Best Topwater Lures For Bass of 2023

It’s at all times particular when a fish breaks the floor to inhale a topwater lure, however in relation to freshwater bass fishing, it’s additionally a cultural phenomenon. Since the game’s earliest days, bass anglers have constantly developed new and improved topwater lures to entice largemouth, smallmouth, and noticed bass. Catching one—or extra—that method is after all thrilling and rewarding, however most of all within the palms of a talented angler, it’s a strategy to catch larger fish constantly. 

Over the years, we’ve seen the topwater home windows broaden from simply spring-through-fall and low-light hours, to embody extra of the yr and extra of the day. While a topwater-only strategy could also be self-defeating at instances, it’s additionally more and more attainable. From poppers to ploppers to frogs, there are each generalists and situationally-specific instruments to catch extra and greater bass on prime. Here are the perfect topwater lures for bass to catch Larry’s and bronzebacks. 

How I Chose the Best Topwater Lures for Bass

I’ve been fishing and masking skilled bass fishing for many years, and I’ve seen all of the gimmicks and the baits that constantly catch fish. My picks for the perfect topwater baits are all confirmed winners that work all through the nation and in quite a lot of conditions. Their versatility makes them confidence baits you possibly can tie on anytime bass are feeding within the higher water column. 

The Best Topwater Lures for Bass: Reviews & Recommendations 

Best for Smallmouth: Heddon Super Spook Jr.

Key Features

• Sizes: 3 ½ inches (1/2 oz), 5 inches (7/8 oz)
• Distinguishing traits: Cigar-shaped physique with loud rattles
• Key colours: Bone, Black Shore Shad, Okie Shad

Pros

• Makes quite a lot of noise
• High-quality hooks
• Walks simply
• Broad vary of colours

Cons

• Not essentially the most pure physique form.
• Not essentially your best option on streams or the Great Lakes

There could also be extra fashionable and extra natural-looking “walk the dog” topwaters, however this upgraded model of the unique from Heddon is the perfect topwater smallmouth sweet. It walks simply and calls massive brown bass from a distance, or from the depths. They strike it further exhausting, too, which implies you’ll additionally must put money into a top quality pair of pliers to take away the premium Excalibur Rotating Treble Hooks.

There’s no extra thrilling strategy to catch a post-spawn bronzeback than with a topwater lure, and few floor instruments have been getting the job completed longer than Heddon’s Zara Spook. You can nonetheless use the unique successfully, however this upgraded model, the Heddon Super Spook, has all the further bells and whistles to seize just a few extra bites and to maintain them attached. The smaller “Junior” model is usually smallie anglers’ first alternative, however don’t hesitate to go to the five-incher, particularly in wind and waves the place that you must make a ruckus to seize their consideration. It’s price noting this isn’t simply among the best topwater lures for smallmouth bass, it’s additionally among the best bass lures of all time.

Best Popper: Rebel Pop-R

Key Features

• Sizes: 2, 2 ½, and three inches
• Distinguishing Characteristics: Cupped mouth could be “blooped” or chugged
• Key Colors: Bone, silver/black, and Tennessee shad

Pros

• Casts nicely
• No flawed strategy to work it
• Calls bass from a distance

Cons

• Not preferrred 12 months out of the yr in most locations

Rebel briefly discontinued the Pop-R within the Seventies, till a gaggle of Texas bass execs purchased up all they might discover—and began successful tournaments with them left and proper — satisfied them to deliver the lure again. Nearly 50 years later it’s a stalwart, and whereas some purists modify them for explicit makes use of, they’re lethal straight off the deal with retailer shelf.

While there are extra fashionable and extra refined poppers obtainable, albeit, at a better value level, the unique Pop-R continues to be the usual for topwater poppers. You can throw it out, let the ripples dissipate, after which slowly pop it, or alternatively, you possibly can skip it alongside the floor like a fast-fleeing shad. Anglers in Tennessee even pitch it into buck brush in locations most of us would solely throw a jig. When you get a strike, you’ll comprehend it, as a result of the waters typically half in a biblical trend. Just be sure to put money into a great set of long-nosed pliers since you’ll typically discover this difficult topwater lure at the back of your fish’s throat.

