These work very well

[Mitch f]

Compensating?

Brevity is the soul of wit!! Well played sir!

[Al Agnew]

It always amuses me when the same people that scream about spending $15-20 for a topwater lure are the ones that go through a dozen bags of their favorite soft plastic in a week or less of fishing, which costs them way more than $20. Geez, you don't lose topwaters. I've got Sammys that are ten years old and have gone through three paint jobs.

Cadence is sometimes important, but I tend to almost always fish WTD lures fast and splashy, fast enough that I'm doing something like two twitches per second. I get into that zone and muscle memory makes it difficult to slow down even if I want to. But different lures do require different types of twitches. With some you have to do really firm, long twitches, while others require a softer touch. Basically, though, I'm fishing them fast and splashy, and if I think I need to slow down and get a little irregular with the twitches, I'll probably go to my homemade version that also lacks rattles, and go for a subtler retrieve.

The muscle memory also makes it tough sometimes to do some of the stuff that is possible to do with WTD lures, especially making them walk at an angle to the direction of the retrieve. By alternating a hard, long twitch with a softer, shorter twitch, you can make the lure zig farther to one side than to the other, and make it walk right underneath an overhanging limb or around an obstacle.

As for my ratonale that Smalliebigs mentioned, it's simply this: river bass are aggressive fish, and if active at all, will not be scared off by something big that is making a lot of commotion, as long as YOU haven't made them wary. Which means that long casts are a necessity in super clear water, and NOT casting the lure where you think the fish is. A big lure landing right on their head in clear water scares the bejeezus out of them, but a lure landing 5-10 feet away just gets their attention, and they go to it. And I fish fast and splashy because I don't want the fish to be able to examine the lure closely. A non-moving or slow-moving lure invites the fish to come up to it, look it over, and make some kind of fishy deliberation on whether to take it or not. But a fast-moving lure partially obscured by splash and commotion makes them strike purely in reaction, with no time to deliberate. It's the same reason that Coldwaterfishr's big buzzbait works so well. Speed and commotion equals reaction strike. And the hotter the weather gets, the more likely the fish are to be in groups in the same place, and the group dynamic means that the individual fish must either attack quickly or lose out to another fish. I don't go as big as Coldwater, and instead of the twin blade configuration he showed, I do a double blade, one right behind the other and counter-rotating, more often than not.

[Gavin]

Those shorts are awful! Put them in the goodwill pile please! CWF lis the buzz bait champ. He got bigger than Al on a buzzer last time schedules aligned.

[Gavin]

Good points Al. Walkers and buzzer are come and get me lures. Don't drop it on them and never put your line our leader over one. Gotta see the candy first.

[MOsmallies]

Hey Scott

Bring it with you next week. I got a fish that will eat it. Also not to be a smart ash, but that looks like the biggest thing that hand has ever held. Just saying.

Hey that was actually my hand!!!!

[Smallie Seeker]

Great info in this thread! I an going to have to just force myself to use only a WTD style lure during one of my mid-summer smallie stream trips.This time of year I have a hard time putting down a crawdad crankbait.

[ozark trout fisher]

.This time of year I have a hard time putting down a crawdad crankbait.

Now there's someone I can relate to.

I've actually had to branch out a bit this year though. For whatever reason the crawfish crankbait either isn't working as well in some of the streams I fish or I'm getting bored. But it's still my favorite "go to" if I don't have a better idea.

[timinmo]

MO

You have extraordinarily small hands. I also don't have "some" things shipped to my home.

[MOPanfisher]

I am one of those guys who can't fish a WTD lure to save my life. I just don't have the rhythm for it I guess. My top water pretty much is a jitterbug with a very occasional buzz bait. There is something comforting about the blop blop blop of a jitterbug, sort of like a percolating coffee pot, reminds of years gone by.

[Mitch f]

Cadence is sometimes important, but I tend to almost always fish WTD lures fast and splashy, fast enough that I'm doing something like two twitches per second.

I'm the same way in the summertime, very fast, or I will slow it down with very hard twitches too. When i do the hard twitches, I think of the song Duke Duke, Duke, Duke of Earl, Duke Duke...Ha Ha but it works for me. Zipstick is the master of the late fall 50-55 degree topwater cadence. I've been amazed by him ( and I know you have too) on how cold of water temps that he is able to still get a topwater bite. He slows down and even stops completely.