7 Terrific Topwater Baits - Major League Fishing

7 Terrific Topwater Baits

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Combine a jointed jighead design with a buzzbait and you get Strike King’s Swinging Sugar Buzz. The jointed design helps keep head-thrashing fish hooked and gives the Sugar Buzz maximum vibrating action. It’s a single-blade buzzbait that comes in 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 ounce. StrikeKing.com Photo by Curtis Niedermier.
July 16, 2015 • Curtis Niedermier • Archives

If you don’t like fishing topwater, just give up fishing already. These seven new baits will help you get your surface-fishing fix next season.

Read about 10 New Frogs and Toads here.

Click here for complete 2015 ICAST coverage.

 

Storm Arashi Top Walker

Storm has gotten into the big walking bait market with its Arashi Top Walker. The bait comes in two sizes – 4 1/4 inches, 3/4 ounce; 5 1/8 inches, 1 1/8 ounce – with three hooks and four ball bearings. The bearings are different sizes for a unique “variable pitch” sound. Storm designed the Top Walker with somewhat flat sides, which the company says allow it to walk without rolling so that the hooks stay down where they can do their jobs. It comes in 10 colors. Rapala.com

 

It's a walker, it's a wobbler and it's a clacker - the Walking Boss Part II is a hybrid bait that can do it all thanks to a jointed hard-plastic body and a cupped mouth reminiscent of the classic Arbogast Jitterbug. The bait is 5 inches long and heavy enough to cast a mile, plus it features Livingston's sound-emitting technology. Price is $17.99. It comes in about a dozen colors. LivingstonLures.com

Livingston Walking Boss Part II

It’s a walker, it’s a wobbler and it’s a clacker – the Walking Boss Part II is a hybrid bait that can do it all thanks to a jointed hard-plastic body and a cupped mouth reminiscent of the classic Arbogast Jitterbug. The bait is 5 inches long and heavy enough to cast a mile, plus it features Livingston’s sound-emitting technology. Price is $17.99. It comes in about a dozen colors. LivingstonLures.com

 

SPRO BBZ-1 Rat Nos. 30 and 40

The BBZ-1 Rat isn’t entirely new, but this season SPRO released a couple of “gateway” models of the bait that are small enough to ease folks who might still be a little reluctant to fish with big baits into the rat bait world. The No. 40 is 7 inches from nose to the tip of the tail with a 4-inch body. It weighs 1 ounce. The No. 30 is an inch shorter in both overall length and body length and weighs 1/2 ounce. The best part is that you can cast either size on ordinary jig, cranking or topwater rods. SPRO.com

 

Combine a jointed jighead design with a buzzbait and you get Strike King's Swinging Sugar Buzz. The jointed design helps keep head-thrashing fish hooked and gives the Sugar Buzz maximum vibrating action. It's a single-blade buzzbait that comes in 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 ounce. StrikeKing.com

Strike King Swinging Sugar Buzz

Combine a jointed jighead design with a buzzbait and you get Strike King’s Swinging Sugar Buzz. The jointed design helps keep head-thrashing fish hooked and gives the Sugar Buzz maximum vibrating action. It’s a single-blade buzzbait that comes in 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 ounce. StrikeKing.com

 

Megabass i-Jack

Probably the most interesting feature of the Megabass i-Jack wake bait is its pendulum-mounted one-knocker rattle. The rattle ball is attached to a flat, hinged piece of metal that swings side-to-side as the bait wobbles. Megabass says that this creates a very consistent knocking sound. The bait weighs 1 ounce and is a hair shy of 4 1/4 inches long. It’s a good “in-between” size of wake bait that’s smaller than most jointed models but bigger than most round-body wake baits. With a pointed tail and shad-shaped body, the i-Jack wobbles and rolls when in motion, according to the video the company showed off in its booth. It costs about $20 and comes in five colors. MegaBassUSA.com

 

DUO Realis Pencil Popper

There are quite a few pencil poppers at ICAST this year, but this model from DUO Realis is the most unique. Available in 110mm and 148mm models, the Pencil Popper has an extremely durable internal structure that eliminates “crush zones” so that it can be fished for salwater species, powerful freshwater predators and cool exotics such as peacock bass that can destroy lesser topwaters. On the bigger model, a single knocker slides back and forth against two metal balls in the tail, and the belly hook hanger swivels to help keep fish buttoned up. The smaller model is silent but has a clever internal wire hook-hanger system that won’t ever pull free. DUO designed the bait with a cool curved shape so that it floats tail-down, giving it an up-and-down tail action whether it’s chugging or walking. Twelve colors are available. Cost is about $16. duo-inc.co.jp/bass/en/realis/

 

New to the prop-bait market is the HeliPs Grande, a bream-imitating compact bait that should cast farther than balsa models and will last longer too. The sides slope down to create somewhat of a triangular body shape in cross-section. Five colors are available. It costs $16.99. This year, ima also released new sizes of two popular topwater baits. The Little Stik is the little brother of the Big Stik. It's a 1-ounce pencil popper that is 135mm long. The Skimmer Grande is a walking bait that's about 1/2 inch longer than the original Skimmer. imaLures.com

ima HeliPs Grande

New to the prop-bait market is the HeliPs Grande, a bream-imitating compact bait that should cast farther than balsa models and will last longer too. The sides slope down to create somewhat of a triangular body shape in cross-section. Five colors are available. It costs $16.99.

This year, ima also released new sizes of two popular topwater baits. The Little Stik is the little brother of the Big Stik. It’s a 1-ounce pencil popper that is 135mm long. The Skimmer Grande is a walking bait that’s about 1/2 inch longer than the original Skimmer. imaLures.com