Explosive Topwater Bites!!!

[Seth]

I fished the Mac for a few hours last night with Brian Jones. I've been forcing myself to fish a WTD topwater more since so many on here seem to really like them so I tied on a Damiki Dolphin that smalliebigs gave me a few years ago that I've barely thrown. It produced several bass for me yesterday, but what blew my mind was how violent the small bass were hitting it! I was fooled more than once in to thinking I had a big one blow up on the lure only to reel in a little guy. One in particular blew my mind. The bite was violent enough to throw water a few feet and I anticipated some weight when I set the hook. The bass I landed couldn't have been over 8" long! I'm still not convinced a bigger fish didn't strike, miss and then the runt grabbed it as it was washing around in the wake of the strike. The water had just enough color to it though that I couldn't make out a fish on the strike.

The fishing was better than it has been, but still no size to anything. Our biggest was a 1.5# largemouth. Brian had one smallmouth about 14-15" that came off. It swam right at the boat on the bite and he didn't get a good hookset on it.

[Smalliebigs]

2 hours ago, Seth said:

I fished the Mac for a few hours last night with Brian Jones. I've been forcing myself to fish a WTD topwater more since so many on here seem to really like them so I tied on a Damiki Dolphin that smalliebigs gave me a few years ago that I've barely thrown. It produced several bass for me yesterday, but what blew my mind was how violent the small bass were hitting it! I was fooled more than once in to thinking I had a big one blow up on the lure only to reel in a little guy. One in particular blew my mind. The bite was violent enough to throw water a few feet and I anticipated some weight when I set the hook. The bass I landed couldn't have been over 8" long! I'm still not convinced a bigger fished didn't strike, miss and then the runt grabbed it as it was washing around in the wake of the strike. The water had just enough color to it though that I couldn't make out a fish on the strike.

The fishing was better than it has been, but still no size to anything. Our biggest was a 1.5# largemouth. Brian had one smallmouth about 14-15" that came off. It swam right at the boat on the bite and he didn't get a good hookset on it.

the key is enough slack in your line that it lays on the surface of the water......then it's twitch pause twitch pause twitch pause.....all the while retrieving just enough line to maintain the same amount of line on the water......and that's why mono works soo good on WTD baits.

Trust me Seth that Damiki has caught a shiot ton of big fish and is one of the better WTD baits in moving water, that is where it shines my friend......some WTD baits don't even work in moving water at all  Here are a few Damiki fish..... by the way did you ever use the customwart I gave you???  

[Coosa]

I fished a section of the meremac I have never been on b4 the day b4 yesterday. Took out at hwy 8 and put in 9 miles above that. I didn't get on the water till 1 in the afternoon because I drove all the way to Kirksville only to get rained out of work that morning. It was dang near dark when I got off the water then had to drive all the way back to linn. Long day. Anyway I had the same experience as you Seth. The topwater bit was just down right vicious. Mostly smaller fish in the 12-15" range . Did catch a 17 incher. Lost 2 good ones. One in paticular that really bummed me out. He hammered it and the fight was on. Got him bout halfway to the boat and then he disappeared. I've caught my share of 18-20" smallies and this was  definitely one of them....oh well he's just another fish story now. Had a decent day, think I caught 30 something....could have been alot more, the fish were not hard to come by,  but had to keep it moving because of the late start.  Sorry don't know why my pics are sideways.

[Seth]

49 minutes ago, Coosa said:

I fished a section of the meremac I have never been on b4 the day b4 yesterday. Took out at hwy 8 and put in 9 miles above that. I didn't get on the water till 1 in the afternoon because I drove all the way to Kirksville only to get rained out of work that morning. It was dang near dark when I got off the water then had to drive all the way back to linn. Long day. Anyway I had the same experience as you Seth. The topwater bit was just down right vicious. Mostly smaller fish in the 12-15" range . Did catch a 17 incher. Lost 2 good ones. One in paticular that really bummed me out. He hammered it and the fight was on. Got him bout halfway to the boat and then he disappeared. I've caught my share of 18-20" smallies and this was  definitely one of them....oh well he's just another fish story now. Had a decent day, think I caught 30 something....could have been alot more, the fish were not hard to come by,  but had to keep it moving because of the late start.  Sorry don't know why my pics are sideways.

Sounds like the quality was much better up that way. I can't buy a fish over 2 pounds no matter what I seem to do lately.

What is the water clarity like up that way? We were fishing out of Sand Ford and it was still pretty stained. You could see 2' in some spots, but that was about it.

[Coosa]

Water was pretty clear but I say another week and you will be doing a fair share of dragging. The guy at greens canoe told me he will probably stop putting people in that far up here shortly.

[Mitch f]

7 hours ago, Seth said:

I fished the Mac for a few hours last night with Brian Jones. I've been forcing myself to fish a WTD topwater more since so many on here seem to really like them so I tied on a Damiki Dolphin that smalliebigs gave me a few years ago that I've barely thrown. It produced several bass for me yesterday, but what blew my mind was how violent the small bass were hitting it! I was fooled more than once in to thinking I had a big one blow up on the lure only to reel in a little guy. One in particular blew my mind. The bite was violent enough to throw water a few feet and I anticipated some weight when I set the hook. The bass I landed couldn't have been over 8" long! I'm still not convinced a bigger fish didn't strike, miss and then the runt grabbed it as it was washing around in the wake of the strike. The water had just enough color to it though that I couldn't make out a fish on the strike.

The fishing was better than it has been, but still no size to anything. Our biggest was a 1.5# largemouth. Brian had one smallmouth about 14-15" that came off. It swam right at the boat on the bite and he didn't get a good hookset on it.

You were too busy blasting Snoop Dog and didnt read the forum about the topwater reports of the last 5 years!!!!

 

[moguy1973]

It's a shame they don't make the Damiki Dolphins anymore.  Great little walking bait.

[BassMaster#1]

4 hours ago, moguy1973 said:

It's a shame they don't make the Damiki Dolphins anymore.  Great little walking bait.

Why do you need that? I  thought I converted you to the horney toad after that smallmouth You caught last fall

[evilcatfish]

15 hours ago, moguy1973 said:

It's a shame they don't make the Damiki Dolphins anymore.  Great little walking bait.

You can still get them through a couple ebay sellers, good color choices and fair prices too.

[carptracker]

Thanks for all the top water wtd talk, it planted the seed to have one tied on one of my rods this past weekend.  Took a friend and his daughter out Saturday afternoon for a quick run.  Had him rigged up with a senko in the front and I was top water in the rear.  We both caught several smaller fish.  On Sunday morning went out by myself for a couple hours and the top water really produced.  All the top water fish were nice size smallies compared to the senko & fluke caught fish.

Appreciate all the good information shared on OA.