Skeet Reese Pro Tip – Get More from Your Topwater

Skeet Reese West Point Lake Champion – B.A.S.S.-Seigo Saito

Summertime is a great time to fish topwater.  It’s tough to beat the exhilarating surface explosions from a big fish on a topwater bait, it’ll get your heart pumping.  While fishing topwater baits seems easy and straight forward, I have a few tips that I do to help cast, get better action from your bait and land more fish.

To start, I use 30-pound Spiderwire 99% of the time when I am fishing topwater; like a Lucky Craft Gunfish. The reason for this is I want super long casts and still be able to work the bait with ease.  The lack of stretch in the Spiderwire braid allow me to do both, long casts and still make the bait move with little effort. The only other option is monofilament since fluorocarbon sinks and will affect the action of the bait. The problem with mono is the stretch. Stretch makes it a lot harder to move a bait, effectively especially on long casts.  The lack of stretch in the Spiderwire braid will also improve your hook sets.

I also like to change out my hooks on most topwater baits. I opt for bigger, wider gap stronger hook.  If a bait comes with a #4 size hook, I will go to a #2 size Trokar TK-300.  The bigger hook will also slow the bait down, in terms of action. The Spiderwire will help offset that slower action. The bigger, wider gap, stronger hooks will improve your landing ratio.

For equipment, I use the Wright and McGill Jerkbait/Topwater rod and a Wright and McGill 7 to 1 gear ratio reel.  The shorter rod (6’8″) allows for more precision cast especially when fishing around shallow lay downs, docks or trees The faster gear ration real allows me to smoke the bait in and get it back out fast. This is especially important when I am fishing busting or schooling fish.