Top Water Pike Fishing

[AnglingSpiders]

I had this in the novice forum:

All,

Looking to start doing some top water pike fishing. Seems to be a lot of videos with people using plastic frogs. Any tips on proper top water lures and techniques? Any advice appreciated.

[Flipflopjoe]

I’ve only just started Down this road too. I’ve had a jack on a Savage Gear (SG) reaction frog but that’s it so far.
Other lures I’ve got are SG Rad, SG bat, SG Fruck, Heddon super Spook, another type of soft frog, I think it was called a Norie or Dorie
Oh and I’ve been given a JitterBug which causes a good old commotion On the surface so I reckon that’ll be a winner !

[Steve Dennington]

I’ve only just started Down this road too. I’ve had a jack on a Savage Gear (SG) reaction frog but that’s it so far.
Other lures I’ve got are SG Rad, SG bat, SG Fruck, Heddon super Spook, another type of soft frog, I think it was called a Norie or Dorie
Oh and I’ve been given a JitterBug which causes a good old commotion On the surface so I reckon that’ll be a winner !

It will be

I reckon I've had more topwater pike on Jitterbugs than any other lure. The 3.75" jointed version is my pick of the bunch. The Magnum is good too, but really needs modifying - the three treble hooking arrangement is way OTT.

Wakebaits, crawlers, propbaits, WTD types, surface spoons, even buzzbaits, they all have their day in various sizes. The only type I hardly ever use is weedless frogs. The hook up ratio is way too low for me.

[alan behenna]

I’ve only just started Down this road too. I’ve had a jack on a Savage Gear (SG) reaction frog but that’s it so far.
Other lures I’ve got are SG Rad, SG bat, SG Fruck, Heddon super Spook, another type of soft frog, I think it was called a Norie or Dorie
Oh and I’ve been given a JitterBug which causes a good old commotion On the surface so I reckon that’ll be a winner !

It will be

I reckon I've had more topwater pike on Jitterbugs than any other lure. The 3.75" jointed version is my pick of the bunch. The Magnum is good too, but really needs modifying - the three treble hooking arrangement is way OTT.

Wakebaits, crawlers, propbaits, WTD types, surface spoons, even buzzbaits, they all have their day in various sizes. The only type I hardly ever use is weedless frogs. The hook up ratio is way too low for me.

"Weedless Frogs", are you talking the American LMB lures (for example) Steve? There's a lot of variety in this variation of course. I thought they were "okay", if you sometimes teased that twin hook gape angle very carefully outwards they got slightly better, just ever so carefully though, otherwise they cease to be weedless' of course?

Generally prefer the ol' Sizmic Toad over them though, especially the larger version, always well rigged with that big single of course.

[Flipflopjoe]

I’ve only just started Down this road too. I’ve had a jack on a Savage Gear (SG) reaction frog but that’s it so far.
Other lures I’ve got are SG Rad, SG bat, SG Fruck, Heddon super Spook, another type of soft frog, I think it was called a Norie or Dorie
Oh and I’ve been given a JitterBug which causes a good old commotion On the surface so I reckon that’ll be a winner !

It will be

I reckon I've had more topwater pike on Jitterbugs than any other lure. The 3.75" jointed version is my pick of the bunch. The Magnum is good too, but really needs modifying - the three treble hooking arrangement is way OTT.

Wakebaits, crawlers, propbaits, WTD types, surface spoons, even buzzbaits, they all have their day in various sizes. The only type I hardly ever use is weedless frogs. The hook up ratio is way too low for me.

Yeah I know that you mean, I’ve had some frustrating days this year with weedless frogs whilst chub fishing.
I purposefully choose the ones with a single big hook arrangement rather than the double hook, thinking pressure applied on a single hook point should get better hook ups and I also change the hook to a narrower gauge on some. I’ve rigged them with a stinger hooks, stinger traces, and still no hook ups!
Frigging frogs

[Steve Dennington]

Generally prefer the ol' Sizmic Toad over them though, especially the larger version, always well rigged with that big single of course.

Yep, I meant the hollow frogs. I have just one now, and haven't chucked it for several years.

The Sizmic types, Texas rigged, are much better for hook ups

[JoeNickel]

Tip; wait until you feel the hit before you strike. Often you'll see the pike lunge before it's hit the lure - strike, and you just pull the lure out of reach. Or the pike will miss - they're surprisingly inefficient! Leaving it, twitching, restarting the retrieve might induce a second hit.

[AnglingSpiders]

Thanks for all of this, great discussion and I will look into some of these lures.

