As an UL fisherman, I don't fish topwater much. Maybe it's more a function of rarely being on the water during the prime hours of dawn and dusk than it is a function of ultralight. For daytime, frogs, in particular, aren't suited to UL since it takes a strong hook set to get the hooks on even the lightest of frogs to penetrate and then there's the issue of being in the lilly pads with light line.
Despite all this, I saw some 3.1g floating pencil poppers online this past winter and ordered a few. Was out in the kayak with my usual area rod and ester line the other day when day turned to dusk, so I tied the pencil on and boy did it produce. It was getting hit by gills the most but when cast in openings between the young lilly pads in the shallows, strong wakes would appear behind it and result in crushing takes by pickerel. Did well until one of the pickerel cut the line and took the lure.
Now that I knew how good topwater at dusk could be, I headed out in the kayak the following evening but this time better equipped for the technique. Replaced the area rod with a Kuying Conqueror ML baitcaster. The reel was a Tsurinoya XF-50 spooled with 8# braid and an 8# mono leader.
Started the evening with a pencil on which I had replaced the trebles with single hooks. That setup had a pretty good hookup ratio the previous trip but now it seemed like the gills in particular just couldn't connect. Switched to back to one with the stock trebles and things were good again (except for the fact that I hate dealing with trebles!) The lure is fished with a a walk the dog action and seems to get hit both on retrieves and pauses. Accurate casting was tough since the lure is 3.1g and the rod is rated down to 3.5 g (1/8 oz), but I was making due. Was getting both bass and sunfish and for once was spared the incessant onslaught of pickerel. At last light I was fishing a large, shallow water, gap in the lillies, close to shore. Got the lure where I wanted it and it got crushed as I started the retrieve by one of the biggest bass I ever caught (bottom pic). It peeled drag but was able to keep it out of the lillies and land it with a net. A perfect end to a perfect evening.
BFS Topwater Fun
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- Elite Angler
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Re: BFS Topwater Fun
Very cool! All these BFS posts lately have been making me want to get a setup. I've been looking at rods on aliexpress. So many options.
Re: BFS Topwater Fun
Give it a try its lots of fun. With BFS the rod and reel work very much together to make casting of lower weights possible, so pick a rod that's rated at, or better, below the lightest rig you intend to cast.MountainMan 83 wrote: ↑Sun May 17, 2020 12:05 pmVery cool! All these BFS posts lately have been making me want to get a setup. I've been looking at rods on aliexpress. So many options.
- slipperybob
- Platinum Angler
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- Location: Lil'Can
Re: BFS Topwater Fun
Awesome. The old Heddon Zara Spook puppy was a great 1/8 oz walk the dog. As basic as it was it was effective on panfish and any other fish that will take it.
slip bobbing is the laziest way to fish
Re: BFS Topwater Fun
Nice
My topwater game is pretty much non existent ... It's a blast when it does work out though. I really need to work on that.
My topwater game is pretty much non existent ... It's a blast when it does work out though. I really need to work on that.