california delta
CaliForNia delta
rossetti’s top - 3 topwater Lures
By lorenzo rossettI
Photos by Jody Only
Story
f ishing the top of the
S
pending about 150 to 175 days a year on the California delta, i have a chance to fish a lot of different techniques and different baits to catch bass; but my favorite are topwater lures. They get the best reactive strike. You have to think about it this way. Fishing a topwater lure over the head of a bass, in a place it is making its home, would be like someone coming through the roof of your own house. You would immediately react. That reaction of a bass to that topwater action is an easy fix – it wants to eat the predator. Keeping that in mind, you want to target a topwater lure in the places that a bass makes its home. My top-three topwater lures are frogs, buzzbaits and chugger or spittin’ baits. The first thing out of my box is the frog. it gets big fish and it is weedless. i will fish the buzzbait in the same places as the frog, but i will use it more as a search bait. i use the popper as more of a finesse bait, when the fish won’t react.
I always have a frog on my deck. during the winter months, i will have a frog, Spook and popper tied on, even when the water temp is at 52 or 53-degrees; but to appeal to the masses, i would say the best time is 62-degrees or higher. as for a tide advantage, i like low tide. i think it gives me the upper hand. it puts the bait closer to their domain and it is easier to horse them out of their ambush point. i prefer the outgoing tide the best. The outgo or lower tide, just seems to suck the fish out. on high tide, it is just a different approach. i would rather use a sinking bait to get closer to them, something that lets you get down there and shake it in their face.
FROGS
By far, the frog is the best of all topwater choices and it is my #1 pick. You just cannot go wrong with a
6