What Time Of Day Do You Stop Fishing Topwater?

[Mitch f]

Nothing is set in stone, but I fish topwater all day long if the conditions are right. But on a normal day I put the topwater down around 10 am. Just curious what others do.

[Scott25.stl]

While I haven't yet thrown top water on the Ozark rivers yet, on the lakes that I did, I generally switched over around 9ish depending on the bite.

If I may be so bold to throw out another similar question. What time in the evening do you start throwing topwater again? For me it's generally been after sunset when it's dark, but I may start earlier next time.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I'll throw them all day if the river has a lot of shade. I've also pulled them out deeper water during the day. I do believe you have to have cover to be really effective all day.

[Jerry Rapp]

as long as you keep getting bites. The next month is prime topwater time. Any shade will help, but if it is even a bit overcast I will keep chunkin. Nothing like a big un hitting a topwater.

[Gavin]

All day long if they want to eat it...pretty hard to stop if your getting any action.

[Greasy B]

I'm not sur why but the morning and evening top water bite hasn't been working for me. I usually start on top then try it again every couple of hours through the day.

[Al Agnew]

I stop throwing it at 12 PM, and start throwing it again at 12 PM.

Sunny, cloudy, doesn't matter.

Windy, calm, doesn't matter.

As long as the water temps are in the mid-50s or above it at least gets a chance to work. If it's May through October it will ALWAYS be on one rod.

One caveat however...on the bigger, heavily pressured rivers in the summer, like the Meramec, Current, and Gasconade, it MIGHT not work all day. Seems like the fish in those rivers tend to congregate in certain spots and hunker down during the middle of the day a lot more. But in smaller streams, the fish seem to stay more scattered and active during the day. Sun, shade, deep, shallow, they'll hit a topwater more often than not. Shade ABOVE the water isn't as important as cover and shade beneath the cover. A big log in bright sunshine still provides all the shade a smallie wants. And if that fish is active, it will come out from under the log into bright noon sunshine and whack a topwater. Often, active fish will even cruise in the sunlit shallows...all too many times I've spooked fish from the shallows where I'm holding the canoe while fishing the deeper, shadier banks. Sunlight doesn't bother smallmouth in the least, except that they will be more skittish when they are out in the sun in shallower water because they know they are more vulnerable to overhead predators.

All too many people are all too convinced that the topwater bite is an early and late thing. It ain't necessarily so on Ozark streams.

[Mitch f]

I stop throwing it at 12 PM, and start throwing it again at 12 PM.

Sunny, cloudy, doesn't matter.

Windy, calm, doesn't matter.

As long as the water temps are in the mid-50s or above it at least gets a chance to work. If it's May through October it will ALWAYS be on one rod.

One caveat however...on the bigger, heavily pressured rivers in the summer, like the Meramec, Current, and Gasconade, it MIGHT not work all day. Seems like the fish in those rivers tend to congregate in certain spots and hunker down during the middle of the day a lot more. But in smaller streams, the fish seem to stay more scattered and active during the day. Sun, shade, deep, shallow, they'll hit a topwater more often than not. Shade ABOVE the water isn't as important as cover and shade beneath the cover. A big log in bright sunshine still provides all the shade a smallie wants. And if that fish is active, it will come out from under the log into bright noon sunshine and whack a topwater. Often, active fish will even cruise in the sunlit shallows...all too many times I've spooked fish from the shallows where I'm holding the canoe while fishing the deeper, shadier banks. Sunlight doesn't bother smallmouth in the least, except that they will be more skittish when they are out in the sun in shallower water because they know they are more vulnerable to overhead predators.

All too many people are all too convinced that the topwater bite is an early and late thing. It ain't necessarily so on Ozark streams.

I guess the rivers I fish mainly are the Meramec and Gasconade but I agree with you that they will hit all day long. My darn arm just needs a "walk the dog" break.

[Al Agnew]

Another thing I've found...topwater or not, the fish can be active at any time of the day, and on many days they can be more active at mid-day than they are early and late on the streams I fish most often. Some years, especially summers when there is a long period of stable water conditions, the fish can get into a pattern where every day they will be most active at about the same time. I've seen years where for a two month period in the summer, the mornings were pretty dead, and then sometime early in the afternoon the fish suddenly turned on. This would happen every time I fished. Other years, the mornings were the hottest time. And still other years there wasn't really a super hot time, but the fish were reasonably active most of the day.

And for big fish, those over 18 inches, mid-day has actually been as good or better overall as early and late, although I've caught big ones at just about every time of the day and night.

[Feathers and Fins]

I let the fish tell me what to do. If you see surface activity be it bait or the fish then throw top water.