Tuned into top water. 

Without a doubt, the most exciting of all of the bass fishing situations is a top water bite. The breathless anticipation as you methodically work your top water lure only builds on those casts that are unanswered. When your offering is taken, it is usually a violent attack and results in a tail walking adventure that only our favorite species can provide. 

Many anglers view a top water strike as a lucky, isolated occurrence. As such, they will toss their surface presentations as a ritual the first thing every time out on the water. While these anglers may very well catch fish, good fish at that, they may be missing the essence of being tuned in to top water. 

Consider this, certain times during the yearly cycle of the bass lend themselves to increased surface awareness, for example. When there is a crawdad hatch, or when the crawdads begin to crawl out of their mud holes, a bass' attention will be drawn towards the bottom of the lake, that's where dinner is. The old phrase, "things are looking up" certainly lends itself to being tuned into top water. The time of a bass' yearly cycle when its attention is drawn to the surface is the time that we as anglers can take advantage of surface presentations. 

To know the bass' main forage, is to know the bass. In the Late Spring, during the period many anglers refer to as post spawn, threadfin shad are drawn to the shallow portions of the lake for their own spawning cycle. Threadfin shad spawn on the surface by laying their adhesive eggs near whatever floating debris is available. Since most of a lake's floating debris is pushed up against the bank, that's where the shad head to. 

Threadfin shad also do most of their spawning in the low light hours of the day, which explains why your top water bite is good in the morning, slows during the mid day period and then picks up again in the late afternoon. Once laid, the eggs attach themselves to the floating debris and run their cycle. Having just spawned themselves, hungry large mouths lay in wait of this expected food source. 

There is also bluegill migration that takes brings thousands of spawning, bite size bluegill into the shallows. Yes, the key to top water is to know when things are looking up. 

Knowing which type of top water presentation is the next key to the puzzle. If you are fishing clear water, natural looking top waters that pop or walk are a good way to go. The surface disruption will attract the bass, the sight of your lure will trigger the strike. If, however, you are fishing off color water, in heavy cover, the welcomed tracking of a steady moving buzz bait may allow the fish to find your offering. A general rule of top water fishing would be that the clearer the water you are fishing, the more erratic your retrieve can be. In other words, the more you are relying on a fish's sense of sight, the more you are relying on things like the sudden start and stop of a dazed bait fish that has been stunned by an attack. However when using your top water as a search bait, or when fishing in off color water, where you are calling the fish by the vibration of your lure. A rhythmic cadence becomes important. Sometimes, particularly on overcast mornings or before the sun is shinning on the lake, bass may be away from cover. In these situations, it is important to help the bass hone in our your bait. In these situations a constant, rhythmic cadence will help the bass find you. 

Knowing your forage helps you know your prey. Knowing how your prey attacks its forage under a given set of conditions, such as low light, clear water or off color water, will help you key into the correct presentation. You may catch a top water fish any given morning, by simply chunking and winding. However, to catch fish consistently, it helps to think these things through. Now you're tuned into top water.