Bass fishing usually picks up in September and October. This is partly because this is the stormy part of the year and we get more rain. This rain cools the lakes and brings the fish closer to the surfaces. It also produces some of the most exciting fishing of the whole year.
There are several types of top-water fishing. First, you may want to cast floating lures along the shoreline near stumps, logs, rocks or other cover.
These lures may have a dished out lip that makes a chugging sound when jerked or paused. Others may have a propeller on the front that makes a gurgling sound when retrieved.
Still others may have a torpedo-shaped head that will dart back and forth when the rod tip is snapped briskly. Then there is the floater-diver lure that floats when lying motionless and dives when jerked.
Bass react to different lures on different days. These lures have treble hooks and will become snagged when fished around grass.
In grassy or mossy lakes soft plastic lures work best. They can be rigged weedless by burying the point of the hook back into the lure and fishing it with very little or no weight.
Worms, frogs or rats fished weightless and weedless and skittered across the top of thick, floating grass or moss can be deadly on bass at times.
The bass will come up through the moss to eat the bait off the surface, then bury back down in it. You will have to pull the fish and the grass to the boat in a big wad, but sometimes the reward is great.
Lake Guntersville has produced some awesome stringers of bass from its large grass beds.
Another method of top water fishing would be fish schooling in open water.
The fall rains and cooler days will also cause large schools of shad to feed on the surface which in turn will bring bass and other predator fish up to feed on them.
Many times a school shad on the surface will attract a very large school of bass. When the bass get in a feeding frenzy the fishing can be unbelievable.
These schooling fish can be caught on a variety of baits. My favorite bait is a ¼ ounce jig head with a 3-inch pearl slider grub.
This jig can be cast across the school of surfacing fish and retrieved back through them just under the surface or dropped down a few feet deeper.
A lipless crankbait such as a rattletrap also works well, but it has two treble hooks that are sometimes difficult to remove when you get in a hurry.
Many of the above mentioned top water baits will also catch schooling bass, but the jig is much faster.
However, sometimes it is just the excitement of seeing the fish literally explode on the surface that makes a fisherman sit in a boat all day long just waiting for things to come together.
