Topwater Action

The sun was a fireball in the sky, the water like glass. Ever alert, I cast my chartreuse Skitter Walk out into the bay; waiting for that moment when the stillness of the morning will be disturbed. I work my lure with precision to more effectively call upon the predators of the Lower Laguna Madre. After a few articulate twitches, the quietness has erupted into a watery explosion of fish and topwater. Shaking her head furiously, the massive trout breaks the surface once more to show us her size and power. Effortlessly, she shakes loose of my lure and swims off out into what seems like an eternal body of water. This is how I imagine most of the mornings that I go fishing, exhilarating isn't it? It is always disappointing to realize that this does not happen as often as I would wish it. We cannot always have what we wish for, but when we seldom receive our wish, we savor every second and remember every detail of the moment.

Knowing that not every day can be like I imagine, I still try my best to make it happen. While fishing with some friends one morning, it happened to my friend Josh. Josh and my other friend A.J. had just graduated and my gift to them was a fishing trip with my dad, my mom and me. We had just arrived at our first spot of the day, a spot that we had caught a lot of trout the previous day. We decided to all start off with a topwater since it was a calm morning. The sun was barely beginning to rise when Josh had gotten a decent sized blow up on his bone-silver side Super Spook Jr. He didn't know this yet, but this was going to be Josh's personal best so far in his fishing career. The trout exploded and immediately started to take drag, running against the current. When my dad and I realized that this was a big trout, we both advised Josh to back off of the drag and to let her run. Josh landed the fish, being careful not to lose it. She wasn't as big as we'd hoped for, but she was a good trout none the less. At 23 ½" and 3 pounds, Josh had just set his new personal best.

In my mind using a topwater has always yielded bigger and better fish than using a soft plastic bait. This summer season has proven it to me because I have caught many 23", 24", and 25" trout on topwater. I've actually only been using a chartreuse Skitter Walk and have caught all these bigger fish on this one lure. Since we are on the subject of bigger fish, I would like to share my topwater experience offshore. When I go fishing offshore, I really mean that we go out in a 25' Explorer. Capt. Bruce Shuler of Getaway lodge where I work part-time and I have found a spot within view of the Port Mansfield Jetties that has been holding decent sized kingfish.

As scheduled, I arrive at Getaway prepared to fish. Going with us on this trip is a friend and a good client of Capt. Shuler's, Marty Watson. Marty came prepared as well, bringing along with him a few spinning rods and a heavy G-Loomis rod. We arrive at our set location and launch our topwaters out into the gulf waiting for a king to jump up into the air with our lure in its mouth. I was lucky enough to be privileged with the first king of the season, which was about 18 pounds, on a pink and white Super Spook. Marty hooked up soon after with an even bigger king on a red and white Walkie-Talkie. We were only using trout tackle for these kings, throwing Bomber Long-A's, Super Spooks, and Bomber Walkie-Talkies. We were having a blast just watching the kingfish come up from 40 feet of water up into the air 10 feet every time they blew up on our topwaters. For a few minutes we were even talking about taking the hooks off and just watching the kings blow up without getting hooked. We hooked 32 kings that day and landed about 12 of them. Topwaters accounted for 29 of those kings and I hooked the other three on the fly but that's a different story for a different time.