Topwater-riffic Day

[Jhua]

It was such an awesome day. Met up with Moe and ubermensch1324 at around 6 and walked in. There was a storm to the East that threatened to make us get out but luckily it passed into the distance. however, it did leave some intermittent periods of light rain. I started out with a bone super spook jr even though it was cloudy and overcast. I had no takers while Moe and ubermensch1324 were using morning glory soft plastics. After a while I switched to a Hustler in morning glory and hooked onto a fat 17 in flounder. That was it for a while. Moe and ubermensch1324 switched to super spook jrs. Ubermensch1324 has never caught any fish on topwaters. He had a chartreuse/ white spook and I saw he had some interested fish. Then *CLUNK*, his topwater is gone and his eyes grow wide with excitement. But as fast as the strike was, the fish came off. I still think it is amazing to see a topwater strike. I am sure ubermensch1324's hands were shaking and now he wanted to catch one. After a few casts the topwater disappears and he's hooked on again! again though, it comes off. Third time is a charm? He finally gets another strike and he gets his first topwater fish in. By 10 ish I had a few looks but no takers while Moe and ubermensch1324 have two fat trout apiece. We then move to another location to look for trout. We moved and upon arrival Moe breaks off with something and ubermensch1324 hooks up to another trout. I am still stuck with my flounder. By now I have changed to a silver and black gun dog and it gets hammered by a red, knocking out the eye and chipping off the paint. I lose the red after a fight but retire my first lure. After switching to a white and orange gun dog, I hook up to a reel singing red. It was slightly short but loads of fun. I think our final tally is 4-5 trout, 1 flounder and we (mainly Moe) released a number of reds. We left at around 1ish.

[Jerkyourcroaker]

Great report. What was the water like today? Were you able to find any clarity?

[Curmudgeon]

Great! I love topwaters!

[buoy37]

Great report Jhua.

I have only caught one fish on tops (mostly because I rarely try) and I remember how awesome of feeling it is.

[Baby Tran Cat]

Great report there...sounds like y'all had fun

[jocues]

Nice report!

[gsb]

Man that's a great report. Thanks!

[Root Canal]

Nice report. I have never had a hit on a topwater. Must be operator error, because I do ok with soft plastics.

[Jhua]

Water was fair. Sometimes ok sometimes good.

[Jhua]

After the Moe hooked up to the first trout we used topwaters for the rest of the day. My arm is sore.

[JFD94]

Thanks for the report! I love using topwaters. Bone super spook jr. is my favorite. You get better each time you use it.

[ubermensch1324]

After countless times out not using tops and a die hard soft plastics guy - I was convinced about a couple weeks ago from Kenny's PM to try tops (he said he was using the spook around West Bay), and then checking out Moe's monster trout had me itching to see it done in person, because without someone really hooking up it's tough to develop any kind of confidence in them. Mainly because you can cast it a lot without getting a look. It's weird the way it works, but I can safely say I won't really be starting out with soft plastics again. There has been no better feeling in fishing for me, since I was 12, of seeing a fat trout decimate a top-water.

On to the report: Had the funnest fishing trip to date thanks to my boys Moe and Jhua, with J keeping me intrigued that topwater's weren't a myth.

High tide was around 7 a.m. and I switched to a SS jr. white with a chart. head just because the fishing was really, slow on soft plastics. Moe had on a SS jr bone and Jhua had on the old morning glory Hackberry Hustler he caught his flounder with.

It's weird, Moe and J throwing that bone spook in cloudy conditions and the white w/chart head getting a ton of action. Had 2 big blow-ups - then BOOM fish on. The key was just waiting and slowing it down after he missed it the first time - thanks to Moe - and letting him just pull it under before reeling in the slack (J - lol) and setting the hell out of the hook.

Moe switched to a chrome spook w/black head within 15 or so minutes of no action on the bone and was hooked up nearly the same time I was. J was out of other colored spooks aside from bone so had to resort to throwing different versions of the old gun dog - one which he retired lol.

When the sun came out of the clouds around 9:30 - all they were hitting on was bone so I switched to it and caught another fat one while Moe was just putting us to shame hooking up left and right on everything under the sun w/another bone ss jr.. J finally made the switch to a bone gun dog and that was the ticket (sun being out was DEFINITELY effecting what they would hit). Hooked up on a nice red that put up a hell of a fight and we were stoked.

Next time we will be more prepared. Will have braided line (that stretch on mono was KILLING me, lost 2 fish bc of it) and new hooks and J with a spook other than bone!

For those not having luck with tops, I urge you to try them if the trout are in there. Don't stop throwing them for an hour and throw at least two or three different versions before you switch to plastics. Wasn't sure that the color really mattered, but I can safely say there were times they would not TOUCH bone when it looked very similar to white/chart. Could throw for 45 min. on the bone as Jhua did and not even get a look. Thanks again Moe and Jhua!

[ubermensch1324]

Forgot to add I was so excited that I had to walk 50 yards to show Moe my first top-water trout in the net. He got a real kick out of that and kept telling me "What are you doin man!!! Get back out in the water!" Lol.

[imhammer]

Good report fellas......congrats on the first topwater fish!

[mjh]

Good job!