(Update w/pics) Topwaters for Stream Smallmouth

[top_dollar]

Consensus.....throw your favorite topwater bait, the one you think looks most awesome.  Throw it in the river and throw it anytime you want.  Youll get some.  I prefer to walk with a top dollar gunfish or pad crasher, and i use the keitech noisy flapper as a buzz bait.

[Gavin]

The Whopper Plopper works pretty well, and its easy to use. Some buddies did well with it on bass & pike up in Canada last week. Will be picking a few up. I like walking baits better though. I have a bunch of walking baits, most of those already mentioned but usually use a Megabass Giant Dog X, or and LC Gunfish. Buzzbaits, Poppers,  and Prop baits work too, but I don't use them very often.  Use what you have the most confidence in, and let the fish tell you what they want. Sometimes a different size, wider or tighter walk, or different cadence can make all the difference with a walking bait.

 

 

 

 

 

[Johnsfolly]

I always seem to have a lot of different baits with me but really end up fishing just a few. I got into using a whopper plopper last year. Easy to use and got it crushed a lot. Will keep a few in the tackle bag.

Still my favorite top water are WTD baits and use the Spit-n-image the most. Not sure that they even make that bait anymore. I like that the tail drops when you stop the cadence. Sometimes gets the bass triggered when that tail drops. 

After that I enjoy fishing a fluke. Running fast at the surface is fun. Then let it die and just get inhaled.

The Ned works great as well.

A few of the creeks that I fish have the best bite from 10 to 2 pm.

[Greasy B]

I've had a WTD and a buzz bait tied on all season and it's been more miss than hit. Last weekend the leaves were already bad enough that the dog didn't want to walk. My faith is not shaken, maybe next time cooler temps and will make them shine.  

[TroutRinger]

38 minutes ago, Greasy B said:

I've had a WTD and a buzz bait tied on all season and it's been more miss than hit. Last weekend the leaves were already bad enough that the dog didn't want to walk. My faith is not shaken, maybe cooler temps and will make them shine next time.  

I ran into that leaf problem last week with the torpedo. I was cleaning off the hooks almost every cast. I actually wanted to switch to a WTD but thought the side to side action would make the problem worst. 

Probably should have gone with a fluke or buzzbait. 

[drew03cmc]

Honestly, I love throwing a fluke. They're fun to fish. I caught one on a Super Fluke on the Big Piney a month ago before the monsoon rains that wreaked havoc all over the Ozarks.

[Al Agnew]

As for your two original questions, some topwaters are more difficult to work in strong current.  Walking lures are harder to make work in the current, though you can get them to walk well by holding your rod tip high and keeping as much as possible of your line off the water.  Or, of course, casting them almost straight downstream, in which case you can walk them forever in the same spot but can't make them walk well back upstream.  I always have a walker on one rod, but I'll have either a buzzbait or my twin spin on another rod, and when I come to heavy current areas, I'll switch to one of the other of them (I burn the twin spin so that it bulges the surface, making it a "topwater" lure.)

And I find that most of the time, if topwaters are working, they'll work all day long.  Time of day usually, not always, doesn't matter.

[fishinwrench]

It has been my experience that topwater baits, regardless of which kind,  aren't very effective in areas of moderate to heavy current.  Smallies just don't seem to wanna break the surface when the surface is already broken.

[Mitch f]

I've heard recently, and it seems to makes sense, that the topwater bite goes quickly when jet boat wash stirs up the river. But...a crankbait, spinner bait, jig bite is not affected at all, as a matter of fact, I think it improves.

[TroutRinger]

I'll post a more detailed report when I get back to my the house Monday, but we had a pretty good day on a new creek today. 

I caught 4 smallies between 14-15". The last one hammered a top water. The rest were on my trusty tube bait. My friend and I caught another 4-5 largemouth and spots of 14-17" on top waters. He hadn't fished topwaters in a LONG time and had a blast. 

Top waters that worked today were small poppers and a spook. I think we probably used them at least 50% of the time. 

Got skunked on spinner baits and jig and pig.