Surface Lure fishing
by John Worzencraft

INTRODUCTION by Editor Nick Caine
Surface lures include rippers, choppers, poppers, proppers, chuggers, ploppers …. and these are featured elsewhere on our website in Ralph “The Rod”  Walker's excellent article about them.

Here, Big John Worzencraft shares his expertise and techniques, and talks about how to use them and other top-of-the-water lures, to get the very best results from your lure fishing with every kind of surface lure.

EARLY DAYS
I have to say that in the early days the numbers of surface lures available were pretty-much restricted to to Heddon's Crazy Crawler (right), Lucky 13, Swamp Fox's Moss Boss (now Heddon) and a few prop-baits ..... but these days we're spoilt for choice, with even the normally cautious Rapala entering the frame with their Skitter-Pop (left) — the advent of braids too, has made surface lure fishing even more effective.

DOWNSIZING
Also, over the years, along with many other lure anglers, I've tended, on smaller venues at least, to use smaller lures when I'm fishing on the surface. Of course, on large lakes, reservoirs and the like, it's the bigger the better, but for the purposes of this article and to help anglers who don't normally fish large venues, Editor Nick has asked me to concentrate on medium and small surface lure fishing... so here goes ....

TOP TIPS
In several critical aspects, surface lure fishing is very, very different from sub-surface fishing .... firstly you have to consciously make an effort to forget instant striking, and to wait for the predator species, probably pike, to grab your surface lure and then to turn back downwards, BEFORE you strike.

Also, because pike and other predators see surface lures only in silhouette, this means that their hit rate is rarely 100% but that if they miss at their first attempt, they will often try and try again .. so don't stop retrieving... keep on going! Be brave and be patient !

Secondly, because the surface lures are only seen in silhouette, the patterns and colours of these lures are much less critical than in sub-surface fishing— OK contrast on the underside of surface lures may help e.g. white with red and/or black spots of other patterns may help, but the action and behaviour of the lure is most important.

For example, with surface lures it's easy to suddenly stop retrieving and to allow the lure to remain still ... and then, as soon as it starts to move again, often this will trigger pike to strike. At other times, a fast ripping retrieve with, for example, a pro-bait [a surface plug with one or two propellor-blades attached] such as a Woodchopper or Dying Flutter, (left) will induce predators to track the lure at great speed and to strike viciously. During all this heart-stopping excitement. you must try to stay calm (and I know that it's very difficult, because I still have trouble myself .... every time!), and not to strike too early.

NOISE IS GOOD
So, clearly, and audibly, surface noise and commotion, such as that produced by prop-baits and spluttering and plopping lures, are also critical to successful surface lure fishing. Indeed, with the exception of a few almost silent surface lures, such as the Moss Boss and some soft, hollow mice-mimics and the like, most surface lures, to a lesser or greater extent, attract predators by creating a disturbance on the surface which may mimic that created by commom prey such as water-voles etc.

I've already mentioned a couple of the two noisiest surface lures, the prop-baits and ploppers such as the Crazy Crawler, or, even better in my opinion, the Jitterbug (left). However, there is another very important type of surface lure that creates plenty of commotion, but with these, the angler has to create this spurting, popping and splashing by imparting a jerky, stop-start action to the lure these lures are the Poppers. Near-zero stretch braided main lines really come into their own here, as you can imagine.

POPPERS
Poppers have become one of the most prolific and popular surface lures, and for many good reasons: they are easy to fish, they can be fished quietly or noisily, and they trigger some of the most spectacular strikes. Rebel's Pop-R is one of my favourites, not least because of the variety of sizes in which it's available, and, just as important, its low price!

In the same mould but more expensive is Rapala's Skitter-Pop (below), a very effective popper nevertheless.

Earlier-on I mentioned some other surface favourites of mine, the soft, hollow rubbery mice-mimics, but when I came to check on their availability before talking about them in this article, I found that they're becoming more difficult to obtain. A good compromise in my opinion, is the sort-of hybrid lure, a cross between a Jitterbug and a Meadow-mouse, called the Jittermouse .. the theory is that you get the best of both worlds, and often the practice and the theory do come together when using this surface lure, a sort of Meadow Mouse with Attitude !

And talking of hybrid lures, one of my hobby-horses as you may know, here's a surface lure that's designed to provide almost everything ... it's a surface plopper/chugger like the Jitterbug but it's also a noisy prop-bait when retrieved fast or jerkily ... it's the JitterStick. For my liking, it tries to do too much, and is neither one thing nor the other: I prefer a plain, straightforward, double-prop-bait like the Woodchopper, and a proper plopper such as the Jitterbug, but lure fishing's a very personal thing, so you may find that the JitterStick suits you nicely, so try it, you might like it !

WALKING THE DOG
I should mention, although I personally am not enamoured with them, the lures used for the walking-the-dog technique: they're sort of mini-jerk & glide baits if you like — probably one of the best-known examples is the Zara Spook (above, right). If I seem a tad dismissive of them, it's because they've never produced much for me, but they may do better for you — the same goes for the Bass Oreno !

Another sort of combination surface lure is the SputterBuzz, and this has produced some nice pike for me when I fish a fast retrieve across the surface in warm water conditions, which are of course the best for surface lure fishing, and the shallower the better too, within limits: it's a surface popper of ports, with a buzzing prop-blade in-front. They're made by Arbogast (now PRADCo) and comes from the same pedigree stable of successful surface lures such as the famous JitterBug.

SILENT KILLERS
Although I've mainly banged-on about surface lures that make a noise, I can't finish without mentioning again one of my most favourite and all-time most successful surface lures, a silent killer and frequent fooler of big pike, Heddon's Swamp Fox MossBoss .. trust me, do not leave home to go lure-fishing without one! And what's more, apart from being super surface lures, they can also be allowed to sink slowly and fished sub-surface, often to equal effect.

ANGLE OF DANGLE
I haven't talked much about tackle, rods, reels and lines for surface lure fishing and that's because, apart from one slight difference in tackle & technique with lures like the Jitterbug and prop-baits, your normal tackle and method is fine. It's just that, with the lures that I've just mentioned, and maybe a couple of others, as far as possible you need to keep your rod at quite a high angle (compared with normal lure fishing) in order to keep as much as possible of your line and trace wire out of the water so that the lure works to its maximum.

OTHER ARTICLES
By the very nature of the limitations and length of this article, I cannot hope to cover every aspect of fishing with surface lures and so I suggest that you also have a browse of the related and relevant articles right here on Nick's website,viz. David Webber's "THINK WEEDLESS" and Ralph Walker's "Poppers, Choppers & Chuggers" articles .. very good they are too!

FINAL ANSWER
And I'm going to leave you with one final and repeated piece of advice for successful lure fishing, the only tip that you really need, because if the truth be known, big pike will grab at almost anything that moves ... DO NOT STRIKE TOO SOON ..wait until the pike has either missed the lure, or has grabbed it and has turned back down.

Have some heart-stopping fun with your surface lures!

John Worzencraft

EDITOR'S NOTE
Thanks for that, Big J ! We know what you mean about not striking too soon! We've all seen the video of allegedly more expert lure-anglers than you, making a complete hash of things, and we've all been there, done that and got the T-shirts ourselves, as clearly you have too.
Nick Caine, MANAGING EDITOR

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