Outrageous Tactics for Top Predators like Perch, Walleyes, Pike, and Crappies

That’s the scene during daylight hours—it’s all about drawing fish with flare. But on the bookends of the day, even in clear water, Bro advances size as well as style. Out come the swimbaits, horizontal travelers like a Lindy Flyer with a whole minnow threaded face-first, or a naked Nils Master Jigging Shad or Rapala Jigging Shad Rap. To a walleye at twilight, each looks like a Hindenburg.

It’s a different deal in dark water, though, where there might not be enough sunlight penetration to make a spoon sparkle. There, he relies on profile, not glitter, and also considers lures with rattles, and super-scented minnows like small smelt.

Swimbaits, however, get top billing, the thicker the better. Salmo’s Chubby Darter is a prime pick for throwing bulky shadows. And you’re cheating yourself if there isn’t at least one line fitted with a live minnow, says Bro. He loves hanging a shiner or chub off a deadstick, keeping the offering within the first two feet of the surface. It’s a deadly device in colored and shallow water, 10 feet or less.

Any other factors to trigger a topwater bite? Bro buys into the whole moon-phase gig, his position supported by memory. He’s experienced more midday topwater action during and near the new moon, he says, while the full moon is better for morning and evening forays.

More About Pike

Bro’s presentations for pike are much the same, except he hedges toward large, hovering swimmers like the Chubby Darter, or a Flyer outfitted with a stinger hook and smelt or cisco. Speaking of dead stuff, setlines or tip-ups are standard in Bro’s piking arsenal. And he’ll be the first to chide anyone who feels he’s outgrown tip-ups, or is too sophisticated to carry flags. Surgeons still use scalpels, right?

So he totes a five-gallon bucket filled with a half dozen or so fully rigged Beaver Dam tip-ups, the classic boards, some of which he’s owned since puberty. Each is rigged uniquely, conscientiously crafted over LaBatt’s and Fuentes. The livebait versions are furnished with a single oversized hook—3/0 to 4/0—on a single 12-inch strand of wire.

The quick-strike specimens get pretty elaborate, each with fancy flickering blades (legal in Minnesota), engaging to the eye. Bro’s preferred method for presenting a smelt on a quick-strike is with Clam Corp’s Arctic Warrior. The tip-down apparatus flies a flag when tripped, while allowing the angler to battle with his rod and reel of choice.

Depending on the overall depth (expanding the column of water as depth increases), he generally fishes the deadbait rigs just beneath the ice, allowing the live minnow to behave like an exploratory diver. Typically, he runs live minnows between the surface and the halfway point in the water column—no need to go any deeper, he says.

So get over your predilections for what, when, and where to fish topwater. The surface is always the surface, summer or winter. Its exact role in regards to dining might vary from season to season, but if there’s enough light penetrating to cast a shadow or reflect off something bright, predators are bound to be paying attention.

*Noel Vick, Isanti, Minnesota, is a frequent contributor to In-Fisherman’s winter publications.