Hi fellow AMFisHers, anglers and fishing enthusiast’s! In this blog post I discuss one of the most exciting ways to catch fish all season long and even right into the fall weather we are having now.

There is nothing quite like having your heart pumping at 1000 beats per minute, as you watch your top water bait moving across the surface of the water, all the while waiting for the insane fish blow up to take place! This is quite the exciting way to fish and is typically overlooked come early to late fall, which can be a very good top water fish producing time of year.

When it comes to top water fishing there are a lot of bait options, everything from frogs, bait fish, mice or rats, buzz baits, poppers and many more so where does one start?   Well keeping it simple with a top water bait that imitates an injured bait fish is a great choice! What to look for is any top water bait that has the look of a minnow or bait fish and the key is to make sure it displaces water as you are working the bait.

Come fall when frogs and mice are not out and about to often, a popper style bait that has a cupped lip area is one to consider. These are fairly easy to fish and will blend in as bait fish will still be around. These baits are usually twitched or popped bait to the boat, with that cup style mouth pushing through the water creating quite the splash! Another minnow style top water bait choice is a bait that has a prop style end to it, which turns around while it is being retrieved and creates a rather large water wake drawing in fish from a great distance.

(These are Creek Chub popper style minnow baits)

These prop style baits are quite hot these days and they really do work well! They move a lot of water and make quite the commotion on the waters surface, which is why they lure fish in for the strike. When fishing any of these two top water bait styles there are some tricks when it comes to working them, that will result in some stunning strikes.

(This is a Joe Bucher Outdoors TopRaider black and orange prop style bait)

First tip is to let the bait sit sometimes for up to 10 or more seconds after you have made a cast. By doing this you allow all the splash rings around the bait to fully disappear, making the bait look about as vulnerable as it can.

Second tip is to do the reverse of this, where as soon as the bait splashes into the water you start to work it immediately and quite frantically, as this will mimic something that may have fallen or been dropped by a bird of prey scurrying for cover.

The two tips above have caught me a lot of fish over the years and the third tip is to include pauses in your retrieve. Pausing any top water bait during the retrieve almost creates a crash into the bait situation with any closely following fish and it also instantly triggers their instinct to strike.

Tip four is to change your retrieve speed and style, as the fish will always tell us what they want to eat and how they want it, so it is important to work top water baits as you would any other style bait. Working the baits faster, then slower, then fast with pauses then slower with pauses and so on, will lead you to what fish are reacting to much quicker instead of fishing a bait the same way that may not be appealing to the fish that day.

This is a great time of year to experience that top water bite so don’t miss out! Hope you found some value in this article…tight lines everyone.

The AMFisH guy…Billy

Dedicated to helping you catch more fish!

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