personally like a "short shank" treble on all my topwaters. You just don't need a long treble hook dangling in the water.

 

So why is the feather so important? 

After you have fixed up your topwater with this feather change, drop your bait in the water. Notice how that feather just hangs there. Now twitch that bait, notice how the feather kind of glides up and down.

Folks, this is the game changer mod for me. That feather is moving all the time even when pausing your bait.

Lots of times the bass will just chew on the back of the feather before they hit it.

If a bass misses your bait or is just swatting at it, the feather ( I believe) is what makes them hit it again!

Give this modification a shot because it's inexpensive and really enhances your topwater bassin'.

Mark Easterling

Hey, You Better Speed Up

I

With a high river level,I was off to a new location this morn. Super quiet, water like glass,lots of laydowns and piled up brush on flats that ranged about six inches to four feet deep.

Shad were dancing on the surface, so got all set it get with it.

After about a half hour of pounding that place and not a hit, I just did a one-eighty.

I just ripped that popper as fast as I could reel and

popped it back to the yak again and again.I thrashed the water with that bait, and that's all it took.

I landed eleven bass in under an hour using that method.Yes small ones and midsize bass, but check out the bottom pic in this article. She slammed that popper reeling it fast.

So don't get stuck with normal bait retrieves all the time.

Changing it up can yield great rewards.

Instead of changing lures, just change your retrieve!

How Much Does That Lure Cost?

I'm as guilty as anyone. Looking at my plastic boxes full of topwaters,I can't believe how much money some of them cost.

Some of my baits cost over $20 a piece! And I have several like that.We all get tired of throwing the same bait all the time, but how much time do you spend throwing those high dollar baits?

Me? Well, not that much. We all have confidence baits and I think that's a good thing. What good is a bass trip doubting what you are throwing at the bass?

Lets take cost out of the equation.How many baits do you have that you have no fun throwing? Believe me. I have plenty that wear me out after awhile. Even if they produce fish, if its not fun, I'm out. Why? Because I have plenty of baits that catch bass that are so much fun to throw.

The cost of a bait has nothing to do with it's bass catching ability. Some of my favorite baits that I throw cost less than

$10.And to be really truthfull, the baits that cost $5 are my bass catching machines.

If you look at my pics, you know which baits I'm talking about.If the $20 baits caught bass constantly, I would be truthful and say so.

In closing, I want to to you I believe it's all in your presentation of the topwater. Not even the color is that important. Match the hatch? What bait fish is chartreuse or black? Around here, none.I honestly feel, it's how you maneuver that bait on the surface.Thats the reason a feathered treble hook on back is so important for presentation.it becomes an important part of your lure's presentation.

I will continue to by expensive baits and cheap ones also.

The bass does not know how much you spent on the lure he or she is looking at. But confidence in what you throw is what counts at any cost.

Bass enjoy a good picnic/cookout also

I really went this Sun. evening to work on my froggin' technique. So went to one of the public parks on the river, thinking most folks gone home.No, it was packed with people enjoying the weather etc.

Lots of laydowns in this area by the main road, so that's where I started. I frogged for two hours catching small bass and lost the rest! Must work harder.

Before going home I had 2 throw at a couple of big limbs right by my truck. People everywhere, cooking out, playing music, fishing for bream. The water is about 10-12 inches deep, so threw a PopR right by that limb.

The rest is history. Big ole' girl smashed that bait! Be sure to look at the pic. She weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces.

This all proves bass dig a good cookout and people around. I had quite an audience as I fought her in. They were not understanding why I released her. Lol x 100

You Might Look For A Bridge

Four in the morning came way too early today,only to find it raining like all get out. So instead of fishing,I went back to bed and waited .

By 5:30 it was misting but figured might as well go. Made some coffee, out the door.Fishing was horrible.I threw everything at them. No takers. Then it starts raining again, really coming down hard, and I'm soaked.This just won't do so I head off to a nearby bridge to wait it out in my yak.

Bored waiting for the rain to stop, I figured I would throw out into open water to kill time. It's raining so hard, you could not even hear the "gulp gulp" of my popper, when all of a sudden kaboom! A bass slammed that plug in open water in about 10 ft of water. She jumped out of the water once and shook her head. Nothing like a show in the rain!

So the lesson here is, well at least for me that bassin' when there's a hard rain might not be such a bad idea! Next time it starts raining, you might want to grab your stuff and head out.

By the time I got that bass off my popper, the sun was back and actually caught 2 more small bass in  that deeper water.

Learned a good lesson today. Hope it rains some more this week. Lol x 100

Clean that reel!

Everyone needs to be able to perform basic cleaning on all fishing reels. Basic keep up on them will provide years of trouble-free performance. No sure how to do it? Put your reel type and cleaning on a Google search or YouTube and you will be ready to go! It's super easy!

Look at my old Shimano 250 from 96 in the pic. She performs perfectly, and have never had 2 send it back to the factory!

This reel has been through alot. It's been dropped in lakes and rivers,handle has been bent many times, and works awesome because I clean and oil/lube it on a regular basis. Also, when it gets dirty, rinse it gently with water and dry off.Your reels will cast like new, and be sure to put new line on more than once a year, unless you want to lose that ten pounder. Lol x 100

Learning Curve for froggin'

MFun froggin' today, smaller bass but still exciting stuff. Think I got the whole hook set/ wait/ thing down now. For the impatient like me, it took some getting use to. But awesome to see them lunge at it in the water. Good times! 

Bass Exploring

When I first got my kayak, it was the beginning of fall almost 3 years ago.It was so thrilling
paddling in water I always wondered about, amazed at how shallow I could float. Within the
first few days of yakin', the river/creeks were high and lots of flooded bushes, and this is where
I began to notice bait in the shallows. Just small shad skipping across the surface, right at the edge
of the flooded brush.The water even with the river being high was at the most 18-20 inches deep.

Well heck, here I was with a Heddon Spitin' Image topwater and figured there just might be
some smaller bass in all this stuff, so casting away is what I did.
As my bait laid down beside a small submerged willow bush whose leaves were almost gone, I
began my "slosh slosh" of my topwater.All of a sudden, that bait dissapeared out of site.
What? Then  the line tightened, and the fish was racing to get back to the flooded timber.
It sure didn't feel small, when all of a sudden her huge head came out of the water shaking that
lure every possible way.That bass weighed 6 + pounds, and is the one in the pic.

Never never would I have believed a bass would be in water that shallow.
To this day, I still fish this spot when I can get to it. The level changes daily.There
are times this place is a big old mud flat, with no trace of water on it.
Other times it will have 20 inches on it. To this day, I catch the majority of largemouth
bass in 20 inches of water regardless of the season/with the exception of late winter.
Donot ever pass up shallow water in your quest for big bass.
.

Extreme Topwater goes froggin'. #2

Quick trip to the river yielded 3 bass on the Spro popper frog. My camera went down so I just have the 1 pic. Using the Duckett med/ hvy rod was 100% improvement on setting the toady toad hook. Look forward 2 more bassin' with the frog.