As the cooler nights of late summer allow water temperatures to decline, there is a behavioral change in the mighty muskie. For a time he has overlooked the gurgling, plopping, and buzzing sounds that have passed overhead, but as the water cools, he looks skyward for an easy meal. A distressed, noisy something-or-other passes by his weedy or rock lair. The angler knows a fish should be there, and awaits the most exciting visual interaction known in all of freshwater fishing - a topwater muskie strike. If properly fished, this category of baits will put more fish in your boat during late summer and early fall, and provide you with heart stopping excitement you never dreamed possible.

Topwater lures of many varieties can be effective at any time of the season, from opening day through late fall. However, I found these lures to be most successful in early to mid September due to a muskie’s willingness to actually strike the bait more readily than before. We see numbers of followers throughout the season, and topwaters do work well work as search baits (finding a muskie’s location). Later, returning to this spot with a finesse bait will produce strikes. However, in late summer muskies often engage the topwater lure and make contact on its first pass over an area. Muskies will react positively to these lures by aggressively pursuing them. Over the course of a day, this enables you to get more hooks into fish by covering more water. Knowing that topwaters are the bait of choice during fall does not necessarily guarantee more muskie photos in your bragging album. A few other items must be considered before you begin to wildly throw noisy floating plugs.

Location is the primary consideration in any fishing effort, and topwater muskies are no exception. I cannot begin to cover all of the possible variations of fish location in each and every potential body of water. Some fish relate to rock while other fish are weed oriented. This in not only true between different lakes and reservoirs, but also within the same body of water. Fish location in general at this time is roughly the same as it has been since water temperatures reached their peaks in late June to mid July. Main lake weed beds, rock piles, humps and sunken islands are the obvious places to be targeted, until the water turns over in the next few weeks. The real key to muskie location on these pieces of structure is the fabled "spot-on-the-spot". Main lake pieces of structure can be huge on certain lakes. Look for the best possible areas to cast your topwaters, minimizing fish-less casts or low potential water. In a weedbed, look for the heaviest concentrations of vegetation. Muskies use these areas as ambush spots. Other key weed areas are inside turns in the weededge, and points of the weedbed protruding into the deepest part of surrounding waters. Fish these areas first when you go to cast a main lake weedbed. A good lake map oftentimes labels such micro-spots.

When fishing rocks, look for pieces of the structure that stand out as obviously different elements. Large boulders offer cover, as well as small weed patches within the rocks. Inside turns and protruding points are as good in rocky areas as they are in weeds, so be sure to offer multiple casts into these areas. Again, the best areas on a particular piece of structure will become obvious to you the more you look at it, both in your boat and from a lake map.

I divide topwater muskie lures into two major divisions – crawling lures and speed lures. Crawling lures are presented slowly and oftentimes to a location known to hold fish. These baits may have propellers, rotating or wobbling sections, or wings that cause the bait to wiggle. Whatever they do possess for features, their intent is to give the fish time to consider your presentation before striking. Hawg Wobblers, Creepers, and Jitterbugs are types of lures that would qualify as "crawlers". These lures are highly effective after dark, because their slow crawl is easy for a muskie to home in on in low light (as opposed to a high-speed lure). If you own a large topwater plug and do not know if it is built for crawling, simply try to retrieve it fast. If the lure ends up on its side or leaves the surface of the water, chances are it is a crawler, so fish it slower. Crawlers are my bait of choice for the spot-on-the-spots in calm conditions. Their slow wiggle can be absolutely deadly.

Speed lures are more effective if you are searching for fish with topwaters over a larger area. Any rotating prop bait or buzzbait bucktail can be used as a speed style muskie topwater. If fish are spread across a weed flat that has poorly defined edges, or if water clarity is low, these louder, faster search baits will receive more attention. The speed of the retrieval is important, and should be determined by the mood of the fish. Following fish that do not strike may require an increase or decrease in lure speed. Don’t be afraid to use these lures when the wind kicks up. A high-speed prop bait across wind blown rocks or weed edges will call fish up in water that looks too rough for topwater fishing—its not! These fish will see and hear a bait better than you would think under these conditions. Plus, the wind can make these fish extremely active which further increases their likelihood to strike a topwater presentation. Stick with it.

While these baits are extremely effective at drawing strikes during late summer and early fall; there are a few drawbacks that have always plagued topwater muskie anglers. First and foremost, topwater hooking-percentages are historically lower than most other presentations. In the world of muskie fishing, this is especially true, because these fish have bony mouths without a whole lot of loose skin to grab hooks. So, even if you play the game correctly and set the hooks at the right time, a muskie’s anatomy works against you. You can get past this trouble spot, but a lot of good anglers don’t ever get this far because they set the hooks on the striking fish too early – far too early, in fact. When you see water breaking behind your lure, keep reeling. When see the fish hit your bait, keep reeling. When you finally feel the weight of the fish on your line, give the rod a snap to bury the hooks. Muskies may follow a topwater lure for a long time before striking, and following fish sometimes appear on the surface with their fins out of the water. Don’t get spooked, just keep your rod tip low to the water and never stop the bait until the fish has. On another note, muskies have notoriously bad aim when striking a topwater lure. They often come up short, or too far in front, right, left, etc. This is another incentive to keep your lure moving, as they’ll often hit multiple times on the same retrieve.

It takes a few topwater strikes combined with your errors before the typical angler develops the nerves and patience to properly execute a topwater hook set. So, accept the fact that this is part of every muskie angler’s frustrations. Fish the best spots with one of the styles of topwater baits mentioned, and set the hooks in the appropriate manner. Easier said than done, but it’s this time of year that these lures can be as productive as any other presentation, and certainly more exciting.