Topwaters offer the ultimate in freshwater bass action and excitement. Fish thrash the surface in a feeding frenzy, charging, slurping, attacking with gusto. The experience is uniquely visual. Wakes, boils, swirls appear. Then your lure disappears down a black hole; or a bass skyrockets upward with the lure in its jaws; or sometimes leaps out of the water, crashing the lure on the downward plunge. And no other fishing produces such an assortment of blood-curdling gurgles, splashes, and explosions.

Topwaters also are historic big-fish producers. With all their surface disturbance, action, and noise, perhaps they fish bigger than they actually are, appearing larger than life to trigger a predatory response from the biggest bass. Unlike subsurface fishing with worms or jigs, an attitude of high alert must be maintained for hours, watching for telltale wakes while anticipating the bomb dropping at any moment.

Topwaters come in a variety of styles, each with its own inherent speed, motion and commotion. Yet when stopped, all floating lures are doubly effective at rest, allowing following or watching bass time to study the suddenly motionless meal. Sometimes, the best motion is no motion at all—waiting in a war of nerves till somebody buckles, either biting or retrieving. Interspersing movement with a lack thereof is one of the keys to topwater success.

Also, topwaters offer an exercise in patience and self control. I've heard said, the best strategy is to avoid setting the hook until you feel the fish pull on the line, ensuring that the bass has the lure in its mouth. Easy to say for anyone not watching the wake, the bulging surface, the huge hole enveloping the dropping lure. Or hearing the awful sound of feeding fury. Attempting to time the hookset to the impending strike is second nature. And sometimes a bass catches you off guard and you react by jerking without thinking, jerking the bait away from the fish a split second before the twain shall meet. In reality, good luck, Buck, in putting the following array into harm’s way.

Prop Baits—Some prop baits have propellers at either end (noisiest), others only at the tail (subtler). Twitched prop baits sputter like a wounded baitfish flipping on the surface. Most anglers give ‘em a short twitch or jerk, followed by an extended pause. Or reel them a few feet, pause, then twitch and pause. Most strikes occur when the lure sits still, however.

Use fairly stiff line (10- or 12-pound-plus mono) to avoid limp line drooping and tangling in props. Props should spin freely when you hold a lure and blow on the props. Rebend them slightly until they spin freely, and your lures will sputter with the best of ‘em.

Thin-bodied prop baits like the Smithwick Devil’s Horse, Cordell Boy Howdy, Heddon Dying Flutter, and Bagley Bang-O-Lure Spinnertail offer a slightly different profile and sound than wide-bodied baits like the Luhr-Jensen Nip-i-Diddee or Cordell Crazy Shad. Sometimes, thin is in. At other times, wide should be tried. Bigger props cause more commotion, as expected. Small tail-props like Heddon Tiny Torpedos are perfect smallie baits; also available in Teeny (smaller) and Baby (bigger) versions. Other toppers from the prop shop include the Bill Lewis Rat-L-Top, Norman’s Gilmore Jumper, Mann’s Two-Fer, and the Ozark Mountain Woodchopper. Many are made of wood, while most other topwater categories today are plastic.

Poppers and Chuggers—Concave-mouthed lures like the popular Rebel Pop-R (3 sizes) and classic Arbogast Hula Popper catch air on the pull, expelling bubbles and noise as the bait dives slightly beneath the surface. A sharp tug of the rod tip creates any action from a gentle plop to a serious blurp, leaving a bubble trail in its wake. One might postulate that this looks and sounds more like a bass feeding than a frog plopping, triggering a competitive reaction. Who knows? Experimentation reveals what works best. On any particular day, sometimes an aggressive tug and blurp creates just the right sound to trigger bass. At other times, a series of quick jerks outproduces single plops interspersed with long pauses, though most folks tend to use the single plop and long pause. Tends to work best on a rod with a little bend in the tip, rather than a stiff stick.

Poppers and chuggers often are used to call fish up a long way to the surface—10 feet or more—along bluffs in clear highland reservoirs. They’re also great over weeds and wood, with smaller sizes particularly effective for river smallmouths. Pro models often feature premium sharp hooks and short mylar skirts for added flash and profile, plus new realistic finishes to mimic the real thing at rest. Sticky sharp hooks as on Rebel’s Excalibur lure series often produce double hookups as a fish jumps and shakes its head, trying to shake the lure.

Storm’s Chug Bug series starts small with a Baby Bug, up through the Rattlin’ Chug Bug and Big Bug, finishing with the Double Bug—two Bugs joined nose to tail, imitating either one chasing the other, or one gigantic meal. Other notables include the Bill Lewis Spitfire, Mann’s Loudmouth Chug-N-Spit, Luhr-Jensen P. J. Pop, Buddha Baits Pop Fire, and Bull Dog Ratling Pro-Pop.

