Fishing with Piotr

Jitterbug - Top View

Jitterbugs - Side View

Arbogast makes a variety of top water lures, from the Jitterbug, to the jointed Jitterbug, and a Hula Popper. The Hula Popper has a funny name but when you start fishing it you will know why it is called a Hula Popper. As you cast it out you don’t retrieve it as you would a normal bait. You have to twitch your rod and make the bait pop. This popping noise makes the fish think that there is an injured fish or frog for them to eat. Twitching your rod means to give it a slight jerk, stop for a couple of seconds, then give your reel a slight retrieve until you develop tension in your line again and repeat. One key note when fishing top water baits is to actually let the fish take the bait before you set your hook. If you try to set your hook as soon as you hear or feel a splash in the water you may miss the fish. Sometimes the fish swim up to the bait and snap at it but they miss it. If you try to set your hook too early you will scare the fish away and they won’t come back for a second bite. If you sense a snap at your bait and the fish is not on the lure, simply stop the retrieve, twitch it a few times and wait. A lot of the times the fish will come back and hit that bait hard because they don’t want it to get away. If you missed the fish completely, re-cast in the same spot and present the bait again, chances are that the big one is still sitting there ready to pounce.

Top water lures come in all shapes and sizes. Other then the Jitterbug and Hula Popper there are a variety of lure makers with top water baits. Some resemble frogs, some mice, and others look like some alien being, but they all work on the same principles. By putting your bait on top of the water and making some noise the fish think they have struck gold by coming across an easy bit of food. Try a variety of top water lures and chose what works best for you.

Where do you fish them? As I said the best places to fish them is in calm waters. Ideally you want to fish them in the morning hours or late evening, however, you can also fish them at night as they make noise and stir up the water making it easy for fish to locate the bait. I will usually find a bay with a large amount of lily pads or some tree structure and cast into there. As you know fish love to hide in lily pads and by presenting a top water bait to the fish that live here you will show them something irresistible. These baits will usually be most productive in mid to late summer as the fish are in a feeding frenzy, but keep on trying them out and I am sure you will land a big one.

Arbogast® Jitterbugs® – Jointed – 2-1/2″ – Black Just reel an Arbogast Jitterbug in and let it wag back and forth with a deep, gurgling rhythm that bass can’t ignore. The bigger lunkers often follow the Jitterbug for half a retrieve until they can’t resist it anymore and attack. In 3 versions: Original “Jitterbug” “Weedless” hook and skirted for thick cover “Jointed” tail for extra shimmy. Arbogast® Jitterbugs®

When you get by the water you’ll need to know where the fish like to hide and where they sit and wait for their prey. There is a lot of different structure, weeds, and rocks that you will have to learn to look out for if you want to catch the big one. As you read through and follow up with this site, this will become second nature for you.

For the most part if you are fishing a bobber and just looking to get those pan fish you can find them by docks, amongst weeds, and close to shore. Pan fish are small so they tend to hide in areas that will keep them safe from predatory fish such as in between weeds, behind rocks, or amongst tree stumps. That being said the big fish will also follow those pan fish into the shallows as they too need to eat, and pan fish can make a nice meal for a largemouth bass or a pike. My number one suggestion for fishing pan fish is to bait your hook and just cast it out there. What you will want to do, especially if this is your first time fishing a new body of water, is to locate just how far off shore the fish are hiding.

First cast pretty close, you’d be surprised how close to shore fish can tend to hide. If you think about it this makes perfect sense. Where do a lot of the insects, frogs, leeches, and other creepy crawly things that fish like to eat live, that’s right close to the shore! How close is close you ask? That depends on how quickly the water becomes deep, what we call the drop off point. If you come up to the shore to inspect your fishing locale look into the water, you can usually see right through the shallow water and see where the drop off begins from the shore. This drop off is where the fish cruise and peer into the shallows for a quick snack. It is also an excellent place for fish to run into deeper water or come up closer to shore depending on the time of day, how warm the water is, and where the food is. Fish the drop off and you won’t be disappointed.

Another favourite hiding spot for fish is structure. What we define as structure is a stump or tree in the water or even a pile of rocks. These offer fish a variety of places to hide from predatory fish but they also attract a ton of the bigger predatory fish. A tree in the water is a great place for fish to catch insects that slip off the tree and end up in the water. Trees and stumps are my favourite honey holes for fishing that never seem let me down. As you become a better angler you’ll be able to throw your bait right in and around these types of structures without getting caught in the branches. I find that with some practice and getting tangled a few times you will quickly learn just how to cast right into the sweet-spot of different types of structure. The picture below is an excellent example of the type of tree structure that I am talking about. If you look closely you can see the bottom of the lake so you know its shallow but yet I have fished this tree many times and have always been able to pull out a few nice largemouth bass. Throwing a lure or even a worm on a bobber can prove to be productive in this situation.

Fallen Tree Structure

Flooded Tree Structure