Looking for some insane topwater bass fishing action? Try the LIVETARGET Mouse! Today we have Ron Amaral aka The Backlasher (on Instagram and YouTube), sharing some topwater tips for BIG bass blow ups. Ron has you covered from setup to how to fish.

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#livetargetmouse #monsterbass #topwaterfishing #bassfishing

Video transcript:

Aaron:
What's going on, guys? My name is Aaron and I am The Backlasher here on YouTube, and I'm here to talk to you guys about the Live Target Field Mouse.

Aaron:
I got this in my last MONSTERBASS bag. And speaking of MONSTERBASS, if you like this type of video, if you like the tips and tricks on the baits that you get every single month, make sure you hit the subscribe button down below, hit that notification bell so you'll know when MONSTERBASS posts a video so you can learn how to fish some of these baits. And feel free to check out my channel as well, The Backlasher here on YouTube. It'll be linked down below.

Aaron:
But anyway, back to the Live Target Field Mouse. I'm in Florida and the ponds here are already scummy. It's already top water frogging time. So this is going to be a great bait to throw over all that scum and get those big girls to come up and crush it. The Live Target Field Mouse is a hollow body top water lure, just like a frog, but live target always takes it up a notch When it comes to the detail. Look at all the details and the little face. The body is textured to look like fur. It even has a little paws there on the bottom, just a lot of attention to detail in a live target bait. The back of the bait is a little bit different than a traditional hollow body frog. It still has a little skirts, but then it also has this long rat tail coming out the middle.

Aaron:
Even though it looks like a mouse, I'm going to fish this bait. Exactly like I would fish a hollow body frog. Any vegetation, grass, scum, lily pads, wood, anything at all, I'm going to fish it through the cover first. And then, if that doesn't work or if the pond just doesn't really have a lot of vegetation, then I would start paralleling the bank. A lot of times the bass are waiting just off the bank, waiting for something to come up shallow so that they can T-bone it, because those bait fish have nowhere else to go. So it'd be the same thing with the top water lure.

Aaron:
Live Target actually gives you some instructions on how to fish the bait, which I think is pretty cool. But the most effective ways that I have fished a hollow body, top water bait like this is either with a walk the dog retrieve where it'll just kick back and forth with a steady retrieve. You can twitch it and hop it and let it pause in between the twitches. Or you can just reel it straight back, or you can do any combination of those. Sometimes you'll twitch it, give it a pause. Sometimes you'll walk it back for a bit, give it a pause. So really play around with the retrieve. Play around with how you're fishing it. If there's a little log, hop it over the log. If there's a lily pad, go around the lily pad. That's exactly what a real mouse or frog or bay fish or anything would do, and the bass are waiting just behind that log, waiting for that thing to come back in the water so that they can crush it.

Aaron:
This is a three quarter ounce bay and it's got some pretty beefy hooks. And there are two hooks here, so you're going to need a lot of power to set those hooks into a fish's mouth. So I like to use a heavy power rod. You can go extra heavy. This is a seven foot three heavy power fast action rod. I like 50 pound braid. I've never had an issue with 50 pound braid, but some people do go 65 if they're fishing really, really, really thick stuff or lily pads or something like that. If you are around a lot of wood, just be careful with the braid because the braid can dig into the wood and you could break off your lure.

Aaron:
For the reel, there's kind of two trains of thought. Some people like to have a faster gear ratio reel so they can get the fish out of the scum as fast as possible. If you're fishing around a lot of wood, you might want to get a faster reel so you can get the fish out of that before they can wrap your braid around the world. You're never going to get the braid out of there. Some people like a slower reel because they have more winching power to really drag the fish out of the thick stuff. A lot of times when you catch a frog fish, you're also catching eight pounds of grass with it.

Aaron:
But let's take this thing out on the water, see what the action is like, see if we can catch some fish with it. I'll see you guys there.

Aaron:
All right, guys, made it to the pond. It's about 6:30, so I got a couple hours to fish. We're trying out the field mouse. I don't know if you guys can see where there's a ton of submerged grass. I have seen a couple of fish kind of busting on the surface, just off the grass, so that's kind of what I'm going to be targeting with this field mouse. This is the only bait that I brought, so hopefully we'll catch a fish with this before the sun goes down.

Aaron:
Right now, I'm just fan casting this.

Aaron:
Well, we've got a little one.

Aaron:
During the intro, we got a little dink on the mouse. See how those hooks got turned up? Here we go. Little Dinker.

Aaron:
I was just talking about how I'm fishing over the submerged grass to see if a fish would come up out of it, and that little one did, exactly like I thought they would. Let's see if we can upgrade to a little bit bigger fish.

Aaron:
Oh my God. I hope you guys saw the wake that this fish made to get this mouse. It's not that big, but here we go.

Aaron:
Two dinkers on the field mouse. And I like when top water, hollow body, top water baits do that. When the hooks come completely out, so that you can get a hookup. He completely destroyed this mouse. It just decapitated it. But I hope you guys saw how far away that fish swam up to get this. That was insane.