Twitch Baits—While most topwaters are twitched, the twitch bait category commonly refers to walk-the-dog-style lures like the Heddon Zara Spook that zigzag side to side on consecutive twitches. These long cylindrical baits move in a short chop-chop-chop fashion with fast repetitive twitches, then glide in longer flowing strides when the twitch rate is slowed. In the old days, when we all sat in small boats and the line tie was positioned at the tip of the lure’s nose, we held our rod tips high to make our lures dance properly. Nowadays, with the line tie often positioned along the bottom of the body, slightly back from the nose, better results are gained by keeping your rod tip pointed downward at the surface (everyone stands nowadays, anyway), twitching the tip backward about a foot, then reeling in the slack as you move the rod tip forward again. Repeat, repeat, repeat all the way back to the boat.

The classic Zara Spook and smaller Zara Pooch and Puppy are joined by a flurry of similar lures: Buddha Baits (slogan: “It’s just Bubba spelled sideways.”) Samurai Edge, Norman Rat-Lur, Mann’s Tailchaser, Ozark Mountain Woodwalker, and Owner’s C’ultiva Zip’N Ziggy. Bent-tail versions like the Bagley Ratlin’ Twitcher add to the repertoire. The thinner-bodied Bill Lewis Slap-Stick and Rebel Jumpin’ Minnow sit more upright at rest and perhaps work best at slower speeds.

Trivia buffs: Remember back far enough when the Zara Spook was originally made from wood and called the Zaragossa?

Crawlers—Not many of this lure style on the market, though old timers like the Arbogast Jitterbug and Heddon Crazy Crawler are perhaps the best all-time surface lures for bassin’ at night. Use a slow, steady swim to plop-plop-plop a v-wake across the surface, perhaps pausing occasionally to wait for a blast from the blackness. The gigantic Musky Jitterbug, particularly in black (a top color for all surface baits at night), creates a huge silhouette against the sky to tempt the biggest bass in the lake.

Push Me Pull Yous—Norman’s Front Runner and Fish World’s BackBurner are newfangled additions to the topwater scene, which function more as add-ons than primary lures. Tie one a few inches in front or in back of your favorite topwater for a chasing-following-schooling appearance.

Near-Weightless Worms—While covered in our plastics section, unweighted Texas-rigged worms, Texposed-rigged Slug-Gos, and their many jerkworm imitators, and even hard baits like the Heddon Zara Gossa are virtually surface lures, though they sink slowly at rest. Crawl worms and jerkworms over lily pads; twitch and pause ‘em in more open water, scooting them in unpredictable directions, followed by a slow drop toward oblivion.

Flies—Can’t forget all manner of floating poppers, frog imitations, floater-divers and such made from hair and fiber—the heart of the bass angler’s fly-fishing arsenal.

Buzzers—Not the metallic wire-arm versions covered in our spinnerbait section, but plastic-bodied or wooden-bodied baits designed to be moved at fast, consistent speeds as a buzzbait is fished. The Mister Twister Top Prop features a revolving head design normally found on larger muskie baits. On the Arbogast Sputterbuzz, the propeller’s on the nose.

Frogs and Rats—The weedless characteristics of the Harrison Hoge Super Frog and the Snag Proof Moss Master Tournament Frog helped spawn a new generation of even more snag-resistant, hollow-bodied or solid-bodied soft plastic baits generically known as rats. Mann’s Swimmin’ Frog and Super Rattlin’ Rat, Bass Pro Shops’ Tender Frog and Tender Rat, Moss Master’s Boss Mouse, Strike King’s Pop ‘N’ Grass Frog, and Mister Twister’s Jerk Rat Lure crawl over and through heavy emergent weedgrowth at a slower pace than surface spoons. Fish them with flippin’ sticks and heavy line.

Surface Spoons—While not exactly topwaters because they sink slowly at rest, these plastic wide-bodied spoons dance across the surface with any forward speed and are remarkably weedless even in nasty cover like wild rice, which fouls every other form of lure known to man. The Heddon Moss Boss is most famous, followed perhaps by the Norman Weed Walker (with a revolving wheel for added sputter). Work ‘em with your rod tip pointed upward, alternately popping the rod tip up then lowering it while retrieving line, setting up a cadence similar to walking the dog. Instead, walk the frog. On a strike, a high rod tip forces you to drop the rod tip and take up slack before setting, helping to avoid premature hooksets as big bass come blasting through lily pads.

Introductory Bassin’—Floating topwaters are great lures to start kids bass fishing, since they require minimum skill, seldom snag in open water, are visual and easy to understand. They even catch bass when the lure’s at rest if young minds wander and retrieves cease. No topwaters? Substitute a floating shallow minnow imitator like a Rapala or Rebel Minnow, twitch it on the surface, and let it rest—a great tactic, though it may require a bit lighter line (8- to 10-pound mono) in order to cast a lightweight balsa or plastic lure effectively. Mix twitches and pauses with s-l-o-w surface-rippling retrieves to determine which works best.