Interesting Topwater

[mr. bones]

Hey guys,
I found this little paragraph on another site and thought it was pertinent to fishing topwaters in general. This was a study done in England on how/why Trout (Stripers should be no different) are attracted to topwater flies and plugs.

In an article about anglers' odd obsessions in London's Times Online, author Brian Clarke explains how his research for his book The Trout and the Fly led him to discover the reason that surface insects are easily visible to trout at night. "We had our answer at once. It was that wherever part of a fly — feet, body, wings — touched the surface tension, they dented it slightly. This distortion, when viewed from below, acted rather like a lens — it gathered and concentrated any light remaining in the night sky. The result was that, from the position of a trout looking up, each fly on the surface was brightly outlined against the darkness all about it."

Strikes me the reason why Topwaters are great at night goes beyond the noise generated that the Striper's lateral line can pick up, but also due to the profile associated with it and the "light gathering" effect they have as well.

Dave

[Merrillizer™]

Definitely interesting. I dont fly fish, but my experience with poppers was never good at night. I have always had best luck with them in the evening and early am twilight hours. I have caught tons of bass on poppers in the day as well, but that was usually during a blitz in the fall when the bass are marauding and hitting anything that moves lol.

[Merrillizer™]

So much for that. I slayed bass last night on an ebb tide after midnight. Unreal. I only used it on a whim, because I had left my tackle bag at home. All I had was custom wood plugs made my Jim and a popper that was still on the pluggin' rod

I have caught a random bass here and there at night on poppers, but as I mentioned, never used them specifically at night. I even caught a bass one time at night on a Charlie Graves tin. HAHAHAAHA. Go figure!