Best for Fall: River2Sea Whopper Plopper

Key Features

• Sizes: 60, 75, 90, 110, 130, 190 mm
• Distinguishing Characteristics: Rotating tail, borrowed from the musky world
• Key Colors: Loon, Powder Munky Butt

Pros

• Really enjoyable to fish
• Wide colour array
• Numerous sizes to match the temper of the fish

Cons

• Easy to keep it up too lengthy when fish would favor one thing else

Topwater fishing was already thrilling sufficient, however the introduction of the River2Sea Whopper Plopper to the bass world lower than a decade in the past made it much more heart-stopping. Just by retrieving this lure at a gentle tempo, and maybe sometimes including a cease or stutter-step, anglers can generate strikes that you just’d usually need to journey to the Amazon to expertise. Amazingly, hookups are additionally usually rock stable.

The Whopper Plopper combines a cigar-shaped physique with a propeller tail. Does it signify a terrestrial animal? A frog? A baitfish? Who cares? It casts like a bullet, generates ridiculous strikes, and regardless of its gaudy footprint, it really works surprisingly nicely on pressured fish. It could be labored at a snail’s crawl, you possibly can burn it, or use any tempo in between. Big fish particularly appear to have a love-hate relationship with this lure, and even when they’re not in a feeding temper, they typically strike it out of pure territoriality. In the smaller sizes, you’ll discover it to be among the best fall bass lures for ponds, particularly ponds that haven’t been fished with a Whopper Plopper but.

Learn every little thing that you must know in regards to the Whopper Plopper in our full overview and fishing information. 

Best for Bass Chasing Herring: Evergreen Shower Blows Topwater Plugs

Key Features

• Sizes: 77.7, 105, 125 and 150 millimeters
• Ultra-natural colour alternatives for clear water
• Premium rear feather treble

Pros

• Larger sizes have three trebles to make sure most hookups
• Highly castable, but buoyant
• Feathered rear treble attracts fish at relaxation

Cons

• Pricier than most U.S. home topwaters

Multiple topwaters in a single package deal, the Shower Blows could be walked or popped, nevertheless it’s greatest when skittered at excessive speeds for bass chasing schooled-up baitfish. The Shower Blows is a Twenty first-century Japanese reply to the extra primitive pencil poppers of the previous, made with improved styling and elements. While this model of lure is greatest identified for his or her striper-tempting talents, anglers within the Carolinas acknowledged that they’re additionally preferrred for when largemouth and noticed bass are herding blueback herring. They could be forged a mile and retrieved at warp speeds with out blowing out – whereas they may also be slowed down within the uncommon situations when fish strike and miss. There’s additionally a built-in tungsten weight system which helps casting distance and creates a fish-attracting knock for instances when sight feeding alone is just not the ticket.

Best for Covering Water: Teckel Sprinker

Key Features

• Length: 3-inch physique, and 4 inches with tail
• Weight: 5/8 ounce
• Flush-mounted double hook
• More than a dozen colours

Pros

• Built on Teckel’s slender hole physique
• Tail spins at any pace
• Replacement tails obtainable and straightforward to put in

Cons

• Other choices could also be higher for gradual retrieves

Lure-building mastermind Hideki Maeda of Japan has lengthy designed nice improvements for different firms, however together with his personal firm, he’s been capable of let his frog obsession run free. The outcomes have been phenomenal, with all kinds of noise making amphibians hitting the marketplace for totally different circumstances. None of the others, nonetheless, have confirmed as well-liked (or have produced as many event massive bass awards) because the Sprinker. It provides a tail like that discovered on a Whopper Plopper to the frog physique. Reeled at any constant pace, the tail rotates on a free-spinning swivel, and creates a sound that calls fish from afar. 