[old_school]

I’ve had some fun with the savage gear ‘walk frog’ these last few weeks. I used a slightly longer rod than my usual 6ft or 6.9ft lure rods. Used an 8 ft which picked up line much faster than the short rods and so go a better hook up rate. Also used a small fixed spool rather than a multi. These frogs are very light, 20g ish and not a great weight to be casting on a multi (for me anyway!) longer cast were possible with the fixed spool too. I found the stinger that comes with it worked well and helped hook ups too. If you have anywhere with lilly pads, cast right into them, twitch it back so it goes right onto the pads, like a real frog would. Pike will see the silhouette of the frog on the pad, twitch it back into the water and slowly towards the next pad, you’ll get hits! Surface fishing is one of the most exciting ways of fishing for pike, wear some poraroids too as you’ll get follows to the rod tip but not see them if you can’t see through the surface. I’m not convinced colour makes a difference, everything will be black from in the water looking up. Take some superglue to seal up teeth marks that will appear after a fish or two, if you don’t do anything, the holes will let the frog fill with water quicker and ruin the action. It’s great fun fishing but poss a little late in the year now the weather has turned colder. Have fun!

[Mark Phillips]

The most productive top waters I use are Jackpots, Topcat, Hawg Wobbler, Top & Super Top Raiders, Dancin Raider, Scuttlebug and the only soft plastic weedless frog you need, a Frogzilla (best hooking lure of its type). There's a lot of similar lures out there and I do have quite a few (cough, understatement) that have their day, but those are ones I tend to reach for most of the time. Jackpots in particular have caught me the bigger fish (quite a few 20's on those), the topcat is a nice big target as well; top raiders are the go to lure when it is choppy and the scuttle bug or hawg wobblers are for when you want a more subtle approach. The dancin raider is a good lure for mixed conditions. Have one of each of those lures, well may be five or six of the frogs (they get chewed up quickly, easy to repair though) and you're good. Each to their own, but I don't bother with smaller lures that some guys are mentioning. Things like jitterbugs and alike - 20 years ago, that's what I used, nowadays, decent pike sized lures abound. I only use those smaller bass surface lures for chub these days. The smaller lures tend to be jack magnets anyway - nothing wrong with that of course. Hope that helps.

[Totemshaker]

Tip; wait until you feel the hit before you strike. Often you'll see the pike lunge before it's hit the lure - strike, and you just pull the lure out of reach. Or the pike will miss - they're surprisingly inefficient! Leaving it, twitching, restarting the retrieve might induce a second hit.

Great tip - it really is surprising how they'll strike and miss the lure or headbutt it out of the water.

I've use the savage gear 3d hollow weedless duck and have some amazing fun, caught about 4 jacks this summer with it. Always exciting to get a strike on top water.

As far as using it goes here's my 2 pence; Cast as close to the other bank as you can or near a feature and use a combination of quick retrieves, pauses, jerks with the rod tip and more pauses. I find that top water lures make quite a splash and multiple casts may spook the fish.The fun thing about a top water is that you can let it sit in a spot for a while and not worry about the lure skinking and snagging at all.
I've had most success on clear water days fishing just above heavy weeds.

[Iain Gillies]

Working a surface lure on the spot with a slack line can be deadly at times.

[john hufton]

Big stick bait like a jackpot or Maas marauder on a mild day with lots of wind / chop on the water....

[Steve Dennington]

The most productive top waters I use are Jackpots, Topcat, Hawg Wobbler, Top & Super Top Raiders, Dancin Raider, Scuttlebug and the only soft plastic weedless frog you need, a Frogzilla (best hooking lure of its type). There's a lot of similar lures out there and I do have quite a few (cough, understatement) that have their day, but those are ones I tend to reach for most of the time. Jackpots in particular have caught me the bigger fish (quite a few 20's on those), the topcat is a nice big target as well; top raiders are the go to lure when it is choppy and the scuttle bug or hawg wobblers are for when you want a more subtle approach. The dancin raider is a good lure for mixed conditions. Have one of each of those lures, well may be five or six of the frogs (they get chewed up quickly, easy to repair though) and you're good. Each to their own, but I don't bother with smaller lures that some guys are mentioning. Things like jitterbugs and alike - 20 years ago, that's what I used, nowadays, decent pike sized lures abound. I only use those smaller bass surface lures for chub these days. The smaller lures tend to be jack magnets anyway - nothing wrong with that of course. Hope that helps.

When fishing topwaters, I'm mainly looking for those explosive hits and as many as I can get. A big fish is always welcome, but jacks shooting out of the water as they go for the lure (and often missing it completely) are a great sight.

