The ‘secret’ weapon to landing small-mouth bass

Ho-hum, not another giant smallmouth bass, I thought Tuesday evening as I cranked in my fourth 20-incher of the 2015 campaign.

Most years I would consider myself lucky to catch one 20-inch smallmouth, and in a lot of years I have caught none.

'In Iowa's interior rivers, that is a pretty rare fish, probably a lot rarer than one in 100,” said Mike Steuck, the Department of Natural Resources' northeast Iowa fisheries supervisor.

For many years I have believed that the only way to catch a big smallmouth bass was to catch lots of them and let the law of averages operate.

Now, finally, after five decades of applying that faulty theory, I have learned that there is a silver bullet that will greatly increase your odds of catching big smallmouth, and it is no secret to many successful bass anglers.

It is the topwater lure.

I have always considered topwater lures to be just another useful tool - one of many lure styles that has its time and place.

After using them with increasing frequency during the past two years on the Wapsipinicon River, however, I have learned that they actually select for the biggest bass in the area.

I base that not only on anecdotal evidence gathered by an experienced and disciplined observer (like myself) but also on statistics: 75 percent of the biggest bass I caught this year came on the Rebel Pop-R, a lure I use about 5 percent of the time.

Twice in the same late August week last year, while fishing upstream on the same rocky stretch of the Wapsipinicon with a jig and plastic grub, I caught about 30 smallmouth of all sizes except large in 90 minutes.

Then, with perhaps 30 minutes of daylight remaining, I replaced the jig with a Rebel Pop-R and fished the same stretch going downstream. On one of those evenings, in the same water I had just thoroughly fished, I caught eight bass in 30 minutes, all 17 inches or better. On the second evening, under identical circumstances, I caught 12 bass, seven of which were at least 17 inches long.

That taught me something I wish I'd learned a lot sooner.

Because not only is it more fun to catch big bass; it also more fun to catch any fish on a topwater lure.

With a submerged lure, you can only feel and imagine the ferocity of a smallmouth bass strike. When a smallmouth strikes a topwater lure, you feel, hear and see it and, no matter how mentally prepared for it you may be, it will startle you.

l Comments: (319) 934-3172; orlan.love@thegazette.com