When it first got here out, and was in restricted provide, covetous anglers have been paying multiples of the MSRP to get among the best topwater lures for bass, however now they’re available at market costs. The Teckel Sprinker is without doubt one of the best to fish successfully—simply forged it out and reel it again—and whereas the plastic is gentle it is usually super-durable, so even after quite a lot of fish it continues to run true with out taking up water.

One tip is to purchase further tails as a result of quick strikers will rip them off. Luckily, the replacements thread simply onto the screw lock for straightforward restore. 

Best Frog: SPRO Dean Rojas Bronzeye Frog

Key Features

• Lengths: 90 mm (3.5 inches), 65 mm (2.5 inches), and 60 mm (2.3 inches)
• Over 40 totally different colours from fundamentals to forage-specific
• Soft, slender physique design

Pros

• Great vary of colours
• Walks simply
• Skips nicely underneath overhanging cowl
• High high quality 2X Gamakatsu hooks

Cons

• After quite a lot of fish generally takes on water

This is the frog that actually modified the sport for the overwhelming majority of bass anglers, and whereas SPRO has enhanced the road with popping variations and different noisemakers, in the event you’re solely going to get one frog, that is the one. Everything about it’s premium, from the extra-strong Gamakatsu double hook that stands as much as your hardest braided line hook units, to the road tie, which is welded closed in order that your braid won’t ever slip out. 

The dwelling rubber legs match the numerous colours and are left extra-long to be able to trim them to your liking—some anglers like them quick or uneven for higher strolling talents. Anglers simply beginning out ought to favor black, white, and perhaps a frog sample, however a few of the all-time nice colours from SPRO embody Killer Gill, Nasty Shad, and Red Ear. With these, you’re not simply restricted to imitating frogs and toads, but in addition all manners of baitfish.

When you’re studying easy methods to fish a frog bait, one of many first abilities is strolling a frog. Creating the engaging side-to-side dance is exceptionally simple with the SPRO Bronzeye, which makes it among the best frog lures for freshmen and seasoned execs.

Read extra in regards to the greatest frog lures in our full overview. 

Best Popping Frog: Jackall Gavacho

Key Features

• Length: 2.75 inches
• Weight: ⅔ ounce
• Six colours

Pros

• Easy to work
• Casts an extended distance 
• Covers many conditions 

Cons

• Doesn’t come by way of cowl in addition to a strolling frog

There aren’t many instances I don’t have a Gavacho tied onto my line as a result of there aren’t many conditions the place it doesn’t excel. If I’m fishing a pad subject, I can deliver the bait into a gap and stroll it in place. If there’s some chop on the water, I can pop the frog. I’ve no drawback shortly strolling it down a weed edge. The solely time it doesn’t shine is in actually thick vegetation as a result of the cupped face doesn’t come by way of cowl as cleanly because the pointed head of a strolling frog. 

I additionally like that working the Gavacho takes little or no effort, and the slim profile means I get extra eats with fewer quick strikes. The hooks on it are the appropriate thickness, so that they gained’t bend out while you’re winching a fish from the slop, however they’re skinny sufficient that they nonetheless penetrate simply. Another design characteristic that aids in hookup ratio is the gentle physique, which simply collapses and exposes the hooks making it one in every of greatest topwater lures for bass. —Scott Einsmann

Best Finesse Frog: Deps Slither Ok

Features

• Length: 2.25 inches
• Weight: 3/8 ounce
• Rabbit fur tail
• High high quality double frog hook
• 12 colours

Pros

• Extra gentle development and superior engineering translate into excessive hookup proportion
• Easy to govern
• Despite being small, nonetheless heavy sufficient to forged into the wind

Cons

• Softness makes it much less sturdy than another frogs

Japan’s Deps is understood for providing distinctive, premium merchandise, and this little frog is simply that. It’s small, however nonetheless packs sufficient of a profile and indentation on thick grass to draw consideration. I used to be amazed at how simply it walked proper out of the package deal, and whereas I’m used to silicone or rubber leg materials, the rabbit fur is each bit pretty much as good. Even when the frog itself is sitting nonetheless, the tail continues to undulate and it doesn’t appear to mat up if put away moist. There are instances when a standard-sized frog is an excessive amount of for finicky fish, and that’s while you need the Slither Ok. This frog does price slightly bit greater than another fashions, however the efficiency is well worth the value. If you want this line, you must also try their Buster Ok popping frog.

