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Top Water Fishing Lures: The Most Exciting Saltwater Fishing Lures!Top Water Fishing Lures, also called Topwaters, elicit the most violent strikes of any lure on the market. They tap into the aggressive nature of saltwater gamefish. This makes them a popular choice. In fact, some anglers will use nothing else! Baitfish and shrimp are both found close to the surface, especially when chased by predators. So noisy Topwaters worked like a fleeing or wounded baitfish or shrimp is especially effective. While not as many varieties are out there compared to soft plastics, there are still quite a lot of choices when you look for them. The biggest differences in offerings are in the size, color, and sound they emit. The offerings from Mirrolure, Rapala, Corky, and Heddon make up the top choices for saltwater fishermen in Texas. They range in size from 3 ½ to 5 inches in length and come equipped with treble hooks. There are almost as many color combinations available as soft plastics. They are rounded at the ends, and twitching them on the retrieve makes them dart from side to side – called “walking the dog”. Whatever you call it – a lot of the time fish can’t resist!
Working Topwaters Working Top Water Fishing Lures takes practice, and a rhythm must be found to make the lures walk like they are designed to do. But when you get it down you'll have a powerful fish-catching tool at your disposal. Walking the Dog takes a rhythmic twitching of your rod tip. This twitching makes the lure walk back and forth like a wounded baitfish. As you twitch your rod tip, you wind the reel in slowly, making noise on the surface and drawing strikes. It's not the easiest retrieve to master, but worth your time when you get the strikes! And speaking of the strikes, you'll find that your instincts will betray you as you try to set the hook and land the fish. What I mean is that to give yourself the best chance of hooking the fish, you have to wait till you feel the pull to set the hook. This advice, however, goes against every instinct you have when you get a blow-up. Fight the urge as best you can, and realize that everyone messes this up sometimes! There are fishermen who will fish with Topwaters the majority of the time if not exclusively. They enjoy the strikes so much and have learned to work them and are very successful. Most of them are trout fishermen and are after trophy fish in the 25" and up class. The smaller Topwaters like the Super Spook Jrs. from Heddon are popular with fishermen who target redfish in shallow water. Redfish have to work extra hard and be extra aggressive to eat a topwater, and heart-stopping action follows!
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