Jackson: Top-water fishing lures rate a closer look
Say what you will, but it's my firm belief that teasing a fish to strike a top-water lure is worth the price of admission - if there is an admission cost.
I've been using top-water lures since my late father taught me how to tease a pike in a foot of water. That was on the Peshtigo River near Crivitz, Wis.
Those few days with Irv were some of the most educational and exciting times in my youth. I later expanded that entire process by using top-water lures such as Heddon's Lucky 13 and Basser.
Many of today's muskie surface baits had their roots come from the original Heddon "dog walking" surface baits that became a must-have artificial in many tackle boxes.
So with the warmer weather in our area I started my annual pond cruising to see if the largemouth bass were ready to chase top-water lures or a popping bug thrown from my fly rod.
My first stop took me to a series of industrial park ponds in the southwest suburbs. These surface weed-free gems had plenty of cattails and emerging coontail weeds.
My light spinning rod was rigged with 6-pound mono and a Pop-R surface chugging lure.
I don't know what I was thinking at first because I made a dozen casts to a shaded side of the first pond without a single sniff from a fish. Silly me for not casting to the sunny side, where the water temperature was a good 3-4 degrees higher and more suited to fish feeding.
I could have yelled "Bingo" when the first largemouth took to the air, but I swallowed the help before it left my throat. A little 2-pound buck bass went for the lure. After de-hooking the buck, I made another cast close to the same area and another tyke grabbed the lure and made off for the underbrush. That was it for this pond.
My next "playground" was about a mile down the road. This gem was quite a bit larger than number 1. I tied on a mid-size silver-colored Rapala and threw it about a foot from the bank.
Nobody home, I said to my self. So I inched my way along the bank close to a chunk of deadfall tree. It was just like Skokie Lagoon, where bass usually hang out near the dead trees.
Rapalas can be fished in a variety of ways. These minnow imitators can be twitched to look like an injured bait fish or retrieved in a straight line back to you.
I prefer twitching the lure in a start-stop motion. I won't bore you with fairy tale details. I managed to entice a half dozen bass to strike with the biggest close to 3-pounds.
It's rare when I share any of these ponds with another angler. Whenever that happens, I move to another location.
Believe me when I tell you there are hundreds of these ponds located around the metro area. Just take a small tackle box with top water lures and maybe some Little Action Mac worms to these honey holes and have fun.
• Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, catch his radio show 7-9 a.m. Sundays on WGCO 1590-AM (live-streamed at www.1590WCGO.com) and get more content at www.mikejacksonoutdoors.com.