Short strikes on topwater....

[bman]

I got out on the salt for a few hours Sunday evening... Nothing huge to report some nice trout.

Fishing top water and kept getting short strikes. The trout would even knock the plug in the air and then come follow it to the boat without taking it.

I changed rhythm and speed but it didn't seem to make a difference.
Any thoughts?

[dolphinatic]

Nope.....happened to me ALL day Saturday. Boated 1 trout ALL day long for 20 or so strikes. The fish loved the plug (chrome & blue devilhorse), just couldn't seem to get enough of it. I had one HUGE trout come all the way out of the water and flip around at the plug.....still missed it Fun to watch though. I just thought it was because I hadn't fished in forever

[Reel Cowboy]

If they're hitting at it but not eating it, try throwing a suspending plug in that same area. Or jerk bait.

[Steve Stinson]

I agree with Reel Cowboy. I have had some success by putting the topwater pole down, then casting a second rod as close to the first plug as possible. A Cajun Thunder on the second rod with a DOA shrimp or some sort of very slow sinking bait seems to work best. You don't want a heavy, quick sinking jig on the second pole.

Good Luck - Steve

[Sir reel]

Barry, if you take a look at some of the tournament reports, weekend reports, ect. you will hear that same theme repeated. Even though my partner and I couldn't find two decent trout to finish our limit, the three we caught early were nice ones. The biggest was 21" and weighed 2.59... I caught him on topwater.... hooked him in the top of the head!! Does that tell ya something?? We had all kinds of blowups and short strikes all day long. Now the rest of the story... we caught dozens of short trout. Nearly all of them took the jig deep in their mouth...in other words they were really eat'n it. I have no idea the why's or where fore's but the biggn's seemed to be knock'n the lures around for the fun of it or to stun it and the shorts were eat'n like there was no tomorrow. Now we are aware that big trout like some other species will knock a lure (bait) into the air and then come back on it. I promise that my partner and I were able to resist snatch'n the plug's away from the strikes and were able to wait a bit...even just barely twitch it like it was dazed ...but they never seemed to come back. I had the feeling that they were just kill'n/hit'n for the pleasure and really not all that interested in eat'n (the big ones that is). I've said all this to just say...Barry, we feel your pain!

[SHOWBOAT]

follow-up with jigs. try smaller topwaters with more eratic motions. try a plug with "SureKetch" hooks. These are a few things I've tried and feel like have been successful, but short strikes are part of the game....

[caseycook]

Think about down-sizing your plug, say from a super spook to a super spook jr. We always try to follow up a missed big hit with a fluke or a twitchbait.

They were killing the topwater plugs for us on Saturday....we caught 10 trout over 20" before 12:30. But then again, we only threw one bait all day.

[wevans]

Something I've seen work plenty of times is to have one person throwing a topwater and the person behind him throwing a jig, when the fish miss the topwater, the one with the jig can throw to that fish and usually will catch it

[bman]

Can you believe this- a fishing related thread with lots of replies!!

we only threw one bait all day.

And that was??? I was throwing a chug bug....

[One Keeper]

Nothing works better than a D.O.A when they are short striking a topwater.

[Reel Cowboy]

Nothing works better than a D.O.A when they are short striking a topwater.

Except a flutter jig.

[caseycook]

we only threw one bait all day.

And that was??? I was throwing a chug bug....

I can't remember if it was an Oscar Meyer weiner walked behind a popping cork, the Doug Hannon Fishing Snake, or a Super Spook???

[Reel Cowboy]

we only threw one bait all day.

And that was??? I was throwing a chug bug....

I can't remember if it was an Oscar Meyer weiner walked behind a popping cork

I thought you were a Ball Park kinda guy?

[bman]

Except a flutter jig.

Dad caught a flounder on one our last trip to AGP.

[WolfeMan]

Rub some gulp on it and put tiny pieces of gulp on each of the treble hooks.

You will catch 10 times as many fish!