Top water on rivers

[pittsburghbass]

I've read a lot of posts about people fishing top water lures in the morning and in the evening, and I feel like I'm missing out. I never fish top water... maybe because I never found it very productive or maybe its the waters I normally fish. (I normally fish rivers)

So my question for you guys is which top water baits should I be using for a river with very little cover and lots of open water with a fairly slow current?

I always try to match my bait to the natural prey the fish are feeding on, and in my area there arent many frogs, lizards or the like for bass to feed on. So i've always had a hard time picking a top water lure. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

[bassboogieman]

My first choice would be a popper, like a Lucky Craft G-splash. For smallmouth, try a wakebait - they will come up and hit them, and I've used them throughout the day especially on overcast ones. I like the Rick Clunn Lucky Craft wakebait, with the small smallmouth in the Three Rivers, probably the 1.5 size would a good choice.

[DaveW731]

We fish for smallmouth on a river very much like what you describe and have had success with poppers and 3/16oz buzzbaits and propbaits.

In terms of matching the forage with topwaters in your situation, sounds like minnows are the prime food supply, so imitating an injured minnow would be a great choice and IMO prop baits do that better than any other topwater. I really like Rapala's 1/4oz Skitter Prop for smallies, but any quality prop bait should do just fine.

[pittsburghbass]

Thanks for the suggestions. That Lucky Craft wakebait... is that like a crankbait? I'm not sure I know what the difference is. Does it float on the surface and then dive under as you reel it in?

[bassboogieman]

Wake baits are a jointed, floating crankbait which runs at or just under the surface. Several manufacturers sell a version of them, this is my favorite and it is exclusive to BPS, but be forewarned that BPS is discontinuing the Rick Clunn line of baits and this is the last year for them. Wether Clunn's new deal at Luck E Strike will offer them later, remains to be seen.
http://www.basspro.com/Lucky-Craft-R...00927/-1756142
And, they are closing them out at a savings of $5.00 per lure, so I think I need to order a dozen for myself while I can still get them.

[pittsburghbass]

Wow thats awesome, I will definitely have to pick one up. Thanks for the help!

This weekend I'm going to hit the river early (hopefully I'll beat the heat) and try some top water lures, see what I can do!

[Bassboss]

What kind of rivers? "River" is a pretty broad term. Are you talkin like a big river like the Mississippi, or a little river you can cast across? How deep is this river? Are are you fishing for largemouth or smallmouth? Are ypu wadding, or fishing from a boat?

Almost every river I've seen has some kind of wood cover. I really like toppers are working big log jams. You can work the whole thing with one or two well thought-out casts. I really like a popper-r for doing this, you can give quite s bit of action without moving it very far just by popping it every so often.

1st Get upstream of the target so that you can make a diagnial cast . Not directly upstream as that can kick up mud and sand that will drift down stream which may spook fish. Make your cast to the base of log, letting the current take the popper down the length of the log, giving the the popper one single pop every few seconds. Sometimes it'll take a few casts for a fish to commit, but usually if their's one there, and visibility is good it'll hit on that initial cast to an area.

[pittsburghbass]

I usually fish in one of Pittsburgh's three rivers... most of the time they are much too wide to cast across. I fish from shore, with waders. The water I'm fishing in is normally 3-6 feet deep. Being stuck on shore really limits my ability to cover a lot of water.

[Bassman96]

Idk If this would work in ur situation but I fish the Saluda river in SC and one of my favorite techniques is to actullay T-rig a Zoom Trick Worm in either watermelon red or green pumpkin and twitch it along sort of like the action of a hurt baitfish. This works very well where I live and you might wanna give it a try. I use a gamma 2/0 offset shank hook and 8lb fluoro spinning gear. Good Luck!!!

[mrmuskie5]

three rivers huh? so the fish are not so big? I would go with some tiny buzzbaits and a zara puppy. I also love throwing weightless trick worms except i LOVE bubblegum color for this i dont know what they hell they think it is but who cares they KILL it!

[Bassman96]

Exactly! Mrmuskie! I kinda think that since its so bright and ugly that they have to hit it. Definately an awesome reaction bite and I love bubblegum(great river color).

