TOPWATER TACTICS
SPOOKS
The Zara Spook has found its way into many an angler’s tackle box. The art of walking the dog, in itself is a great experience, almost as much as catching fish on them. As great as this bait is, it can at times, fall into that category where a bass gets accustomed to it and won’t strike it, because so many anglers are tossing it. Hence, I don’t fish it all the time. Yet I have recognized a period where it is deadly on giant bass. During the months of July through September, we experience the majority of our shad spawn here. The shad like to spawn along the tops of the grass edges, right next to deep water. During this time, small bass, gills, bream and other forage baitfish here, will be carelessly roaming around the grass where the shad are spawning, feeding on the fry. The giant bass here, will bury themselves right inside of the tulles and lie in wait to pounce on one of these unsuspecting shad feeders.
A Baby Bass Super spook, is the perfect tool to use on and around the tulle islands where this is taking place. Precision casting and a turned down version of “walking the dog” is employed here. Long casts are required. Your bait must be placed right next to the tulles, in such a fashion that you can slowly, with pauses, walk that Spook in and out of the tulles edges. Pauses are best over holes in the grass, or just inside the little bay of a tulle clump forming a small ambush point. You do not want to work your bait to fast, yet let it pause and remain in that big bass’ strike zone. Stout equipment is a must here, long, heavy rods with braid. These bass will smash your Spook, then head right back into the thick tulle cover, you need to be able to get control of that fish fast to land it. Calm to light breezy days are best, if it’s too windy, bait presentation becomes a difficult task.
LUNKER PUNKERS
Black Dog’s Lunker Punker is the ultimate big bass topwater bait. I prefer the 6-inch wooden bait, painted in Baby Bass. There is no other bait that has the detail of a baby bass incorporated into its paint job, it’s a thing of beauty. While fishing here, Clearlake and Shasta, I have had more osprey come down and grab this bait off the surface because of its realistic resemblance. The Punker, can be tossed on this River anywhere,
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anytime and it will draw big strikes. While most
employ the faster “walking the dog” retrieve, I am
stead fast to a long “toosh-n-glide” retrieve. The
sound this bait makes when you yank and send it
on its next turning glide, is the exact sound a small
bass makes while foraging on the surface. When a big bass hears that sound, it gets his attention and clues his instincts into the presence of feeding activity. Allowing that bait to glide and come to a rest, gives that big bass the time it needs to come look for it and EAT IT! The Punker is also an amazing bait for connecting with the big stripers that roam this River system in the fall and winter. For that, I put away my wooden baits and go to the injected plastic baits with the rattles inside. The Punker will catch ‘em under any condition here, especially during the summer.
Conditions here change frequently, each of the mentioned baits better fit the conditions I mentioned. There is one condition here that will put a complete halt to any good to great topwater bite you might experience here. This is a condition that is overlooked by many anglers as they often venture out and cannot catch ‘em on topwater, spending their entire day wondering why. Each morning when you venture out onto this River, especially those where you are planning to toss topwater, or experienced a great topwater bite your last trip, look to the west and Mt. Diablo. Look to see if the air conditioning system was turned on the night before. If you see that marine layer of fog peaking or pouring over into East County, know you’ve had a great temperature drop overnight from the previous day. You have a very small window at first light to catch ‘em on top. If the fish happen to eat it constantly, great, if not, don’t hesitate to put that topwater away until 1:00-2:00 in the afternoon. All too many anglers have stuck with that topwater and died out there, when this is a clear sign, you need to be willing to bail on it to catch fish throughout the day here.
All of my topwater choices mentioned for this River, have two things in common. First, they mimic and present real life situations to which big bass feed here. Second and most important for me, they have two big treble hooks that insure a far greater hook up ratio versus baits that don’t have treble hooks. These baits all require stout rods, high gear ratio reels spooled with braid. Always come prepared, you wouldn’t serve a porterhouse as the main course, on a paper plate.