For those of us that enjoy using top-water lures to target our favorite inshore species, there’s nothing quite like luring a fish into hitting a surface-popping lure. As I watched Spanish Mackerel hit, my brother Tim’s, top-water popper on Saturday, I realized that a surface strike by a hungry predator is just as spectacular to me now as it was over 30 years ago when I began fishing.
The late summer and early fall months in the lowcountry offer some great opportunities to develop and practice your top-water techniques. I say practice because for those of you that are new to this method of fishing the margin of error is a little larger now than during other times of year. Let me preface what I am about to say by pointing out that I target these fish with top-water lures in the morning and early evening hours when the fish are in an aggressive feeding mode. I have not found the middle of the day to be as productive when targeting inshore species.
Many anglers feel that live bait is the only way to fish during this time of year. They feel that there is so much live bait in the water that a fish is not even going to notice an artificial lure. My experience has been just the opposite and I have found the action caused by the larger amount of bait in the water actually improves your chances of catching fish. All of the activity stirred up by the small bait-fish get the predator fish in an active chasing mode. When the fish get this aggressive they actually begin to compete with each other for food and will often go into a frenzy, looking to attack any small fish that moves. All of this chaos and aggressive action will help your lure receive more attention and will also give you a little more latitude if your cast does not have the pinpoint accuracy you were hoping for or if your retrieve is not as fluid as you would like it to be.
Some species you can target inshore with top-water lures include redfish, trout, Spanish mackerel, lady fish, bluefish, jack cravelle, and yes a flounder will even hit a top-water