Like most fishermen, catching bass on topwater baits is my favorite way to fish. It’s the most exciting kind of fishing — to see a bass come up and blast a lure that you’re working. Unfortunately, as a tournament fisherman, I can’t fish topwater very much. To bring fish to the scales and make a check, we’ve got to catch them the best way we can, and there are better ways to do it than with a topwater bait. But if you asked 10 bass fishermen, eight would probably say that topwater is their favorite way to fish.
I bring this up because November is a really, really good month to catch fish on topwater baits — especially the first half of the month. You may be able to catch more fish in September or October, but your bigger, quality bass will come up and hit a topwater bait better this month.
To get the most out of your topwater baits, you have to fish where the fish are, and that’s usually back in the creeks off our major reservoirs. You try to find where the fish are, keying on getting in an area with a lot of baitfish — shad or herring. Next, you have to figure out what kind of cover they’re on. Are they around grass, stumps, rocks, sandy banks or wood?
Once you get that out of the way, the biggest thing to making a big fish bite is to find the cadence he likes — how he wants the bait. Some days, they want it as fast as you can walk it, and some days, they might want you to pop it two times and let it sit for 15 seconds. When you get the cadence down, now, you’ve really got a chance to catch some nice bass.
I like to have two different topwater baits tied on: a Zara Spook and an Excalibur Zell Pop. The Spook is a walking bait, and the Excalibur is a popping bait. I like to fish both of them in shad colors. Sometimes, the fish will want a walking bait and sometimes they want a popping bait. It’s just another variable that you work through. If you make a hundred casts and catch a couple of fish, you should be able to tell how they want a bait.
Before I get started fishing, I do a couple of things. I like to replace the hooks that come on the bait in the package. I’ll add an Owner “feather” hook in place of the back hook on the Spook, and I’ll replace the hook on the popping bait with a feather hook.
I’ll try to have at least four rods rigged with topwaters. If I’m fishing over open water, making long casts, I’ll be using a 7-foot, medium-action All-Star baitcasting rod matched with a Pfleuger Patriarch reel, which has a 6.4-to-1 retrieve ratio. If I’m doing more target fishing — casting to visible cover — I’ll drop back to a 6-foot rod. I’ll have one of each bait on one of each rod.
One thing that’s important with topwater baits is to fish them on monofilament. A lot of fishermen think that with the clear water we usually have in our lakes in the fall, they need to fish fluorocarbon line. That’s wrong, because fluorocarbon line will try to sink a little bit and take the bait down with it. I want to fish monofilament, Trilene XT in 10- to 14-pound test, because topwater baits work better on mono.
In November, you’re expecting bass to come up and hit a topwater out of relatively deep water — because that’s where the baitfish are more likely to be. I think they’ll come up from a long way in the fall. Again, the water clarity of most of our lakes has something to do with this. You can count on some fish to come up out of deep water around creek-channel bends to hit a topwater bait that’s being worked over their heads. In fact, I have no problem fishing a topwater bait over 10 or 15 feet of water.
What’s really great about November is that the topwater bite, because the water has cooled off, can last all day. No need to put your baits away after the sun comes up like you do in the summertime. If you’re in the right area of a creek, you’re just as likely to fool a fish into hitting a Spook at noon or 2 in the afternoon as you are at 7 in the morning. In fact, the later in the fall you go, the better they’ll come up to get a bait all day long.
One thing that will really increase your daily catch is figuring out what to do when a fish misses a topwater bait. We’ve all had a big bass blow up on a topwater plug, knock in a foot or two out of the water, and still not get the hooks. How you respond to that may determine whether you get the most out of your day.
Usually, when a fish misses my bait, I’ll let it just sit there and not work it. I want to see if he’s going to come back for it. And you’ll know after the first miss what the day’s going to be like. For some reason, bass all seem to act the same way at one time or the other. If the first bass that misses your bait comes back and eats it, all of them will. If he leaves it alone, you go to Plan B, which is to have some kind of follow-up or comeback bait tied on.
I like to have Senko rigged Texas-style on a 4/0 Owner hook — with no weight. If a fish misses my Spook, and he doesn’t come back to get it, I like to get that Senko right in there where he was and just let the bait sink all the way to the bottom. I won’t give the bait any action; I just let it sink and watch the line as it settles to the bottom. If he’s in the area, seeing a Senko sort of flutter down in front of him is often just what you need to get him to come back and eat the bait he thinks he killed with his initial strike.
And one other thing. If I’m fishing in a team tournament — or with a buddy or one of my sons — and I hook up on a topwater bait, I want them standing close by with the net in one hand and rod with a Senko tied on in the other. Quite a few times in the fall, you’ll be bringing in a fish on a topwater bait, and you’ll see other bass following it to the boat. That’s when the other guy in the boat can flip that Senko in around the fish that’s already hooked and often get a strike from one of the fish that’s following along.
Now, if you’re fishing against the guy in your boat for money, or if you’ve got a bet where the loser pays for dinner, then don’t tell him about this trick.
Davy Hite is a 43-year-old native of Saluda who lives in Ninety Six. He has fished professionally since 1993. He was the BASS Angler of the Year in 1997 and 2002, and he won the 1999 Bassmasters Classic and the 1998 FLW Tour Championship. He is sponsored by Triton boats, Evinrude outboards, All-Star rods, Pfleuger reels, Berkley Trilene, Yamamoto Baits, Owner hooks and Solar Bat sunglasses.
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