Prop Baits

[HugoBox]

I've caught a decent number of fish on walk the dog lures but have always heard about the effectiveness of prop baits.

Two questions:

What retrieves have you found to be most effective in daylight conditions (I'm guessing a straight retrieve after dark)?

What lures have you found make the most noise?

I'm not trying to start a Chevy/Ford discussion with regards to different brands (which is why I didn't include the lures I already have), but I haven't had good luck with prop daits in the past so I'm guessing I either have the wrong ones or I'm using them wrong.

[eyehead]

Day or night I like to fish topwater prop's slow.... Of coarse when I see a fish follow from aways out I always burn them back in to a figure 8. They usually crush it on the 8. Now there are alot of good prop baits out there but i'm a big fan of Pacemakers. Nothin like fishin it after dark and listening to the click, click, click Music to my ears

[Scoot]

Yep, slow for me too. I've had a ton of strikes on faster retrieves, but the hook up rate really stinks for me when I go very fast with prop baits. The number one mistake I see with prop baits is retrieving them too fast on a consistent basis (sometimes fast can be good, but I'm convinced it's not the ticket most of the time).

Thunderheads, pacemakers, Topraiders, LOWriders, Topwalkers- I've caught fish on all of them. I usually throw one on with no real rhyme or reason to it and see if the fish like it. If not, I try a different one.

[AWH]

Scoot hit it on the head. Most people retrieve prop style baits too fast. This doesn't mean you have to go as slow as you can to still create a nice plop (although sometimes that can be the key). I've found that just a steady, medium paced retrieve tends to be best. If I see a fish pushing a wake behind the bait, that's when it's time to steadily start increasing your speed. This will often make that curious fish one that will hit. Top Raiders, Top Walkers and Pacemakers are my go to prop style baits. But there's a bunch of them out there that are excellent producers. The Top Walker is the best hooking top water I've used, by a long shot.

Aaron

[MUSKY18]

I agree with Scott and Aaron. I usually never fish topwaters fast unless there is a wall of water coming up behind them. My general rule of thumb is to fish it just fast enough for the bait to create a bubble trail behind the lure. Seems to work.

[delmuts]

so you guys prefer a slow steady retrieve over a [PoorWordUsage]/pause one?

[MUSKY18]

I do. I never like to stop my prop baits once I start the retrieve. The noise is what grabs the fish's attention and gets them tracking on the bait. Once they get on it, I will speed up to try and induce the strike, like a bait fish trying to escape out away from the Muskie, but once i start the retrieve, that is as slow as it goes. The only time the bait stops is when it hits the water. I will put a pause in my retrieve when I am throwing jackpot/doc type topwaters, but not very often.

[HugoBox]

I know some guys will start the retrieve with a big rip or twitch - is that just a personal preference thing or have you found anything that seems to be more effective.

Also, thanks for the info - I'm already thinking that my retrieve has been too fast.

So far the two main colors I have are a chartreuse and green as well as all black - I was thinking of adding a black and orange combo as that color has been the best for me on Bald Eagle with other baits but if you had one color combo to pick for multiple lakes, what would it be?

thanks again - erik

[RuKiddingMe]

Hey Erik, you remember years ago working on Goodrich golf course? With Brad, Eric, Mark, Matt and Ned Flanders… haha that was fun, any way this is Matt Bauer here, just thought I’d say hi.

Now on to my thoughts on the question.

When fishing topwater I personally don’t feel color is anywhere near as important as action. Color in a top water will almost always show as black because the fish will be looking up at, and with the sky in the background the lure becomes a silhouette for the most part. Now this might be a little different with the WTD topwaters that ride a little lower in the water but I still think it’s all about the noise and action. I have had action with both speeds fast and slow, but like others have said the slower speeds tend to get more attention. I like the awaker, it’s a giantcrackpot with the tail converted to a prop.

Later

RU

[HugoBox]

Hey Matt - Good to hear from you. I still see Brad and Gus quite a bit. Matt Flanders is still a mystery to us all...

If you're still in the metro area it could be fun to get out sometime and scare up a fish or two. I'm way less of a @#$% than I was back at The Rock.

I agree with you on the noise factor - I guess its the middle of winter and I'm already going nuts waiting on the season to get going so I'm thinking way too much...

I'm in the phone book if you're ever interested in sharing a boat. Say hi to your dad.

take care - erik

[RuKiddingMe]

Erik-

I'm still in the metro, bought a house in Blaine, got a little family started.

I'd be interested in hitting the water sometime for sure, always fun to to fish with new people. My windows for getting on the water can be tight, usually early weekend mornings and possibly a weekday evening.

The winter is making me stir crazy too, the waiting game sucks and not much to pass the time.

I'll let my old man know you said hi.

RU

[cjac]

Couple thoughts:

RU & Hugo doing their online "bonding" (kidding guys!) got me thinking we should do a couple very informal FM metro nights this season. We're already hitting the same lakes and quite often at the same time so we'll just pick a lake and a day, fish like we would do, and compare notes after. I know for a fact this is already happening as I've talked to several of you on the lakes! Add a little two-way radio chatter and it would be a good time for sure......