Aaron:
Another little one. Here's what they're hiding in, guys. All this grass and weeds. I don't know what this stuff is, but this is why you need 50 pounds, sometimes 65 pound braids, so you can get your fish and your lure out of that stuff.

Aaron:
All right. We're trying to upgrade here, guys. Upgrade. Something bigger. Even with a straight retrieve, that tail, that long tail in the back, is swimming behind it. So it does have a little subtle action just behind the bait.

Aaron:
Oh my God. I just realized that my tail popped off. Oh no. At least it still walks even without the tail

Aaron:
Oh no. No. Yeah. That's what I mean about braid and wood, guys. Oh dang it.

Aaron:
Well, guys, I should've taken my own advice and been careful about the braid on wood, but it is what it is. Let's out of here.

Aaron:
I'm back at the pond and I could not resist, guys. I bought another field mouse. This one's a little bit smaller, a little bit different color. It's the closest one I could find. But we're going to try to catch some fish with this one, work in the same exact ways, but not around any wood. We're not going to break it off this time. So let's see if we can catch some fish with this one too.

Aaron:
Someone's fishing a pink trick worm. This hasn't been in the water that long.

Aaron:
Oh my God. What was that?

Aaron:
That must've been the same fish. That's a good fish. That's probably the best one we got on the mouse. There we go.

Aaron:
Look at how he ate this mouse. Can you guys tell this fish wanted to eat that mouse? It's just barely peeking out of its mouth. Nice fish. Probably like a pound and a half. Something like that. There you go, dude. But there we go, guys. It doesn't matter what color or size mouse you use. If you throw it in the right places, if you work at the right ways, you will get bit.

Aaron:
That was a big blow up. That's a big fish. Oh my God. Oh my God, you guys, that's a big fish. Maybe not. Maybe it just feels a lot bigger. That's a nice one though. Don't you do it. Don't you do it. Don't you do it. Don't you do it. That's a good fish. That's a nice fish. Oh my God. Look at that. Look at that.

Aaron:
Skin hooked. Freaking skin hooked. I can't get him in the four frames, but we're going to weigh him.

Aaron:
Three pounder, 3.3. Three pounder on the mouse. Yes. All right. Let's put her back.

Aaron:
And that may look like the middle of nothing to you guys, but I can see the very tips of submerged grass. Submerged grass has been the whole deal with this mouse.

Aaron:
Oh, he missed.

Aaron:
Had my hand down.

Aaron:
Another one A little one, but that's another one. Field mouse is crushing it right now. And just like the other mouse, the hook came out of the bait to make sure they can't throw it. This one's a little guy, but still fun to catch on the mouse.

Aaron:
Another one, another little one. Little guy, but not bad at all for a little mouse.

Aaron:
Dang. Oh, came off. Telling you guys, submerged grass is where it is at.

Aaron:
And we're back where we started with the other mouse. Maybe we can catch a few more before we got to go.

Aaron:
That was a slurp. Oh, that's a big fish. Oh my gosh. That's a big fish. I think that's bigger than the other one.

Aaron:
Oh my gosh. Barely slurped it. Oh man. Look at that. I hope you guys can see him. I hope it's not too dark. Nice, big, chunky fish. Just barely slurped the mouse. Barely skin hooked, just like the other one. These big girls aren't playing. Almost exactly the same as that other one, 3.3. 3.3 pounder. Let me go.

Aaron:
It might be too dark for you guys to even see anything, but let's see if we can get a couple more at least before we got to go.

Aaron:
Another one. Another one. Man, this one wanted this mouse. Oh my God. Fricking choked it. He's got a pink trick worm in his mouth. Oh, he's gut hooked with that worm. Oh, poor dude. But he's a nice fish. Let me try and get this worm out of his mouth. Hopefully I'll be able to do it. Let me get him back in the water, but I was able to get that worm out of him. Hopefully he'll be all right. Oh, come on, dude. No, don't do that. No, don't do that. There you go. There you go. He's swimming away. That's a good sign. But I had found another pink trick worm just over there. I put it in my pocket to throw it away. And then, I found one in that fish.

Aaron:
To be honest, guys, I can't even see anything anymore. So I think I'm going to head out, go back to the house. I'll see you guys there.

Aaron:
Guys, what an awesome day fishing this field mouse. Look at this thing. It's all shredded, hook rashed, ripped and torn up. This is exactly what you want your bait to look like at the end of the day. This means we had a good day out on the water with it. And for anyone out there that was thinking, I don't know, it looks like a mouse. Is it going to work? Is it a gimmick? It absolutely works. You can use this just like a top water frog, over that cover. For me, submerged grass was the deal, but find the cover in your ponds. Be careful around the wood, but find the cover in your ponds and you can absolutely get crushed on the top water mouse.

Aaron:
Before we go. I want to say thank you so much for checking out the video and thank you to MONSTERBASS for having me on the channel. If you guys like the content, you know what to do. Go down there and hit the like button, hit the subscribe button and feel free to check out my channel, The Backlasher here on YouTube. It'll be linked down below. As always, thank you so much for watching and we'll see you on the next one.