Fish-Hawk.Net

Gearing up for Saturday when I can finally chase down some smallies. I'm hoping to do a ton of topwater fishing this year. Usually I use the standard Pop-R and have success doing so. Was wondering what others favourite topwater smallie baits are and under what circumstances you fish them?

I haven't had a chance to try the deep water topwater bite, but will be giving this a go for sure this year. Usually, in the mornings I fish the shallow flats casting blindly. In the evenings, especially for the next few weeks the bass will be boiling all over after the bugs. See a boil, cast near boil, twitch twitch and boom. Can't wait for that one!

My favorite is a walk-the-dog style bait, specifically the LuckyCraft Sammy, but also use the Zara Spook .. and I have a number of Pop-R style baits as well. Flat calm water I will usually try both the walk-the-dog and popper styles to see what the fish prefer, but as the chop develops i pretty much stick to the Sammy or spook-type baits.

So you think a Spook will work better in a chop? The popper doesn't, at all lol. I will try that this year... thanks!

Try to find yourself a Spook in "Bone" colour. That's deadly. I have some but ya can't have em.

RJ

Ditto on the Spook.
I only do well with topwater for smallies when the water is flat.

Bone color DUO Realis pencil 110. Great for smallies and largies alike.

Bone Zara Super Spook ...... very difficult to find
Twitch, Twitch....BOOM
Hang On

Got a couple spooks in bone at the store!

John

Walk the dog lol! Fish it calm flat , very windy or anywhere in between. I start with that bait always because it is the most fun to me and if they are willing to hit it you can catch plenty and big ones too. Faves are the sk sexy dawg because it casts so far and catches big fish. If they don't hit that, then I like the heddon spit'n image. It is a much smaller walk the dog bait but with a fat body, this one will get you a limit in a hurry. Another thing I don't see enough people do is take a small pop-r or other smallish bait cast it out in some fair current and don't MOVE it at ALL! This works good on hot calm days, need not worry about lack of shade they will eat it anyways lol

I find the PopRs sit too horizontal in the water, and prefer poppers that have the rear hook
more submerged like on Live Target frog popper or the rap skitter pop for consistent hook sets.
Poppers can work better than WTD baits over 15-40 fow if you allow enough time for the bass to rise.
If they are busting shad near the surface no need for long pauses.

Yellow Magic.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions guys. Will be trying the spooks more for sure. I have used them quite a bit for largemouth, but not much for smallmouth. Can't wait!

I fish in Ottawa on the Rideau river. I'd love to get better at using top water. I feel it'd be especially useful when throwing wacky rigged senkos into weeds is catching too much weeds / snags. I have a top water hula popper and hollow body frog, but I've never caught with them. Maybe my technique / presentation is bad. I have a Pop-R that I've caught with a couple times.

daveh if your throwing into weeds you can always use a weedless topwater like a frog. You can also take the senko and texas rig it with no weight. I like to try buzzbaits and spinnerbaits in those situations as well.

How do you handle weed situation if using spinner bait? Thanks.