Wake bait bite

[Stump bumper]

I haven't heard much about the wack bait bite lately. I have seen spots chasing shad almost as big as themselves on top and swirls of fish pushing shad from 50 feet to the top. Thought I would pull a Bomber A and a redfin tomorrow to try to get a striper bite, I know it is a lazy way to work these lures but might get something to rise.

Any ideas, anyone tried it this year?

 

[M_Taylor]

32 minutes ago, Stump bumper said:

I haven't heard much about the wack bait bite lately. I have seen spots chasing shad almost as big as themselves on top and swirls of fish pushing shad from 50 feet to the top. Thought I would pull a Bomber A and a redfin tomorrow to try to get a striper bite, I know it is a lazy way to work these lures but might get something to rise.

Any ideas, anyone tried it this year?

 

I'm sure it would work Stump. But I haven't tried it. I've been doing plenty of damage on the good ole spook and a little on the whopper plopper. 

[Mike jones]

1 hour ago, Stump bumper said:

I haven't heard much about the wack bait bite lately. I have seen spots chasing shad almost as big as themselves on top and swirls of fish pushing shad from 50 feet to the top. Thought I would pull a Bomber A and a redfin tomorrow to try to get a striper bite, I know it is a lazy way to work these lures but might get something to rise.

Any ideas, anyone tried it this year?

 

Wake bait bite has not been as strong this year as it has been in the past. Just random Kentuckys on it..I was thinking about heading out for a few hours early in the morning myself. 

[M_Taylor]

Additional thought, 

For what it's worth, I fished the same location two times in one day yesterday. Once at sunrise and once at sunset. Sunrise it was absolutely dead. Sunset, I smoked em for more than an hour straight on topwater. It taught me to not discredit a spot from one morning. 

[bferg]

What type of water are you fishing for the topwater bite?  As we move into warmer water what should I be looking for?  I have had almost zero luck with Topwater this spring and it is really pissing me off.  

[Stump bumper]

I usually throw a wake bait when I see shad flipping or scattering around top, a lot of times that is not going down the bank but out in 90 feet of water with the shad making a line from 40 feet to 60 feet. The bass or stripers or sometimes both will dive below the shad and break off a ball and run it to the top, those are my favorite times to run a big redfin through them. Sometimes that Bomber long A will call them up from 30 feet deep, but I have not put very much time on it this year.

Not really a pattern, but I have hit some good fish just pulling around a wake bait in deep water, right now I am seeing and catching a few fish suspended about 20 feet down off of points near creeks and cuts. I got 5 keepers and a few shorts off one point yesterday letting a small swim bait sink down to them, with the storm coming in , it was way too rough to wake. 

If you are around point 9 when the fish come off the trees and drive the shad to top it looks like the lake is boiling sometimes. But that is me, I like open water, there are others who stay in the creeks.

From what I have read waking was invented for Ozark lakes..

 

[M_Taylor]

I have a medium sized spook tied on a rod and in the boat and it never comes off. 

[bferg]

Thanks Stump- good info.  I usually keep a spook or chug bug on but just have not had much luck with it this spring.  Of course, my fishing time has been a little limited.  I need to learn to fish that deep water better!  I was out at RB last week one night and it was just dead as dead could be- zero surface activity at all which is really odd for this time of year.  But, it has been a strange spring.  

[Stump bumper]

Both of you brought up top water, not really a wake bait, for waking you are not walking the dog or spitting like a injured minnow but cutting a V across the top with the lure just under the surface. This was first a way to get stripers out of deep trees, later adopted by bass fishermen.

I am not really sure if there are different times that one is favored over the other, but I do know keeping a V cutting across the top is harder.

Not saying one is better, just an observation. I have also noticed striper fishermen throwing spooks instead of pencil poppers or redfins.

I think it is the amount of shad in the lake making all the fish lazy.

[Dan the fisherman]

8 hours ago, M_Taylor said:

I have a medium sized spook tied on a rod and in the boat and it never comes off. 

I'm with ya on that.  But  I have a "special" rod for every bait I love to throw lol.  As I'm sure most do. ?