GISP Thurs-Sun

[shallowist]

The low side Gulf Coast is someone else. Most days I'm in a 17 foot Mitzi. Little pale green poling skiff.

Chris, stop looking for my boat, I don't know what I'm doing out there so it won't do you any good to go where you see me....

[shallowist]

The bad news about the big wakes, probably a shark. There are several coves along the island that tend to attract them, Dana is definitely one of them. I watched a smaller one swimming across the west pocket there one day. In the spring and summer when you see the trout flying out of the water around the end of the breakwater, it's because there is often a big shark there trying to eat them.

[sfef84]

The bad news about the big wakes, probably a shark. There are several coves along the island that tend to attract them, Dana is definitely one of them. I watched a smaller one swimming across the west pocket there one day. In the spring and summer when you see the trout flying out of the water around the end of the breakwater, it's because there is often a big shark there trying to eat them.

Thats what I was worried about. I went out again yesterday and saw the wakes multiple times. Never saw a dorsal fin but it came within spitting distance (about 3 feet) two times. I could never make it out because of the overcast weather and muddy water. I saw it do a 180 infornt of me and kicked up so much mud all I saw was dark and what I THINK was a white tipped something. Maybe a white tip. It would make sense as I saw stingrays everywhere I looked. It had GREAT vision to haul ars the opposite direction of me in muddy waters.

As far as a fishing report... I didn't have a hit on topwater all late afternoon. On my way back, I caught a super fat 28in trout on the chart/black head spook jr. It didnt have a lot of spots and looked worn out. The fight was lackluster for the size, but def one of the biggest I have caught. I wanted to get a pic and was close to my truck so I kept it in the net and the water to keep it alive and by the time I got back, it was dying. Said screw it, it was dark and all I had was a cell phone camera. It was prob full of eggs and gave it trout support for 5 minutes. First few minutes I let her go to see what would happen and she went belly up. After some fibrillation, she finally made it!

[poonchum]

I was in gisp tonight from 6pm -8. I saw a couple blow-ups where schools of 6 in. mullet were fleeing, but i couldnt get a bite. These guys i know swear by the topwater bite, thats the only thing they throw. So i only threw chart. head transparent body spook jr. How should i walk these. Tight walk, wide walk... slower, faster, or all of the above until i get hit. Ive never given tops a chance and have never had a bite.

[sfef84]

Im sittin here in the gisp parking lot after afternoon wade.... rediculous late night bite.5 slot reds and i came in cause the wind died and skeeters are bad...

I throw tops 99.99% of the time. Try any and all speeds. Sometimes you can let the topwater sit still for 20 seconds and all of a sudden wham! Best advice is to work structure and stay there.... the bait and reds/trout will move on eventually

[poonchum]

do you have the 4 cca reds in the top right of your rear window

[sfef84]

