Topwater Fever
By: Jason Weckerle

The sun sets gently on the horizon, and the wind slows creating a flat surface across the lake. The airis warm as you cast your lure out into the lake. As it hits the water, the only thing your eyes are set onis the lure that settles on the surface. Then the ripples from the lure fade away and you begin yourretrieve. Suddenly, the surface erupts and boils. Your heart nearly jumps out of your chest. You setthe hook into a hard fighting fish and begin the first battle of the evening. As you lift the fish into theboat, you are happy to have landed a nice 4 pound largemouth bass. With your heart still beating likea marching band drum, you release the fish back into the lake to let it live another day. That is thebeauty of topwater fishing. Nothing brings more excitement in fishing then seeing a lure zig zagging,chattering, splashing, twitching, blurping, wobbling, or buzzing across the surface of a calm lake andwatching a fish boil,swirl, or crash the surface. Your adrenaline pumps and your heart skips a beatwhen you fish topwater. The beauty of this fishing is that your eyes never grow tired, and your interestnever goes away because your attention is always focused on your lure coming across the surface.Topwater lures come in many styles, shapes, sizes, and colors to fit several different needs,conditions, and catch different species of fish. I will go through some techniques that will help youenjoy the beauty in the most exciting style of fishing on the planet. After using these techniques yourheart will skip more beats then it ever has in your whole life. Largemouth bass, smallmouth bass,whitebass, northern pike, and muskies all attack topwater lures so you will be able to learn how to fishall these species of fish using one category of lures.