Best Frog for Covering Water: Stanley Ribbit

Key Features

• Durable gentle plastic development
• 3.5-inch commonplace measurement (plus a bigger “Bull” Ribbit)
• Stanley developed a double hook significantly for this physique form and measurement

Pros

• Easy to fish “correctly” – forged it out, reel it again steadily
• Incredibly weedless
• Huge colour choice

Cons

• On some days the hookup proportion could be low

The OG buzz toad nonetheless calls bass out from beneath the greenery and had simply the appropriate sound to impress large explosions. There are actually numerous buzz toads available on the market, however when the Ribbit first got here out it was one of many few – and it nonetheless stays among the many most beloved and most versatile. That’s as a result of the boot-shaped tails could be made to gurgle in all kinds of seductive methods, from a gentle pitter-patter to a hard-charging thump. Stanley has additionally taken the time to maximise their colour choice, so whether or not you’re simply attempting to emulate amphibians otherwise you wish to replicate a bluegill, crappie, insect, or another type of forage, there’s a match for that state of affairs. It’s sufficiently big to take quite a lot of hooks, and slips over and thru cowl with ease, making it a real 4WD bass murderer.

How to Choose the Best Topwater Lure for Bass

Cover

While a three-hooked strolling bait or two treble popper could have the perfect hookup percentages in open water, anglers who attempt to fish them by way of tangled laydowns or matted grass will spend extra time cursing that alternative than reeling in fish. In the identical locations the place a Zara Spook or Whopper Plopper may work if the vegetation was barely thinner, a buzzbait could also be a better option. Similarly, if the grass is even too thick for that single-hooked possibility, a hole bodied frog or buzz toad can go 4 wheeling with ease – and extract the bass that stay there.

Movement

 Are bass keyed in on cellular forage or are they referring to solitary items of canopy? Is your intent to name them from a distance or from the depths, or do you’ve them focused. A buzzbait or a hard-walking cigar-shaped lure can deliver fish from afar, however If you think that there’s a resident by a stump you may select an possibility – corresponding to a popper – that continues to function and appeal to even when left at relaxation. The buzzbait, for instance, will simply sink lifelessly if stopped, whereas the pulsing feather of a rear treble will proceed to train attraction.

Noise

It takes a sure degree of aggression for a bass to assault a floor lure, however generally noise is a characteristic and generally it’s a bug. A gurgling or popping or buzzing lure, and even one with a rattle inside, can name fish from a distance. On the flip facet, in the event you’re aiming for a response chew, it could possibly additionally give them truthful warning, a attainable turnoff. Experiment with totally different noise profiles in the event you’re not getting sufficient strikes, or if those that you just’re getting are halfhearted.

Forage Size

If the bass aren’t of a sure measurement, or what they’re consuming is smaller-than-average, then anglers want to search out downsized variations of their favorites. Fortunately, some confirmed winners just like the Whopper Plopper come from 2-inches all the way in which as much as musky-sized. Choose primarily based on the components in play.

Forage Color 

Topwaters, whether or not made of soppy plastic, exhausting plastic, wooden or skirted materials, could be coloured to appear like something, from shad to bluegills to amphibians to terrestrials. It pays to “match the hatch” though there’s an ongoing debate about whether or not your entire lure issues or simply the stomach. Either method, do not forget that water readability and sky circumstances will influence how a “perfect” colour is perceived.

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Final Thoughts

A Ned rig will put a bunch of bass within the boat, nevertheless it’s nowhere close to as a lot enjoyable because the heart-stopping blowup you get whereas fishing the perfect topwater lures for bass. Topwaters, particularly frogs, can produce large bass in locations different lures battle. If you wish to have enjoyable and catch fish the yr, attempt one in every of my advisable topwaters.