sure do... were you yaking? Next time your out there I can show you some pointers.
1) One of the things I do (this is gonna be weird, but it works) is twitch the topwater to whatever song is in my head. Use it as a metronome. The best song is the Jaws theme song.. duuunn nun......dunnnnnnnnnnnnn nun... dun dun dun... its hard to "switch up the retrieve" without some sort of beat.
2) Also, its imperative that you get the back and forth motion. I have NEVER had a hit if im throwing a heavy topwater that cant be worked properly. Some topwaters work better than others against the current, with the current cross current, heavy chop to light chop. What will happen is the topwater doesn't turn left or right, just inches along in a line.
3) use the quietest lure possible. Even though it was windy today and you cant hear well with the wind in your face, a she-dog (highpitch) will scare the $**t out of anything around, especially in shallow, pretty clear water. Use the high pitch in deep water. I have tested this out in the lights at night. I threw even a skitterwalk (not that noisy) 10 yards outside the light and every fish disappeared instantly and never came back. I prefer the super spook jr most of the time. As its loud enough for windy days and when sight casting, doesnt hit the water like a bowling ball and freak everything within a 30 yard radius out.
4) I only use big topwaters like shedog, super spook, skitterwalk etc when there is chop. They have better buoyancy and will float on top of the chop instead of sinking below the chop.
5) bigger isn't always necessarily better: Last night, I caught a 28in Trout on a spook jr. Big topwaters are better filter to weed out the little guys when the fish are schooling.
6) braid is 100000000% times better for tops for two reasons and bad for one reason: Good... (A) it floats, so you can let your topwater sit as long as you want without the line sinking. I switched to mono to throw slow sinkers (using braid in the wind is a PITA with slow sinkers because the braid blows with the surface current and doesnt allow the lure to fall) and realize that I scare a lot of fish with my sunken line. (B) it doesnt stretch, I can hardly work anything heavier than a spook jr with mono. With braid you get a nice crisp twitch motion. The Bad: it doesnt stretch. Its your natural reaction to yank the rod when you get a hit. I had to consciously think to myself "dont yank it... dont yank it..." BAM and yanked it thus, pullin and losing the fish.
7) You dont have to "walk-the-dog" at all. Sometimes the most productive retrieve is to reel in the slack, and give the rod 1,2,3,4,5 twitches. This causes the lure to look like a spazed out fish that is still alive, but defenseless.
8) Don't be in a hurry. I use topwaters so much because its the presence of bait in the water that is important. If you reel in too fast, you don't give the fish a chance to come find it.
9) When you cast the lure, Id let it sit for about 10 seconds, this gives any fish that was in the area before this thing came crashing down from the sky a chance to come back and investigate. After that, dont start your retrieve, do that spazz twitch I was talking about before. You will find that sometimes you will get a hit right after the first twitch. Remember that the pauses after "twitchings" are the time when the fish will sit underneath it and look at it. The inital twitch will cause a reaction bite.
10) some colors work in different times of year. The Chart body Black Head spook jr has been at the end of my leader for the past 2 days. Even though people say to use natural colors on sunny days with clear water, I was still getting hits. Definitely use anything bright as the sun goes down. I think the chart body/black head works well because it give the topwater a clear head/body color differentiation and thus, better hookups.
11) speaker of leaders... USE ONE. A lot of times the fish will slap the spook out of the spook jr and cause it to go flying, or sucking it under water. 50% of the time your line will get tangled in the trebles and when the fight is on, you dont want to be worried about losing the expensive lure and the fish. I use a really long 24in 20lb clear mono leader.
12) the knot. Having a tackle box full of topwaters means that your gonna be switching colors ALL-THE-TIME until you gain confidence in each lure in each situation. What I use are the Norton quick twists. NEVER had a problem. I get the ones with swivel. The twist will eventually lose its security so I just use pliers to close the twist a little (you will see what I mean if you end up buying some) The quick twists allowed me to change tops whenever I wanted, not having to fudge around with cutting, retying, thinking to myself "man I wanna change colors but don't want to tie another knot. Knots are no big deal to tie, but your leader gets short REAL quick. Use a Rapala Knot and make sure the loop is not too big. If it is, and your treble hooks are big enough, the two will become entangled.
13) In dead calm or a 1-4 (on a scale of 1-10) level of calmness day, sometimes the spook jr is too loud and water movement is more important. Thats when I use a Top Dog with the single thump sound. I only have one (yellow) and thats all I have ever needed as there are not too many times when I bust it out

Man.. thats about it.

[poonchum]

Wow man, that was really cool of you. Those tips really give me some direction. I wasn't letting the lure sit at all, I was pretty much just doing 'walks' without the pauses or sporadic changes. I'm using braid w/no leader and getting the line caught up in the trebles. I've just been working next to a channel but maybe i'll work some different spots trying to find shell. I have that chat. head black body so i'll try that too. I live a few miles down from the park so with weather cooperating tomorrow evening i'll be out there around 6 or so. I'll post after. Thanks

[Curmudgeon]

sfef84's advice is excellent! You should give him some greenies for all of that!!

[sfef84]

I'll take em!!

That is what I have learned and its like school.... Just cause you read it, don't mean you can replicate it without a lot of practice. I'm no pro, but the biggest reason why I throw topwaters all the time is because it was pretty much what I started have a heck of a lot more confidence in em than plastics. If I get a lot of short strikes, Ill throw a plastic, but most times just recast in the same direction and youll get a hookup.

Jogged my memory....
Never hurts to cast in the same direction 2 or 3 times. Its like this: I hear some hot chick say HEYYY SFEF84!!! OVVVERR HEEEEAAARRRR.... I turn my head and move that direction. By the time I get there, shes gone. If she were to magically reappear in that same spot, Id hookup haha. If she reappears somewhere else and says over heaarrr again, I head that direction and shes gone. Get the point?