[pittsburghbass]

Well I got to the river at about 7am on saturday and tried my luck with a buzzbait and a heddon torpedo on the top... nothing with the torpedo, but I had a few nice hits on the buzzbait! Never hooked up though. So then it was over to my go-to bait, curly tailed grubs. Caught 3 smallmouth after that. 3 fish in 3 hours is a pretty slow morning though :-(

[DaveW731]

Originally Posted by Bassman96

Idk If this would work in ur situation but I fish the Saluda river in SC and one of my favorite techniques is to actullay T-rig a Zoom Trick Worm in either watermelon red or green pumpkin and twitch it along sort of like the action of a hurt baitfish. This works very well where I live and you might wanna give it a try. I use a gamma 2/0 offset shank hook and 8lb fluoro spinning gear. Good Luck!!!

I use that approach at least 50% of the time on the river I fish, although I prefer a 4" or 5" Yum Dinger. I also have found that wacky rigging a 4" Dinger with a good BBswivel about 18" above the hook can be killer at times. Cast across the current, let it drift down with an occasional sharp tug. I visualize a badly injured minnow that is struggling to stay upright and is tumbling helplessly downstream.

[3dkicker]

PBbass - don't limit yourself to just mornings. Bass will hit topwater during the middle of the day with bright blue skies. You have pay attention to what's going on and see if they are feeding up and how aggressive they are. Also with poppers you can change the speed of the bait and not just pop the bait once or twice and let it sit. I've caught many fish twitching a popper as fast as I can. Try different baits and retrieves and see what works. You might be surprised.

[pittsburghbass]

That's a great point... paying attention to the fish is always the first thing to do before selecting a bait! Thanks for the advice!

[Bryan]

Nothing like throwing a buzzbait into 8" of water and watching a big wake shoot towards your lure before it gets nailed. I love topwaters in moving water. Soft jerkbaits are alot of fun too.

[3dkicker]

Originally Posted by pittsburghbass

That's a great point... paying attention to the fish is always the first thing to do before selecting a bait! Thanks for the advice!

On the tidal rivers like the James and Chickahominy I like to pay attention to the little brown/orange dragonflies. When the fish start busting them, which can be at anytime, I start throwing toads and buzzbaits like mad...cuz I know the bass are feeding up! Works well.
This past Sunday my PVA partner and I got a great topwater bite with overcast skies. Lasted 30-45 minutes and they hit wakebaits run on the surface. Wouldn't touch a floating worm or buzzbait. Crushed them on Bandit Footloose and RC Wake. Then it stopped but it was still overcast . Tide change so I changed up what we were using and went to slow sinking baits like the worm and senko type bait and caught them. That bite slowed and then changed to T-rig craw and caught them again.
Trial and error. When something stops working make adjustments or try something else.

[screwballl]

I found topwater actually works a bit better for moving water in creeks and rivers. In clearer waters, more accurate appearance but less "noise" tends to work better, and in muddy or stained waters, the noisier rattle and splashing types work well.

[pittsburghbass]

Yeah I definitely noticed that I got more hits with a buzzbait in the river in cloudy water than I ever did in more clear, standing water. And that makes a lot of sense.

I also want to try a weightless bubble gum colored worm too! Most of my soft plastics production has come from curly tailed grubs, and I'm excited to branch out and see what I can do with the worms. Any specific brands you guys recommend for weightless t-rigs?

[vafishing]

I like to use zoom finesse worms for weightless texas rigging and wacky rigging. If the current is a little too much for it weightless I just put a nail weight into the worm.

[DaveW731]

Originally Posted by pittsburghbass

Yeah I definitely noticed that I got more hits with a buzzbait in the river in cloudy water than I ever did in more clear, standing water. And that makes a lot of sense.

I also want to try a weightless bubble gum colored worm too! Most of my soft plastics production has come from curly tailed grubs, and I'm excited to branch out and see what I can do with the worms. Any specific brands you guys recommend for weightless t-rigs?

I have had better luck with Senko-style plastics than with worms in the river and my go-to is a 4" or 5" Yum-Dinger, pumpkin color with a chartreuse tail. I don't know if Yum makes a Dinger in bubble gum, however.