LURE FISHING
Without doubt, one of the most exciting ways to catch big bass is off the top with surface lures. Dave Barham reveals why it’s his favourite tactic…
How to catch bass off the top.
For me, nothing comes close to seeing and hearing a big bass engulf my lure being worked across the sea’s surface. It’s a tactic I try to use whenever and wherever I can. Topwater fishing for bass is often wrongly regarded as a tactic that produces only on warm, calm, overcast summer days, or during the low-light periods of dawn and dusk, but in reality bass will hit topwaters at any time of day and under many different conditions.
I have continued to fish topwaters right up until the end of October this year, and I have still been catching, with three decent fish falling to the method on my last trip offshore. Granted, one of those fish was caught over a reef in just 16ft of water, but the other two were over offshore banks in 60-100ft of water, while the other lads were catching bass right down on the bottom with weighted soft plastics!
Yes, bass will often swim near the surface in such depths, especially when the air temperature is still relatively mild – you just have to possess the confidence to break out the surface lures and give them a go.
They will also swim right up from the depths, chasing one of their hooked friends, so if you’re catching bass in deep water regularly, it’s well worth having a go with a topwater lure while your mates continue to fish deep.
Rule number one – don’t put topwaters out of your mind when conditions don’t meet traditional thoughts.
WATER CLARITY
All predatory fish species are sight feeders first and foremost. In clear water the look and action of your lure, not the sound, will be the final determining factor as to whether a bass strikes it or not.
Clear water with overcast conditions is a very good time for fishing stickbaits, like my favourite LuckyCraft Sammy or Heddon Super Spook. In coloured water or bright sunlight, I often reach for the noisy topwaters, the true ‘popper’ styles, such as the Maria Pop Queen.
More recently, a good fishing friend of mine put me on to one of the new style of ‘propeller tail’ lures. As far as I know, there aren’t any UK manufacturers/importers of these particular lures, aptly named ‘Whopper Poppers’. Trust me when I tell you that for offshore surface bass fishing, these beauties are really going to start featuring in catches. I managed to track a few down from the USA, so get yourself on to Google and see what you can find.
They’re incredibly easy to use. Unlike dedicated rhythm and tip-twitching methods required for stickbaits, this new breed of lure requires a simple cast and retrieve. You lob it out and wind it back at a steady pace. Doing this makes the tail ‘propeller’ rotate and splash, which has proved irresistible to bass along the south coast – I can’t see why it would be any different anywhere else in the country.
SURFACE CHOP
The only downside to topwater fishing is that it is governed by surface disturbance, which can severely reduce the effectiveness of your lure presentation. While a small amount of surface movement is good, too much can be a bad thing. Ideally, you want the bass to see your lure, but you don’t want it to see it so well that it rejects it as ‘not natural’.
I have tried working surface lures in a heavy sea, and it’s virtually impossible to present stickbaits correctly. Surface poppers, on the other hand, can be worked, albeit far less effectively. The new ‘propeller tail’ lures are proving to be the most effective during rougher conditions, mainly due to the simplicity of their use.
Ideally, I’d be looking for a slight surface chop created by a light breeze, say 1ft waves maximum but, as already mentioned, I have caught plenty of bass off the top in seas with 2-3ft waves in the past.
BRIGHT LIGHT
I believe the adage “you won’t catch bass during the middle of the day under clear blue sky and bright sunshine” is a myth. I’ve caught loads of bass under such conditions. Yes, there is a very noticeable difference between first and last light when compared to the middle of the day, but
you can still catch bass under such conditions.
As a general rule, I fish stickbaits early and late in the day, or all day when it is overcast, but switching to a surface popper during bright daylight conditions has always nicked me a few extra fish. Perhaps this is when the added ‘plop’ and surface disturbance really comes into its own, raising bass from the deeper water where they obviously like to retreat to when it gets really bright?
Rule number two is, don’t rule out surface fishing when it’s flat calm and bright sunshine.
WORKING THE LURES
Technique and tackle are paramount when surface fishing for bass. If you can’t get the lures working properly you’re really going to struggle.
As far as tackle goes, you really want a stiffish rod with a fast action rated to cast, say, 10-40g, so the tip recovers really quickly after each ‘twitch’. If you use a soft rod with a floppy tip it makes working the lure much, much harder. Match the rod with a suitable fixed-spool reel loaded with 15-20lb braid and tie a 3ft length of 20lb fluorocarbon to the end to act as a leader.
When it comes to working stickbaits, the good old ‘walk the dog’ technique is king. It’s quite simple, but relies purely on your ability to keep a steady rhythm going.
You cast out your lure, take up the slack and begin winding at a steady pace. I like to leave a good couple of seconds pause from when the lure splashes down before I begin winding. I just think that the noise and surface disturbance from that original splash can often grab the attention of a nearby bass and make them swim towards it to investigate.
Once you have your line under tension and the lure is moving towards you, flick your rod tip, say, twice every second, to make the lure zigzag from side to side, while still reeling in at a steady pace. It takes a little getting used to, but once you have found the correct rhythm for the particular lure you are using, it will become second nature. It’s a bit like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time to begin with.
When it comes to working a traditional surface ‘popper’ lure, you cast it out, again let it sit for a couple of seconds while you take up the slack in
the line, then twitch the rod tip hard to start the lure working. Immediately after this first ‘pop’ of the lure you wind a few turns to take up the slack, then once connected back with the lure, you violently twitch the rod tip again to make the lure ‘pop’, and so on, all the way to the boat.
How fast you retrieve, and how violently you twitch your rod tip is up to you, but again you will find yourself getting into a rhythm where you can see and hear the lure working effectively.
On some occasions the bass want the lure worked hard and fast, on other days they’ll prefer it worked slower with longer pauses between each ‘pop’ – every day is different.
STOP AND START
There are many schools of thought as to what to do if a bass comes up and smashes your lure, then doesn’t get hooked. Some anglers will tell you to keep on retrieving, some will say retrieve faster, but I often do the exact opposite. If a bass hits my lure and the hooks don’t stick, I will quite often stop the lure dead for a count of two, then begin retrieving again at exactly the same speed that I was using beforehand.
It really takes some willpower to do this,
because your initial instinct is to carry on winding. However, over the years this ‘pause and continue’ approach has really paid off for me. I don’t know whether it’s because stopping the lure dead in its tracks makes the bass think it has stunned its prey, or whether it gives the bass a couple of seconds to turn around and come back to the lure, but I have found that it really does work.
More often than not, the bass will hit the lure as soon as I start moving it again. Maybe the bass is just sitting there, looking at the lure, I really don’t know (I’d love to find out), but as soon as the lure starts moving again, it obviously triggers the bass to attack, and more often than not, this second time the hooks will stick.
Give it a go the next time you’re working surface lures. You’ll have to constantly remind yourself to pause in the heat of the moment, but you’ll be surprised at how quickly a bass will hit the lure a second time as soon as you begin retrieving again. ■