Topwater Lure Experiment: Rattles VS. No Rattles [What Gets More Bites?]
- By: Luke Simonds
- on
We’re BACK with another Topwater Lure Experiment.
Rattles VS. No Rattles…what triggers more strikes?
Most topwater lures have rattles in them for additional attraction to call those fish in and strike.
But what would happen if you took those rattles out?
Get the scoop below!!
Topwater Lure Experiment: Rattles VS. No Rattles [VIDEO]
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No-Rattle Setup:
- Rod: 7’6 Slot Machine Custom Rod
- Reel: Custom Prototype
- Mainline: 10lb Daiwa J-Braid x8 Grand
- Leader: 20lb Ande Monofilament Leader with a 30lb bite tippet
- Lure: Moonwalker Topwater Lure (Prototype without rattles)
Rattle Setup:
- Rod: 7’6 TFO Professional Series Medium Power
- Reel: Daiwa Legalis 2500
- Mainline: 10lb Daiwa J-Braid x8 Grand
- Leader: 20lb Ande Monofilament Leader with a 30lb bite tippet
- Lure: Moonwalker Topwater Lure
For this test, I tied two Moonwalkers on similar setups to find out if rattles really make a difference.
One of these topwater lures is a prototype without any rattles.
After 3 casts, I switched to the other lure and kept that going for the entire test.
Topwater action is tough to beat.
Especially as we enter late summer and early fall, topwater fishing is going to light up before the sun rises each morning.
Early on in the test, a redfish came up and swallowed the lure with rattles.
When I switched over to the rattle-free lure, the fish kept coming up to hit the lure but would shy away after the initial strike.
It wasn’t until a few rounds of swaps later that I hooked into a fish on the rattle-free lure.
A couple of casts later using the lure with rattles and the snook were all over it!
The single inline hooks tend to avoid hooking into the smaller fish.
But the bigger fish will hear the commotion and smaller fish feeding which get them fired up and interested in taking a swipe at your lures.
My average catch size definitely goes up with single inline hooks.
The sun came up a little while later and shut down the topwater bite for the day.
Final Thoughts
This is not enough to arrive at a definitive conclusion.
There will definitely be more tests in this series.
However, it did seem as though the lure without rattles got more strikes.
But they had fewer follow-up hits.
For this test, I caught 1 snook on the no-rattles lure and 1 snook and 1 redfish on the lure with rattles.
The rattles had way more follow-up hits when fish came up to hit the lure and missed.
It seemed as though they were able to track down the louder lure after missing it better than the lure without rattles.
The topwater bite is just starting and will only get better.
There will definitely be more tests to come!!!
Please go ahead and let me know what you thought of this experiment down in the comments!
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I have found that when using larger hard lures, especially topwaters, leader tippits greater than 25-pound test seem to inhibit the action of the lure. The drag of the larger diameter line can affect how the lure “glides” after the rod twitch. The fact is, a 4 to 6-inch lure in itself acts as an abrasion inhibitor preventing most break-offs. I fish the 94MR18 MirrOlure Top Dog a lot and rarely gets broken off even by a big snook due to the fact that the mouth of the fish rarely ever makes it up to the leader material. Smaller lures that get “inhaled” certainly benefit from larger leader diameters.
With smaller, lighter lures, a large-diameter leader can affect the lure action even more.
Thanks for sharing the helpful insights Ray!
I love my moon walker! Absolutely the most fun way to catch fish.
Sure it tough to beat topwater action!
Thanks Luke!
My pleasure!
Good test! Proved that both Moonwalkers’s work!
Thanks Frank!
Luke,
I was trying to follow your retrieve speed. Did you keep it consistent, or vary? Fast, slow?
Thanks,
I keep the retrieve speed just slow enough to allow for the lure to get a nice turn in after every twitch. Too fast will cause the lure to come straight in, and too slow will cause the lure to pause for a bit after each turn.
Sometimes the fish like it fast, and other times they like it slow, so it’s best to experiment with different speeds until the fish let you know which one they respond to.
Looking forward to more test
Thanks Carl!
Thank you Luke
My pleasure Terry!
Thank you for sharing this test. I have found that when the water is choppy that lures with rattles works best.
Thanks for sharing your findings!
Luke
Will there be a distinguishing visual difference between the org Moonwalker and the SBD Moonwalker (Silent, But Deadly)?
Yes, there will be some differences.
Nice, Good to hear!
Thank you!
I usually fish the no rattle when the water is flat calm and the rattle when there is a chop on the water, unless the fish want it otherwise. Sometimes it all comes down to what the fish want on a given day and there is no rhyme or reason to their preference. I have a test for you. High pitch rattle versus a low pitch rattle. When to use a high pitch rattle versus a low pitch rattle. Some manufacturers make both. Just curious if one is more productive than another.
I agree with you Mark. I would like to see something about high pitched rattles versus low pitched rattles: which is better (for each species) and when to use each. This could be done with top water lures but also with soft plastics that allow embedding a rattle in the body (like the Power Prawn).
I did a test years ago between a super spook jr (high pitch) and a rapala skitterwalk (low pitch). Both caught fish all three days, so it wasn’t a clear cut must switch based on conditions. But I did notice that the low pitched one seemed to do better in rough conditions while the higher pitch did better in calmer conditions.