The Jitterbugs do a pretty good job at attracting the larger fish too. It was Charlie Bettell that put me onto them twenty odd years ago and he boated many a 20lb+ pike on them.

[Daniel]

The most productive top waters I use are Jackpots, Topcat, Hawg Wobbler, Top & Super Top Raiders, Dancin Raider, Scuttlebug and the only soft plastic weedless frog you need, a Frogzilla (best hooking lure of its type). There's a lot of similar lures out there and I do have quite a few (cough, understatement) that have their day, but those are ones I tend to reach for most of the time. Jackpots in particular have caught me the bigger fish (quite a few 20's on those), the topcat is a nice big target as well; top raiders are the go to lure when it is choppy and the scuttle bug or hawg wobblers are for when you want a more subtle approach. The dancin raider is a good lure for mixed conditions. Have one of each of those lures, well may be five or six of the frogs (they get chewed up quickly, easy to repair though) and you're good. Each to their own, but I don't bother with smaller lures that some guys are mentioning. Things like jitterbugs and alike - 20 years ago, that's what I used, nowadays, decent pike sized lures abound. I only use those smaller bass surface lures for chub these days. The smaller lures tend to be jack magnets anyway - nothing wrong with that of course. Hope that helps.

When fishing topwaters, I'm mainly looking for those explosive hits and as many as I can get. A big fish is always welcome, but jacks shooting out of the water as they go for the lure (and often missing it completely) are a great sight.

The Jitterbugs do a pretty good job at attracting the larger fish too. It was Charlie Bettell that put me onto them twenty odd years ago and he boated many a 20lb+ pike on them.

Same here, it's fun fishing and the fun is all about the hits!

[AnglingSpiders]

Thanks again for all of the great advice. Going to try some of these tactics this weekend.

[bio-haul]

Topwater is all I've done the last 3 seasons. Most successful have been SG popper frog & Fruck with custom stinger.
Largest have been on the SG Bat crawler.
Best frog?? The Lunker Hunt frogs are very soft, compared to SG. The LH prop frog has been a good catcher too.
Next one I'm trying is the Critter Cover Bug - soooo many to try.

[Nick McGeorge]

In my humble opinion, there's no better way to catch them than off the top. You may not get the biggest fish but, the adrenalin burst with the explosion of the take, is to me, what fishing is all about... I agree with Kevin that slow can be the key - sometimes I barely retrieve but simply 'twitch' the lure on the same spot. Having said that, I do like a 'Walk The Dog' surface lure as you can get it dipping and bobbing as it 'walks' back in. Also never be afraid to fish it right back into the margins - you'd be surprised how often they'll follow and then only decide to take when they think it's going to disappear..!
I'm not entirely sure shape or pattern makes much difference. A mate of mine uses an old section of Pool Cue painted white with a red head, it's old knackered and chewed to bits but, hardly ever fails..! Lots of splash and they'll come from quite a way down to hit it. On a lot of the big glacial lakes, finding the weed beds is the key. Fishing over nice big weed beds about 4 to 8 feet down can be some of the best fun afloat.
Have fun and be prepared to love it...!!!

[Mark Phillips]

I agree Nick, it probably is the most enthralling way to catch a pike there is. I know seeing a float twitch and slide away is a turn on for some, but seeing a pike smash a surface lure is in another league. It's not a small fish method either. On one pit I was fishing a while back, I caught a dozen or so upper doubles and three different 20's on jackpots, where other lures only yielded the lesser fish. The main thing with surface lures is knowing where and when to use them, as their effectiveness has a limited window. If that's all you used, good luck with that. On the right day though, it's a mega buzz to catch pike of any size on them... just wish zander felt the same way - I've had just one zander on a surface lure and yes, I was after pike at the time.. 6" hawg wobbler, it wasn't a big fish either, probably around the 6lb mark.

[somebloke]

Had some really good results with the Rat on the top. After I told the lads in boat yard they all bought one and they too have had fish of the top. I noticed if the wave behind the lure was the puller for the pike because if fished slow and no wave I never had a bite.

[Robert Woods]

Joined a one water club last winter. It's a small shallow gravel pit which this year is full of Canadian pond weed. I have it to myself mid week with only a few day carpers on now. So tried an unknown weedless frog casting onto pads and said weed. Had a few exciting moments but no hookups. Enjoyed it and on a steep learning curve having kindled my interest in lure fishing after too many years away. One time I had an audience of two descent pike sat watching my lures a rod length out but not interested in eating one...lol