Feel that crispy chill in the air? Fall topwater is just about HERE.
Football season is BACK, and that also means that fall fishing is upon us. Here in Wisconsin (go Bears though), we had a nice 45-degree low overnight, which means those water temps are going to start dropping pretty quickly. And when they do… it completely changes the way the bass are going to set up. Last month, I was hammering those deep weedlines, but as soon as we start to get a few cold nights, the bass tend to move up a bit shallower.
Personally, I love to beat the bank in the fall… it becomes really simple, visual junk fishing for me up here, but it’s a little different for everybody depending on where you live. Plenty of places around the country are still seeing some really hot weather. But as we start to transition into the fall, that topwater bite can really start to come alive, and the window for it will vary depending on where you’re at.
Fall topwater fishing produces arguably the most violent, heart-stopping bite of the entire year. As the water temperatures drop, some big bass push back into the shallow creeks, shallow flats, or even under docks and pads. If you want to catch some big bass this fall, and do so with one of the most exciting bites in fishing, here are a few topwater baits you have to have tied on, and when to throw them.
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1. The Hollow Body Frog
As the weather cools down, grass starts to come loose and mat up in the shallows, and it can be some of the best fall fishing up north. You can punch through it, but dragging a frog is a much quicker way to see if the bass is in there, and then you can pick it apart later. In other parts of the country, we also start to see bass move onto shallow flats, under docks and into those shallow bays, lily pads, and other marshy-type spots in really shallow water. If you have heavy cover up shallow, nothing will come through there like a frog will.
The only frog I use is the Swamper Walkin’ Frog from Toad Thumper. Founded by Whiskey Myers frontman Cody Cannon, the Toad Thumper frog is just so easy to walk, is pretty durable, yet collapses pretty easily to expose the hooks. My hookup percentage is really good, and most of the time, I don’t even bend the hooks out at all. My main modification is to trim the tails down a bit, and occasionally I’ll add some weight.
Toad Thumper Swamper Walkin’ Frog – $9.99
Colors: Black, Bad Gill, Fire Toad
2. The Plopper
Plopper-style baits feature a tail that spins and sputters water like a tiny, dying outboard motor, but it catches giants. If you want to cover water in the fall, and have relatively clean water without a lot of grass or debris to foul up those treble hooks, a plopper is arguably the best way to do it.
When the bass are actively roaming the shallows looking for an easy meal to pack on some weight before winter, they simply cannot resist the rhythmic plop-plop-plop sound. Throw it down the bank, reel it in at a steady pace, and you can occasionally kill it or speed it up to draw strikes. I’ve actually caught some of the biggest bass of my life on a plopper.
There is another one that I think most anglers will be excited to try out this year. A newer release from Rapala, the Claptail is a new take on your standard plopping-style bait that virtually combines the metal ringing of a buzzbait with the action of a Whopper Plopper. If you can’t get a bite with a Whopper Plopper, try this one. Since the tech is pretty new, there’s a good chance the bass in your lake haven’t seen it yet either.
River2Sea Whopper Plopper 130 – $16.99
Colors: Bone, Loon, Monkey Butt
Colors: Broken Bone, Night Aurora, True Gill
3. The Buzzbait
With a buzzbait, you basically have the same approach as the plopper, but a more debris-friendly presentation. The buzzbait is loud, it is obnoxious, and it squeaks like a rusty screen door… which makes it a fantastic search bait. Burning a buzzbait parallel to a dock or a submerged laydown triggers pure reaction strikes. I like it the most in the early morning or right before sundown, or even in a light rain (basically any low-light conditions), and I generally prefer no skirt since you can chuck it further without the skirt catching the wind.
I generally use a Toad-style trailer, but a big paddle tail can be a great trailer as well.
Berkley Toad Riveter Buzzbait – $9.99
Colors: Black
Colors: Black, White
4. The Classic Walking Bait
If you have schooling bass, it’s tough to beat a walking bait. You can also use it to call up fish in clear water. The commotion of “walking the dog” will literally bring fish up from 10 or 15 feet of water just to smash it out of pure aggression. But even when they’re not schooled up, if you can find them roaming shallow flats, a walking bait can be a great tool to entice a strike.
I like your standard walking “spook” style bait in calmer conditions, and then I rely on a pencil-style popping walking bait when I have some chop on the water.
Spook Style
Berkley J-Walker Walking Bait – $11.99
Colors: Bone, Maverick, CJ Shad
Pencil Style
Rapala PXR Jowler 127 – $22.99
Colors: Broken Bone, Pure Chrome, Ayu
5. Berkley Slap Gill
I suppose this could technically be considered a walking bait, but it’s an entirely different presentation. Brand new from Berkley, the Slap Gill works like a walking bait, but a hard twitch will actually make it lay down flat, perfectly mimicking a dying bluegill. You can quick-twitch it along its side and looks exactly like a flopping, dying fish. You’re still getting that walking side-to-side action, and it’ll flip itself upright when it’s not moving, but the lay-flat presentation gives the bass a much different look.
I got my hands on a few of them earlier this year, before they were released, and I’ve had a lot of luck with them. Even northern pike were hammering it for me last month in the early morning and evenings.
Colors: Phantom Gill, Top Gill, Chrome Shad
And for a more detailed bait recommendation, specific to your exact location and waterbody, check out the Bass Forecast Bait Advisor. Just input your ZIP code or share your location, and Bass Forecast will give you 5 bait recommendations, a bite rating, and suggestions for peak feeding times.
Bass Forecast Bait Advisor
What is Bass Bait AI – Powered by Bass Forecast
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