Fav top water lure

Was curious, what’s everybody’s favorite top water lure for striper and sand bass? Mostly when you can sight fish and cast into them. I found these other day on amazon and they worked really well today at Whitney. Caught a few real nice size striper on them and a couple dozen about 12-14 inches long. On the way back to the ramp I ran through a huge school, followed them and the birds around for about 45 minutes catching small striper. Nothing real big today but I was just happy to be catching fish!

Tiny torpedo, clear, for me

Good old fashioned Pop-R has never let me down.

My go to has mostly been a Pop-R or pencil popper for top water but I recently have been having some success with Bob Maindell's MAL lure and have found that I can keep it on top when the fish are boiling the surface but also slow it down some and let it get a couple of feet below the surface and keep on catching fish when they are not busting the surface.

Pop Rs are a staple with me. Love them for stock ponds!

I ordered 4 or 5 of those last week after reading the post on here but haven’t received them yet. I tried this with a rattle trap last weekend and couldn’t keep it up high enough.

Zara Spook

Whopper Plopper

Heddon Baby Torpedo in clear or chrome works really well. Be careful with the two sets of treble hooks. I cut them off and replace them with barbless hooks. More catching and less unhooking.

Heddon Spit'n Image

Clear Chug Bug

Hummmm? Probably a #4 Mepps spinner.

Pencil popper

Amazon....here I come! Lol. Thanks for all the input everybody. Nice to see what everybody’s favorite is. My fav has always been a Pop R for bass. Haven’t used them for stripers or sandies yet, but will soon!

Chug bug in different colors and size

Great idea going barbless. You lose surprisingly few fish.

Good intel, also easier to remove from an extremity which happens during a catching frenzy.

A bone spook walked correctly is hard to beat. Love that topwater bite!

One Knocker Spook or Spit'n Image.

But there are a few situations where I'll def throw a Whopper Plopper over those two.

I like ripping a CC Spoon

Norman front runner.. Don't know if you all remember this bait, I bought a ton of them back in the 90's. Won several small bass tournaaments with this little thing in front of a jumping minnow.. looks real good in the water, looks like the jumping minnow is chasing a shad. Flat poison on a topwater bite. This is a stock photo from the web.




Prosise

3 1/2 " Rapala Skitter Pop shad color.

And when (not if) a fish hooks you, you'll be glad you did!

Zara Spook for me!

Clear tiny torpedo. It’s what my dad showed me when I was a kid and I just never changed

I was out at Texoma yesterday catching 12 to 14 inch stripers using a 4 inch pencil popper. However, I had a lot of misses and about half of the fish I caught were hooked on the outside of the mouth. Would a smaller luer have helped?

Man, hard to pick one.... so I won't....😉

Clear tiny or baby torpedo

Bone colored Pop-R

I had the same thing happen to me on Whitney. I decided to try a 4 inch Zara Spook, there were a lot of misses, they would come up and "pop" it knocking it up out of the water. They few i did catch on it, only 1 was hooked in the mouth, the other 2 were outside and on top of the head. Went back to my smaller topwater and started catching more. Think the bigger topwaters are to big for smaller(i was catching them about 12-18 inches long).

I ordered a couple of the Berkley Spin Bombs because of this thread. Neat lures. Lots of propeller action. Reasonably priced too.

I've had great success catching black bass with Rebel Pop-Rs and similar lures over the years. I recently bought a couple of smaller Whopper Ploppers and had good success with them already.

I love fishing with topwater lures. I look forward to trying topwater lures for the savage white bass.

Let us know how you like them. They’re pretty neat, work great in my experience.

My fav is a near Nuthin. Solid plastic for distance. Super for summer schools.

MBF where can you buy the near nuthin. Searched the internet and can't find any for sale.

130mm Whopper Plopper
6-7" Pencil Popper

either one really Had a great fall with both.

I am gonna answer for myself and John Varner! The Big Poppa Dogg in Red and White combo........then Pencil popper or Zara Spook

Definitely hard to find, I snagged one off the internet a few months back (now if I can remember where I stashed it). . Some of the old out of the way lake area or marina stores might have some but like a needle in a haystack.

Those are a needle in a haystack! Some of the best ones are hard to find.

Near Nuthin and a Bill Norman Wounded Flash, can’t beat those two oldies on top water bite.

x2 on the wounded flash anyone have any to sale

Anne’s Tackle in Jasper has them (Near Nuthin). The only size they have is the small. Still nicely weighted.
Not sure if Anne ships... I can always pick some up and ship them if they don’t.

Mirrolure 7M11, or 4M11 if I want to get below the frenzy

I called the shop and spoke with Debra, Anne's daughter, I was able to order a few boxes. She does ship, and they have 3 boxes of 6 lures left, $4.99 per individual lure plus flat rate shipping. She was fantastic to work with!! Thanks So Much, I have been looking for this lure!!

I second the Excalibur’s Spit’in image. On lakes, i think you need some pop because depth and chop. Also done well with chug bugs.

I order these top water baits on amazon for less than $2 a piece. They are a suspending bait, but I fill the mouth with silicone and I use them as a top water. They are kinda like a KVD sexy dawg. But they are perfect for white bass. The white bass love them and they are cheap so when I bring friends and they lose them, it’s not costing me a fortune.