On Sat, 6 Nov 2004 23:46:20 -0500, "go-bassn"
sent into the ether:

Do you guys throw topwater lures in tournaments? I try my darndest to avoid
them, and only do it when I'm convinced nothing else will work. Nothing
frustrates me more during competition than seeing a fish try to eat my lure
& missing, or worse yet "dropping" a fish. My feeling is that the
encounter/boated fish ratio is just far too weak with topwater baits.

Your feelings?
MMM...I have been known to throw a large buzz bait in the late after
noon and just before dusk in tournies. The lakes I threw them on were
well known to me and I found it to be very effective once I started to
hold my rod almost vertical and ignore the bait as I retrieved it. Of
course the surface conditions had to be right for the water I was on
at the time too. I taught one of my secretarys sons to use a buzz
bait this summer. It was fun watching him miss fish after fish. I
let him lose fish until he asked me what he was doing wrong. After
all he is a know it all 18 year old :} Once he understood he should
not look at the bait or do anything until the fish had hooked itself
he began to boat fish. He held the rod almost straight up and was
having a blast catching Bass. I did have to sharpen his hook for him
and I showed him how to put on a grub or twin tail and trailer hook if
he was missing fish.

After I had overcome my tendency to set the hook too soon I really
love to watch Bass grab a large buzz bait!!! I do lose the odd fish
now and then and attribute it to small Bass going after the bait.

As far as other top waters go I very seldom use any of them. The
reason for that is as you stated, I also lost too many fish with short
strikes. The exception to that is on top of weeds/brush/grass/pads
and such.

This summer I found Flukes for the first time and have had success
with them on the top in various situations.

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