One of guide Mike McSwain’s favorite techniques for catching smallmouth bass on the Broad Rivers involves weighted soft plastics, but he doesn’t fish them primarily on the bottom. He uses this setup for some of the hottest topwater fishing he’s done with any lure.
With a 3-inch Zoom Ultravibe crawdad and a 1/4-ounce bullet weight, McSwain casts toward a shoreline with an eddy and some churning water between him and the shore.
Rather than letting the lure sink, McSwain raises his rod tip just before the plastic lure hits the water, and he begins reeling quickly just as it lands. This brings the crawdad to the surface, and McSwain then reels just fast enough to keep it on top.
“The weight is used for two reasons,” said McSwain. “It aids in casting distance, and it allows you to reel the lure through heavy current without it getting swept away like it would without weight.”
McSwain said this tactic has a distinct advantage over other surface lures.
“Bass will strike at but miss topwater lures often, and with topwater baits, the angler can only keep working the lure regularly, or reel in quickly and cast back to try again.
“With weighted soft plastics, anglers have more choices. They can try those same two methods, or they can let the lure sink immediately. I can’t count the number of fish I have caught this way. I have also caught plenty of them by reeling in quickly, then casting back to the same spot and letting the lure sink right away and working it along the bottom like a normal bottom rig. You simply don’t have those options with lures designed to be fished on top.”
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