The Best Way To Retrieve A Topwater Lure [VIDEO]
- By: Luke Simonds
- on
Should you retrieve topwater lures quickly or slowly?
It depends.
The other day I was having a pretty slow morning throwing topwaters.
I was in a good spot at a good time, but for some reason, the fish just weren’t biting.
Ever had that happen to you?
Well on this day, I switched up my retrieve and finally started catching fish, including the 33″ snook pictured above.
Want to see what I did?
Watch the video below.
Adjusting Your Topwater Retrieval Speed To Catch More Fish [VIDEO]
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The good news is that fish follow trends.
The tough news is that you need to find those trends if you want to catch them (which is why we created the Insider Club).
On this day, the trend was that they wanted to feed on something that was moving quickly across the surface, as opposed to slowly.
Usually, topwater fishing is best early in the morning or late in the evening when the sun is low.
But on this day I didn’t find the trend until a little later in the morning, but once I found that trend I started catching a ton of fish, even though it wasn’t the optimal time.
See how powerful finding the right trends can be?
Swapping Out Treble Hooks For Single Hooks
Another thing that helped me catch bigger fish this day was that I swapped out my treble hooks for single hooks.
Whenever we suggest doing this, we often get asked, “Won’t this decrease my hookup rate?”
There were a few instances where I would miss small fish, but then I would hook into a big fish, so it seemed like doing this decreased my hookup rate for smaller fish, but did not really affect my hookup rate for bigger fish.
In addition to helping you catch more quality fish, there are tons of other benefits to doing this, including:
- Decreasing the chance you’ll hook yourself
- Decreasing the chance you’ll get snagged on your clothes, nets, floating grass, etc.
- Decreasing the chance you’ll hook a fish in the eye or gill (which could be fatal for them)
- Saves you time unhooking them (keeping them out of the water too long could also be fatal for them)
If you want to read more about how to swap out your treble hooks for single hooks, read this article.
And if you want to get single hooks to replace your treble hooks, click here (Insiders only).
Testing Different Topwater Lures
This day was part of an experiment testing different topwater lures.
In this video I was testing out the Skitter Walk vs. the Super Spook Jr.
And I had them rigged up on the exact same setups (same rod, reel, line, and leader):
- Rod: 7’6″ TFO Pro
- Reel: 3000 Diawa Fuego LT
- Line: 10 lb PowerPro
- Leader: 30 lb Ande Mono
- Hooks: 1/0 Owner Single Replacement Hooks
Have any other topwater lures you’d like to see tested?
Let me know in the comments!
And if you want to get these lures, you can do so at the links below:
Conclusion
Here’s the big takeaway: if you find the right trends, you’re more likely to catch fish.
You may need to switch up your lure retrieve speed or where you’re fishing to find the trends, but once you do it’ll pay off big time.
As far as feeding, on this day the trend was that the fish wanted to eat something that was moving across the surface quickly.
Other trends this day included where they were holding based on tide, season, wind, and temperature.
Want to see exactly what those trends were?
Join the Insider club and check out the full fishing report (as well as all of our other exclusive reports).
P.S. Know someone who likes to use topwater lures? TAG or SHARE this with them!
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Related articles:
- 20 Tips That Will Increase Your Success With Topwater Lures [VIDEO]
- This Is How You Replace Treble Hooks With Single Hooks (Quick & Easy Way)
- How to Catch Giant Snook on Jigs and Topwater Lures [With Jupiter Snooker]
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STOP WASTING TIME ON THE WATER!
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Here’s what you’ll receive today when you join:
- Weekly fishing reports and TRENDS revealing exactly where you should fish every trip
- Weekly “spot dissection” videos that walk you through all the best spots in your area
- Exclusive fishing tips from the PROS you can’t find anywhere else
- Everything you need to start catching fish more consistently (regardless if you fish out of a boat, kayak, or land).
How do you m ow when the water is too rough to use a top water.
Great content. I plan to do some hook change outs in the future. My lure preference is the Mirrolure She dog in the bone/chrome color. Seems like I have done best in different color water and clarity and times of year with this neutral color selection. Also we’re you using a loop knot in this video?
Hey Luke,
Thanks for the great content man, always enjoyable, my wife and I love watching your videos. Would you mind giving your best hook recommendation for those single hooks (size, brand maybe a link to where I can purchase)? None of the local retailers here ever have them in stock. LOL, nevermind, just saw the “Insiders” link. Totally understand man, I’ll figure it out, thanks again for the uploads.
Thanks for the kind words Josh! I like using the 1/0 size hooks from Owner for both of these topwater plugs. We added them to the Insider Club shop at a discount so that members can easily get them recently… here’s a link: https://shop.saltstrong.com/products/single-hooks
I learned a long time ago that fast-stop-and go. Catches more fish then any other combination of retrieve. Please do a norther East coast video on striped bass and Week-fish. Similar stiles to snook.
I really want to make it up to the NE for some striped bass fishing!!!
I was just wondering if you had any reports on the gold Gator spoon three quarter ounce I have caught just about every type of in Shore fish possible on the gold Gator 3/4 ounce spoon and yes I agree with you on the retrieve sometimes they’ll take it slow sometimes they like it fast
We have not yet done a report on the Gator spoon yet. But it’s on our list of lures to test out. I’d like to test it out in a head to head experiment like this one sometime soon: https://www.saltstrong.com/articles/aqua-dream-spoon-vs-johnson-silver-minnow-weedless-spoon/