Use Tiny Topwater Lures for Summer Fishing Success

Learn why extra small surface lures can be extra good for a variety of fish species through the Dog Days and how to fish tiny topwater lures effectively.

Casting a Rebel Crickhopper close to the bank beside and isolated stick up, I had almost zero doubt my lure would get blasted on the surface the moment I twitched the rod tip – if not before. The only real question was whether the attack would come from a bass, a bluegill or some other species. Turned out it was a bluegill (best I could tell) that that first hit but failed to connect. A 1 1/2-pound spotted bass attacked immediately after and did not miss!

Extra-small topwater lures provide extra-big fishing fun through the middle of summer, with explosive strikes, fast action and multi-species catches all being common. Opportunities encompass a range of settings and topwater lure types.

We’ll explore what drives the best fishing action, some of the best small topwater lures and the total approach that will deliver summer fishing success.

Prime Time for Small Topwater Lures

Beginning in mid-summer and continuing through fall, terrestrial insects of various sorts get active along the banks of creeks, rivers, ponds and lakes, and more than a few find themselves errantly afloat and scrambling on the surface. Add hatches of aquatic insects and activity of critters like frogs and snakes, and it isn’t hard to see why fish often orient up and remain ready to ambush surface offerings.

When something lands – be it actual food, an acorn or a fishing lure – fish commonly come to investigate. If that something happens to be your lure, and the profile, sound and action suggest dinner or successfully aggravate the fish, things can get exciting in a hurry.

In terms of terrestrial insects, streams or ponds with grassy banks often have a lot of grasshoppers and crickets falling near their edges, especially on windy days. Where banks are wooded, beetles of various kinds, cicadas and ants are more common.

Around pads and other aquatic vegetation, frogs, snakes and even minnows cruising near the surface or pushed to the top by gamefish, keep predator species looking up.

Mid- to late summer typically brings modest flows or even low water in streams through much of the country, and clearer than normal water prevails in many ponds and lakes. Wind conditions also tend to be calmer, except during brief storms some afternoons. These conditions all lend themselves to good topwater fishing and encourage a smaller topwater lure that suggests a quick easy meal and appeals to fish that have more opportunities to examine offerings.

Tiny Topwater Types

We’ll start with the already-referenced Rebel Crickhopper and similar lures, like the Rebel Bumble Bug. These are technically shallow crankbaits, which dive a couple of feet when cranked steadily. During summer, though, it’s tough to top fishing them as surface lures to match the behavior of the terrestrial insects they resemble.

The topwater presentation is simple and can take on a couple of forms. Slow, steady reeling with the rod held high makes the lure wobble on top as a wake bait and suggests steady swimming. Quick rod tip twitches create a more erratic and frantic-seeming action.

Diminutive poppers, like a Rebel Teeny Pop-R, Pop'n Frog or Crickhopper Popper, which offers a hopper profile but has a popping face, make more sound to get fish’s attention. Poppers also can be fished many different ways to make different popping, spitting and chugging sounds.

Small prop baits, like a Tiny Torpedo or even smaller Teeny Torpedo, spit and splash on top. They are quieter and more subtle than poppers, but still make plenty of commotion to get fish’s attention and prompt attacks.

Other hard bait options include walking baits like a Zara Puppy, which is a small profile version of a classic Zara Spook and is especially good for stream bass, and topwaters that are tough to categorize, like a Heddon Tiny Crazy Crawler.

Finally, don’t overlook miniature buzzbaits, like a BOOYAH Pond Magic Buzz. A buzzbait is extra good when you want to cover water quickly and when you need to work through sparse vegetation or other cover that’s tough to fish with treble hooks.

Tiny Topwater Approach

Conditions, cover, observations and your own experience help determine the specific topwater lure to start with, but don’t hesitate to experiment early in the game.  Some days the fish simply react better to a churning prop than a pop, for no obvious reason, and if fish are slapping at the lure but not quite committing, switching to a topwater that is similar in size but has a different sound or action sometimes will make all the difference.

Also experiment with presentation speeds. Sometimes S-L-O-W is the way to go. This is especially true in cover-rich areas where fish are holding very tight to stumps, weed edge points, dock supports, rocks or other specific targets. Cast as close to the cover as possible, let the lure rest a bit and move it just enough to make a commotion and keep it near the cover. Less rod action can also be important in some stream settings. Let the current do the delivery work, engaging the lure’s action only occasionally.

That said, on some days, giving the fish too long a look at a lure is the worst approach, and the only way to trigger strikes is to keep the bait spitting, churning, buzzing…

Often, the truth lies in between, and prompting strikes requires a series of quick twitches followed by a pause. The key is to experiment and to pay close attention to the fish’s responses to everything you do. It’s easy to fall in a rut with cadence, which can equate to miss opportunities to catch fish.

Notably, fishing small surface lures through mid-summer can be an all-day approach. Topwater fishing is often associated with early morning and very late afternoon, and too many anglers abandon surface lures though the middle of the day. Near cover, in current and in shady areas, especially, the fish keep looking up and will attack the right topwater lure all day.

Among the best things about this approach is the multi-species appeal. Most lures mentioned commonly will produce largemouths, smallmouths, spots, rock bass, white bass, warmouths, bluegill, green sunfish, redear sunfish and a host of other species.