During the two-dozen or so years that I fished professionally, I fished the way I needed to when it came to placing in tournaments and cashing checks. So I fished the most-practical way, not necessarily the way that was the most enjoyable.
It’s no secret when it comes to having a good time, I am a tremendous fan of topwater fishing. Seeing a big bass explode on a topwater bait does more for me than feeling a half-dozen or so “tap-taps” on a soft-plastic bait or a jig. It still gets my heart beating faster than normal.
So it should be no surprise that October is a favorite month of mine when it comes to getting on the lake, fishing for fun, taking plenty of satisfaction out of a big bite or two or three on a topwater bait.
When I think about October, it’s the last real month of topwater fishing until next year, and it’s a really fun time to fish that way. October in the Carolinas is usually very pleasant: good weather, good temperatures, the leaves are turning. It’s a great time to be on the way for those reasons, plus, here in the Southeast, a lot of bass fishermen will be deer hunting or watching college football, so it makes it a little more special to spend some time on the water when the lakes aren’t nearly as crowded.
Find the bait
The key to really good topwater fishing this month will be to find where the baitfish are; that’s the biggest thing. I start on the main lake, looking for signs of shad. A lot of times shad will be up on the surface, but I’ll be using my electronics to find them, too. A lot of times, they’ll be within 10 or 15 feet of the surface over 20 to 40 feet of water – especially early in October. If I see baitfish on the main lake, I’ll really start to look closely. I really keep my eyes on my electronics. I know they won’t be on places that are really sloping. Flatter points are much better.
If I start on the main lake and don’t find any fish breaking, no schooling activity, then I’ll start looking in the creeks. It depends a lot on the weather, when it starts to get cooler. But by late October, especially, a lot of baitfish will be pushing back in the creeks. I like to look in live creeks, big creeks with a lot of water moving through; baitfish tend to move more into those kinds of creeks.
I like to fish two different kinds of topwater baits in October. I want to fish a walking bait, like a Rapala Jowler, a really good walking bait. I know they make them in a lot of shad or herring colors, but in October, I like a bone color.
I will fish a walking bait with either a very fast retrieve, or slowly walk it along. You just have to experiment and see which way is working.
Mix it up
I will usually start with a Jowler, but I’ll also use a buzzbait a lot, especially back in the creeks. Where I usually use a Jowler on the main lake, where you’re making long casts and covering a lot of open water, I can cover a lot of water with a buzzbait and throw it around anything I see. On the main lake, you’re throwing around baitfish, but in a creek, there’s a lot more vegetation, a lot more blowdowns, stumps and boat docks. Creeks are protected from a lot of the current that comes down the main lake, so more vegetation can grow back there.
The buzzbait I use the most is a Buckeye G-Buzz, and I’ll have several different ones tied on. A lot of people will throw a single-bladed buzzbait with a silver blade, but I like to throw silver, gold, even black buzzbaits. Some days they’ll want one more than the others.
With a buzzbait, you’ve always got to keep it moving, but there’s a lot of difference between buzzing it on the surface real fast or just crawling it along the surface. And you can mix it up. Like a crankbait, you can fish it slow, fast or medium.
Use a trailer
I think a lot of anglers make a mistake and fish a buzzbait right out of the package. I always use a trailer hook, and I always use a soft-plastic trailer, a Yamamoto Zako swimbait with either a straight tail or a button tail.
It’s important to have the plastic on there, because it gives the bait more action, and if you throw it without the plastic, you will miss more fish. If a fish opens its mouth to inhale a buzzbait, there’s not as much to draw into his mouth if you don’t have a plastic trailer. With a plastic trailer, there’s a lot more to grab and pull on. With the bait having a bigger profile, he’ll focus more on the middle of the bait, and he’ll strike closer to the hooks.
I will fish both the Jowler and the buzzbait on a 7-foot, medium-heavy Lew’s rod and a Lew’s baitcasting reel with either a 6.3-to-1 or 7-to-1 retrieve ratio. The only difference is, I’ll throw the topwater on braid, with a short monofilament leader. You can make longer casts, get a good hookset, and the line doesn’t pull the bait down. When I fish a buzzbait, I’ll have 17-pound Suffix Advance fluorocarbon spooled on my reel.
Catch the buzz:
When fishing with buzzbaits, the author prefers to use a trailer hook and a soft plastic trailer because it gives the lure more action, and helps anglers catch short-striking fish.
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