Post Spawners On Top
By Jim Smith
Southern Staff Writer
July 15, 2009
Have A “Blast” From a Visual Strike
In many southern waters the spawn is on the decline and bass are once again starting to transition to the feeding activities that are required to sustain them for another season. This means whatever gets in front of them just might get eaten.
After the heated ritual of spawning bass are once more the “mouth that swims” and post-spawn is a period when heavy feeding is required to replenish the energy necessary to perform the annual responsibility of pro-creation.
Now is the time when topwater baits and tactics come into play with regular and predictable success, and catching a big bass on a topwater bait is a unique thrill that literally jolts your senses. That feeling of “being watched” leading up to the explosive moment of the strike is what makes the topwater bite one of the most exciting techniques going.
Topwater baits will catch bass year round in the south, but there are a couple of times a year that these techniques really shine, and late spring and early fall are the transition seasons that typically provide the most consistent action on top.
Bass are more predictable during these transition periods making locating them easier. Catching them on topwater bait can be very productive under the right conditions and circumstances.
Pick your poison
Whether you favor a frog, popper, walker, twitch or buzzer type bait, there is an optimum time to exploit each of these baits. As we look at each of these baits I’ll share with you how I rig them, my rod and reel choice, the line I use, and the conditions under which I use each technique.
Twitching
One of my favorite top water techniques is twitching a floating minnow-type bait, such as the Bomber Long A. When twitched seductively on the surface near any type of structure including rock, wood and vegetation, this bait is a great imitator of an injured bait fish.
Light twitching produced by very small jerks of the rod tip, alternating with pauses and a slow steady crank that keeps the bait on or near the surface, is deadly on post spawn bass.
I fish this bait on a Dobyns 705CBMF Glass rod with a Team Diawa Zillion 100SHA 7.1:1 baitcasting reel, spooled up with 13-15 pound test Sunline Defier monofilament. This rig is perfect for imparting the subtle twitches to this bait, but also follows through with the brute power to control the big bass that falls for it.
Frogs and “scurry” baits
When bass are relating to the surface for food, try to imitate a small creature trying to make it safely across openings in surface cover such as lily pads and other surface vegetation, or vegetation that has slipped into the water from a steep bank or fallen out of a tree.
Frogs can be very effective in these conditions. They can be walked and hopped in, over and around cover where exposed hook baits are not easily fished. Frog baits come in two basic styles; the floating or hollow body frog and the buzzing or paddle foot solid soft plastic type.
I like to rig a floating frog on a Dobyns 736C Heavy Extra Fast Action rod, again using the Team Diawa Zillion 100SHA 7.1:1 baitcasting reel, spooled up this time with 65 pound test PowerPro braided line. This rig allows me to throw the frog a mile up into the backs of lily pad fields and walk and hop my way back to the boat without worrying about getting the bait back. The braid will literally cut the tops off of the pads and help keep the line from becoming wrapped up in the strong woody stems.
Remember, when fishing in the pads it’s important to get control of the fish quickly and get them up near, or even on the top of the pads. Keep the fish from turning its head and swimming sideways. When you get a strike on a floating frog it is also critical to hesitate for a second to let the fish get the bait in its mouth, then set the hook solid and keep the fish coming towards the boat. The heavy rig I described above allows me to control the fish even in these unforgiving pads.
I use the same rig on buzzing frogs in the same cover, but the difference is that the paddle feet of this bait make more noise and sometimes helps the bass locate them. I generally fish them with a steady retrieve since they don’t float on the surface, but these frogs will produce when you swim them under the surface also. You lose the visual factor which can make the hesitation before the hookup harder to accomplish.
Other good “scurry” baits include the Yamamoto Senko and Kut Tail Worms. Rig these baits on a weightless hook and fish them in, over and around the same thick cover. By holding your rod tip high you can keep the bait on or near the surface for the same kind of smashing response from bass looking to the surface for small critters trying to get past them. Make these baits scurry erratically across open water pockets and then allow them to rest on the pad tops before sliding off the edges, frantically trying to make it to the next one. If a bass strikes and misses, simply stop your retrieve and let the bait sink and then hang on, because they will usually hit the bait again.
Poppers
Popping baits such as the Sugoi Splash, Kinami Spit-N-Splash and Rebel Pop’r, are hard to
beat when bass are visually feeding on the surface in open water, and up next to visible structure like rock, wood and vegetation edges.
These baits are best fished in some sort of rhythm such as a “pop-pop-paus”, and it can take a little practice to develop a good and effective cadence. It is common to keep a soft plastic such as a Senko ready to throw to bass that have struck at the popper but missed. Most of the time you can just toss the Senko right back to the swirl and catch the missed fish.
I like to rig the popping baits on a rod with a slower tip so that the bait doesn’t move too far when you pop it, and the softer tip also allows more shock absorption from the strike. I use the same rig that I use for twitching and find that it works well for me most of the time.
Walkers
Walking baits like the Kinami Jay Walker, Zara Spook and the Lucky Craft Sammy are the types of baits that are used to produce the “walking the dog” zig-zagging retrieve that drives bass 
nuts. I’m not sure what they think it is because the action is so robotic that it doesn’t seem natural at all to me.
Regardless of how I interpret the action, the truth is that it is a proven standard in topwater fishing not only for bass but for other species that feed in open water, such as striper, redfish and salt water trout.
I fish walkers on the same rig that I use for twitchers and poppers that I specified earlier in this article. The moderately fast tip of the fiberglass rod allows the bait to load the rod slower with each pulse, and all it takes is some practice with the snap-reel-snap retrieve to get these baits zigging and zagging and zigging and BAM!
Buzzers
Buzz baits have been around for as long as I can remember, and are as popular and effective as ever. They are a great choice to throw over the top of submerged vegetation and parallel to weed and timber lines. The weedless design makes it come though most emergent vegetation easily as well, with only occasional fouling of the buzzing blade. They are also a good choice for throwing into the backs of super shallow pockets because of their weight allowing for long casts, and their relative weedless properties.
These baits are loud and very easy to fish with a steady retrieve being the most popular
method. You can vary the speed of the bait to suit the fish, and even give little bursts that effectively imitate a fleeing bait fish. Buzz baits create a lot of disturbance and will call fish in from good distance, and their loud presence make them easy to pinpoint in water colors that are not clear enough for the fish to easily see the bait.
The paddle foot frogs that I talked about earlier in this article are actually a buzzing bait also and can be thrown into places that you might not want to throw a bladed buzzbait, such as across floating grasses and mats. They also create a lot of surface noise and are a good choice in flooded grass in muddy water.
When I fish a buzz bait over the top of thick submerged hydrilla for example, I like to use a Dobyns 734C or DX744C rod with a Team Diawa Zillion 100HA 6.3:1 baitcasting reel, spooled up with 65 pound test PowerPro braided line.
In closing I want to again say thanks to my sponsors Costa Del Mar, Dobyns Rods, Laser Lure, Lock-n-Haul, Power Pole, SavePhace, and a special thanks to Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits for making the great products that I choose to include in the tools that I use in my pursuit of the prize.