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Fall Topwaters

The low, dark clouds were a threatening preview to the day ahead. The drizzle was such that the rain suits remained in storage, but they would soon be coming out. Women’s Bassmaster Tour pro Emily Shaffer dropped her bait next to a large boulder that protruded through the surface, surrounded by others that were barely visible through the stained water. She had turned to share the lay of the land when the bait disappeared beneath a huge dimple.

The fish was airborne before she could get her rod tip down. Emily kept it low until she finally reached down and lifted a four-pounder into the boat.

“I love to catch topwater fish,” she declared. “It’s not always the best way for tournament anglers, because sometimes you’ll lose a lot of fish when they jump out of the water and stuff like that.”

This overcast day the fish remained eager to pluck baits from the surface. Soon another had grabbed her offering. Like the one before it, the fish had taken the bait as it was sitting dead still on the water.

“There were several times today that you would be working the bait, you would turn to me and start talking, and the fish would hit it. They wanted it sitting still.”

As the morning progressed, the thick clouds lingered and the fish continued their willingness to take baits from the surface. Pop-Rs, gold-and-black jerkbaits and Sammys all produced fish throughout the cloudy morning.

Mid-day appointments ashore soon forced Emily and her writer friend from the lake before they were willing to give up the aggressive bite. On the way back to her house, she discussed catching topwater fish on her home waters.

“Here on Percy Priest (Tenn.,) on Oct. 15, they start dropping the water. The other day when I was out here the rocks we were fishing today weren’t exposed. Even with my polarized glasses I couldn’t see them.”

Emily said she targets the many rock structures in Percy Priest in the fall and spring when the temperature drops, because the rocks can hold heat, and shad will often relate to this warmth, attracting bass.

“We had a cold front come through last night and dropped the temperature about 10 degrees. The last couple of days we had some sun shining on the rock. As you could tell this morning, the shad were up there and the bass coming to feed on them. It was just awesome.

“I love to fish the rocks and boat ramps. One technique I have been successful on Percy Priest is throwing topwaters parallel to the riprap on the dam. The rocks will hold heat. And you can also parallel rock bluffs.

“You can throw a topwater all day when it is overcast. But when the sun comes up you need to find baitfish. If you’ve been fishing an area and you have caught some fish and you are heck bent on throwing that topwater bait, you might need to move and find some shad.”

When the sun comes out, Emily finds that a change in color is usually needed.

“I’ve lived on Percy Priest for 19 years, and one thing I have learned is that when it is an overcast day, you are going to need to throw a bait with a little chartreuse on it to be successful. As soon as the sun comes out they won’t hit a chartreuse bait.”

A cloudy day is Emily’s favorite time to throw topwaters, but she stresses that wind can also help keep fish feeding near the surface.

 “A little bit of ripple on the water doesn’t hurt my feelings. This lake is not as clear as Table Rock (Mo.) and some of those highland lakes. When you are at Table Rock, you need a ripple to keep the fish up there.

She will vary her retrieves until she establishes a pattern.

“I’ve been successful at retrieving it as slow as I can, and sometimes I’ve had to retrieve it as fast as I could. I figured that out because I had a fish hit me as I reeled in real quick because I was trying to cast to another fish I had seen bust the top. You have to pay attention to how you were working that bait when the fish hit it. One thing we found out this morning is that they wanted the stop-and-go retrieve. They wanted it dead sticking.”

Though low-light situations have proved for the most part to be the best time to throw topwaters, Emily has learned through experience to keep her options open.

“I remember a tournament we had at Tenkiller in Oklahoma, and the woman (Linda England) who won it threw a buzzbait all day. About noon the sun did come out, but she was on the fish and followed them out. I fish topwaters in a lot of depths. If I am unfamiliar with a body of water, when I catch one I will go up and see what depth he was in.”