Back to the subject of prop baits: I often put a less experienced person out with me on one (not that I'm an expert by any stretch...), as it's easy to fish, and the lure action is visible, so they and I know it's being worked properly. Pretty easy to cast and just roll in right? Now I'm thinking.....I came close to netting more fish for my partners than I caught myself last year...... see a pattern? I'm trying to be all fancy and the simple approach often produces better. They flat-out work. Sometimes in metro lakes with boating activity and floating weeds/milfoil topwater props can be a bit of an issue, but it's proven.

Lures: I like the click-click-click of a Pacemaker for sure, but there are others. RK loves the Mouldy's, I picked up a couple but haven't fished them enough. It's a smaller lure, but easy to fish though, bigger is not always the ticket. I like the AHL products too, also tried the Rumblers without results, not saying they aren't productive, just not for me last year. Any surface weeds seemed to be an issue for me with the Rumbler.

In addition to rods, Professional Edge makes a lure that's a hybrid of a topwater, bucktail, and a surface bait. Gets on top and comes in slowly with a BIG wake. Muskie Mojo has a new bait that's a slow side-to-side topwater bait, not a prop, but along the lines of the same topside slow and steadt retrieve.....looks awesome!

Chris

[Lals]

The key for me is that when you see a fish "waking" behind the bait, I have good success by changing speeds and directions (moving the rod tip)to get them to eat it. I have had good luck with prop style top waters in the Metro and LOTW.

[RuKiddingMe]

Cjac, you crack me up "bonding"... haha

[HugoBox]

I deserve the "bonding" shot.

That said, I like the idea of an FM get-together. I've only fished muskies extensively the last year or so, but whether its sharing info here or talking to guys on the water, it seems that muskie fisherman like seeing someone catch a fish almost as much as they like to catch their own. Not taking a shot at walleye or bass guys (I like to chase them as well), but it seems that guys here are more open to sharing specifcs when it comes to muskies. For a newcomer like me that's appreciated. The only problem is that this addiction has caused me to triple my tackle arsenal and now I spend way too much time staring at my tackle box and not enough time casting!

[delmuts]

ok! another question. do you prefer using prop baits on calm water, or when there is a chop?

[Rebel9921]

Too inexperienced to put in my 2 cents about topwaters... and I dont really have much to work with... but all that should change at the Expo... I know I will be bringing home whole lot new lures... most would be topwaters... and hopefully my luck with topwaters will change in 2008... So far... I've used Top Walker and Rumbler... I know I love using Topwalker... I took AWH's advice and bought one... so hyponitic watching it while you reel it... so that I will definitely get more of... along with Pacemakers, Super Top Raiders, and maybe two more Rumblers... I know for sure I do need more WTD baits... so will get some at the Expo too...

[beatuplund]

Prop baits work in a chop but not as well as in calmer water where they maintain a steady noise through the water. If the chop is big, the bait gets submerged and the sound gets broken up by the wave. Not always a bad thing, but like someone said: use a steady retrieve so the muskie can track the bait. (But what do I know... listen to RK!)

[Scoot]

beatuplund, as a very general rule, I'd agree that prop baits aren't as effective in a chop or big waves, but this certainly isn't always true. I know some guys who don't bother with topwater lures until the water gets rockin'. One of the best days I ever had came with a pacemaker in 3 foot waves. Bucktails, cranks, jerkbaits, twitchbaits, plastic-- absolutely nothing happening. I slapped on a pacemaker out of desperation and my buddy laughed at me- "way too rough out here for that to work." Three casts later we boated the first fish of the day (first one we'd even seen). A few follows and misses later my buddy put one on. We boated several more fish after that... all on topwater in pretty rough water.

[RK]

Hiya -

I use all sorts of prop baits.

For tail-spinning baits (I call them pop-pops) I like the AHL Turbos, Pacemakers, and Topraiders, plus the Musky Buster Stompers. I usually fish them fairly fast - they're real search lures.

I really have never cared for double-tailed pop-pop baits all that much. They all sort of tend to slosh rather than pop. I DO like double baits like the LOW rider though, especially in big waves.

I also like baits with a spinning head. Used to love the Slamm'r Thunderheads. Again, great in big waves.

As Cjac said, one of my favorites, which is really sort of a forgotten bait, is a Topper Stopper. They're not all created equal though. Some work and some don't and it all has to do with sound I think. If they squeak like a mouse...hang on. Usually have to break them in to get them squeaking, but some do it right off the bat. Amazing thing about these baits is they're subtle, but they still work even in big waves. Had fish blow through the face of a 3 foot roller to eat the things many times. They're also one of the few topwaters besides walk the dog baits that continue to work for me right up to ice up.

As far as using them in the wind - no such thing as waves too big for topwaters. Caught fish on them when it was so rough it was hard to stand up.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[MuskieMojoTackle]

I'm kind of the opposite of Scoot here...big wind makes me think topwater right away.

For pop-pops (as Rob calls them) I like the Pacemaker, Chopper, Stomper, Top Walker, Humper, LowRider, TopRaider...Heck, I like most of them.

Pacemaker and Humper see the most time in my boat for pop-pops.

Though I mostly toss a certain WTD bait

[AWH]

I've had some great top water action in fairly strong wind. But I would say overall I do best with a slight chop. Having some type of wind has definitely proven to be more effective than flat calm conditions.

Aaron