What Time Of Day Do You Stop Fishing Topwater?

[Chief Grey Bear]

Some of my hottest top water action on the rivers has come in mid afternoon. I fish by what the fish tell more than by my watch. Heck, somedays it seem they don't want anything from the top no matter what time it is.

[ColdWaterFshr]

I read something peculiar on another thread about plastics. What are those?

[Mitch f]

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.

Yep, seems like the big ones hit from noon to 3 pm on the rivers I fish, especially in the winter

[LarrySTL]

Add me to the "as long as they hit it" bunch. Part of that is that I would personally rather catch or have a decent shot at, one or two good fish than a bunch of ten inchers. A buzzbait or a WTD bait gives me that chance. It was easier last week with two good fishermen also throwing an assortment of baits, and if they had started scoring big I might have switched, but I know I said several times "I'll throw it one more hour, and then if nothing hits it, I might change".

A frog would have that big fish chance too; that might be getting too much into one specialized rod and reel for a float trip, or it might be showing the fish something they have never seen. Hmmmmm.

[WakenLake]

Caught em all day long last weekend on poppers and a spook

[Stoneroller]

Do not wait to see fishing feeding on the surface to throw a topwater bait. My best topwater days/periods have come when there was no obvious surface activity.

On a lake I will only throw topwater in the morning and evening and in situational instances, ie around flats, laydowns, some points, inside weedline, etc just depends and I ALWAYS throw a topwater bait where I see or hear a fish jump or splash. 100% chance there is some kind of fish there, why not put a lure on it's nose?

On the river I throw topwater all day, almost exclusively unless I'm getting zero bites for longer than 30 minutes, which is extremely rare outside of cold water periods. Sometimes though I've noticed they want a popper instead of a WTD or sometimes a single prop bait instead of a popper or whatever. Usually though the WTD makes enough commotion or not to get them to bite. River fishing is usually easy, there are almost always some fish feeding. you just have to know where those feeding fish will stage.

[WakenLake]

Im addicted to any and every kind of top water there is.

Id really like to fish a black bird or a mouse one of these days...

[Al Agnew]

Im addicted to any and every kind of top water there is.

Id really like to fish a black bird or a mouse one of these days...

The old Heddon Meadow Mouse is one of the best night fishing lures around.

[WakenLake]

My only doubt with that lure is that it isnt weedless. Wouldnt it be better to get a lure like the live taget mouse with weedless hooks???

[Al Agnew]

I fished it a lot when I did a lot more night fishing than I do now. Only time it needed to be weedless was when you'd cast up into the brush on the bank...which of course happened a lot on dark nights. Hate it when you make a cast and don't hear a splash!