Make Bass Bite with an Iconic Topwater Lure

Hiro Naito doesn’t wait for bass to bite. He makes them take his lures. Naito, who runs the popular bass fishing YouTube channel, HIROism, is extremely intentional about every cast and the details of every presentation and uses strategic actions to trigger bass into striking his lures.

For topwater bass fishing, Naito sometimes turns to an iconic bait from Heddon Lures – the Lucky 13. Heavy enough for highly accurate casting and diverse in how it can be worked, the Lucky 13 provides a perfect tool for Naito’s approach and for topwater success.

At a glance, the Heddon Lucky 13 just looks like an old-school chugger/popper, with a cupped face, cylindrical body and rounded back end. And while the chugger/popper part is accurate, it does not tell the whole story.

Look closely at the cupped face, and you’ll see that the bottom extends farther than the top and that the line tie is positioned high in the cupped face. The result of those very intentional design features is that when you pull the bait slowly and steadily, instead of chugging on top it dives just beneath the surface, and it will move back and forth like an extra shallow crankbait. With any pause, it pops back to the surface.

The versatility of a Lucky 13 is key to its productivity and a major part of what makes this classic lure a perfect fit for Naito’s approach. Depending on the tightness of his line, how sharply he moves his rod, and whether he controls the lure with his rod or reel, Naito can make a Lucky 13 chug, pop, spit or dive, and even the dives vary from dipping and darting and popping back up to staying submerged longer and swaying beneath the surface.

The Heddon Lucky 13 is one of the oldest lures that has remained in continuous production, having been introduced in 1920. The history is part of the appeal for Naito.

“I’ve used a lot of lures,” he said, “but the Lucky 13 is special. It has been on the market for more than 100 years.”

The name Lucky 13 reportedly comes from a fishing trip designed to test prototypes of the new lure with William Heddon and William A. Stolley that occurred on a Friday the 13^th in 1919. The “unlucky day” produced so many fish that they decided to call it the lure the Lucky 13.

The Lucky 13 is 3 3/4 inches long, weighs 5/8 ounce and is equipped with three No. 2 trebles. It comes in three classic color patterns: Baby Bass, Red Head and Bullfrog.

Naito lives in Central Florida. With countless outstanding bass lakes withing a couple hours for his house (including many that are very close) he does the bulk of his fishing and filming on local waters. Most lake are shallow and loaded with vegetation of many kinds, and the fish relate heavily to floating, submerged, and emergent vegetation and to cypress knees, brush and other cover along lake edges.  

Through summer, especially, the bass rely on shade, staying tight to or underneath the cover and not wanting to stray far. Early and late in the day, Naito will focus on shaded banks and fish all kinds of cover. Through mid-day, when the sun is overhead, he’ll concentrate more on pads, horizontal logs and other cover that has shade directly beneath it.

Accurate casts are critical to success. Naito places casts close to cover, past cover, and tight to the bank, especially in cuts in the banks or along points, choosing lines that allow the lure to work very close to key pieces of cover. For working around plentiful visible cover, Naito typically position his boat fairly close to the bank. That allows for much quieter and more accurate casts that place the lure exactly where it needs to be.

As Naito works his topwater lures, he pays careful attention to where every strike occurs. That helps him pattern the kinds of cover the fish are primarily using. As importantly, it reveals whether bass are willing to follow and hit a lure out from the cover or if they are staying close to the cover. If he gets bites well way from the cover, he’ll continue working his lure most of the way back. However, if all strikes occur close to the cover – which is not uncommon – he begins shortening presentations, reeling the bait back as soon as it get out of the primary zone and making another cast.

“If the chase distance is short, the rest of the retrieve is just wasted distance,” he said.

Chugging a Lucky 13, which is easily accomplished with firm sweep of the rod and a tight line, imitates the sound and splash of a feeding bass, causing fish to investigate. A popping splash, achieved with a quicker snap and from a slightly slack line, suggests a baitfish spooked by predators. A series of extra-quick snaps makes the bait spit and imitates a fleeing baitfish. Pulling the Lucky 13 to make it dive brings the lure suddenly into a bass’ line of vision and can be a critical strike trigger.

Of course, there are variations with each basic bait movement, and Naito strategically uses the entire range of options, along with adding pauses and mixing the cadence. He changes things up within most presentations, with many variations being highly intentional, location-wise, to trigger strikes in spots where Naito expects bass to be positioned.

“If you chug the bait the same way all the time, you’re leaving much more to chance. You can catch fish, but you won’t catch as many,” he said.

Just as he pays attention to where every bass hit, Naito remains aware of how (or if) he is moving the lure every time a fish strikes. Some days the triggers vary and mixing things up remains the key. Other days a punctuated pause or maybe a diving pull prompts the most strikes, causing Naito to utilize that action more and to implement it when his lure reaches the highest percentage spots.

Intentional mixing of sounds and actions and strategic timing of variations are a major part of Naito’s topwater approach with any lure, but the iconic Lucky 13 puts extra tricks in his bag to make bass bite.