Glenn Walker explains how you can use topwater baits to attract the attention of bass that are lurking in the shallows and aggravate them into biting.

Fishing a topwater bait in early season accomplishes several things: 1) It attracts the bass’s attention; 2) mimics activity in the shallows, which in spring could mean baitfish or bluegills spawning; and 3) can aggravate bass into biting.

A buzzbait is one of my favorite topwater offerings for early-season bass. It is a great choice when fishing around submerged and emergent vegetation. By speeding up or slowing down your retrieve, you can change the action of your buzzbait.

My favorite way to use a buzzbait is as a search lure to determine where the bass are positioned on the cover you are fishing. Making parallel casts to the cover will keep your bait in the strike zone longer and increase the number of strikes you get.

Base the weight of a buzzbait on the activity level of the bass, how far a cast you need to make and what the bass are feeding on. If the bass are keying in on smaller baitfish or insects, I will use a 1/4-ounce bait, compared to using a 1/2-ounce if I need to make long casts and use a large-profile lure for the bass to key in on. Most of the time, I use a 3/8-ounce buzzbait in white or black, or the War Eagle Buzz Toad in Grey Ghost.

I like to fish buzzbaits on a 7-foot Witch Doctor Tackle Shaman MH rod, with a high-speed gear ratio reel so I can quickly get my buzzbait on top of the water. I’ll spool it with 40-pound-test Seaguar Smackdown braided line in Stealth Gray.

A topwater hollow-body frog is a common lure choice once the vegetation becomes matted during the summer months and into fall. Turning to this lure during the early season is a great option as well.

The first buzzbait spring scenario occurs with a rise in water level on the lake or river you are fishing. This influx of water floods prime fish-holding cover in shallow water. One of the few ways to cover water quickly in these areas is with a weedless frog.

Many times, newly flooded shallow cover is a combination of grass and sticks along the shoreline, combined with floating gunk that the high water has collected and pushed up into the shallows.

In these situations, I like using a large-profile frog to get the bass’s attention in areas where a bass could literally be hiding anywhere. I begin with a Snag Proof Bobby’s Perfect Frog in Brown Bullfrog, as this frog’s size and color profile resembles a large native frog that would be lurking in the shallows.

The other scenario in which fishing a hollow-bodied topwater frog makes sense during early season is when bass are bedded underneath heavy cover or positioned underneath an overhanging tree or boat. Bass are looking to protect their beds from other creatures in the water; topwater frogs mimic creatures that pose a threat to a bass on a bed. A hollow-bodied frog also allows you to put it in places other baits cannot go, making it a great choice.

I fish topwater frogs on a 6-foot, 10-inch Witch Doctor Tackle Shaman H rod that allows me to “walk-the-dog” and make casts in tight quarters. I still use a high-speed gear ratio reel to quickly pick up slack in my line, but switch to 65-pound Seaguar Smackdown braided line in Stealth Gray in heavy cover.

Lastly, if bass are cruising up shallow or keying in on bluegill beds, a prop bait is an excellent topwater choice. It can be cast far to get in front of spooky bass. You can also speed up or slow down your retrieve to cater it to the bass’s activity level. Once you have a bass interested in the bait, you can pause it, give it a small twitch to engage the props and boom, you get a strike!

Fishing this style lure, such as a Rapala X-Rap Prop, you can also get bedded bass to come up to the water’s surface and show themselves. Sometimes, they will not commit to eating your lure, but you now know where they are bedded and can target them with a more precise presentation.

I’ll fish a prop bait on a similar setup for buzzbaits, except I’ll use a 7-foot Witch Doctor Tackle Shaman M cranking rod, as I want a little bit more give when a fish wants to run with the treble hooks in its mouth.

Now that I have your blood boiling and your pulse racing, grab your favorite topwater baits and take part in some exciting early-season topwater bass action!

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