Today we have Alex from @Oklahoma’s Worst Angler dropping some tips for topwater fishing! Want to learn how to fish a top water popper or walking bait, stay tuned! You also may be receiving some of these baits if you are in the southern regions in this month's MONSTERBASS Bag!

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Video Transcript:

Alex Epperson:
What's up guys. Welcome back to the monster bass channel. Obviously you saw the title. So, I mean, there's no point in saying what we're talking about today, but I'm just covering some of my favorite tips to give you for top water fishing.

Alex Epperson:
April is coming up. The April box is almost here. You guys are going to be pumped because this April box is sick. And some of the tips I'm going to give you today are going to come in handy for some of the baits in the April box. Now just, I mean, that's about all the teasers I'm going to give you today. I'm out here in a couple of farm ponds and just going to do some fishing. First off, we're going to start off with a popper and kind of talking about what I like about poppers. Now let's get this first cast out of the way.

Alex Epperson:
Some guys will kind of do like their first cast, just a couple of feet. You only get that first cast a curse out of the way. Now I'm just going to send it. Now with poppers, normally I like to throw them on braid. Now I'm going to cover a couple of different things here. I don't like to throw spooks or walking style baits on braid. And reason for that is usually on walking style, baits and spooks, whatever you want to call them, pencil poppers, anything like that is usually what I find is when I'm working, those I'll keep so much slack in my line on braid that sometimes that braid will get wrapped up under that treble hook and can kind of spoil a full cast for you. So with poppers, I do like that because I'm walking them. I'm making short strokes with them, getting that kind of twitch, walk side to side. Sometimes I will hard pop it like that and get that popper to actually pop. A lot of the time I'm doing a little bit of short strokes, a couple of small walks like this right here, and then letting it sit. Just a couple of small twitches walk walk, let it sit.

Alex Epperson:
So usually I'll run a popper like that for a while. Now we're dealing with some ultra clear

Alex Epperson:
Water in this pond right here. Very, very clear. I don't know if you guys can see down in there or not, but it is very clear water.

Alex Epperson:
We want just a little bit of ripple on the water too to kind of break up that surface a little bit. Now, one thing I'll do, also, is very my cadence. So sometimes I'll do a couple like I did on that first cast, small twitches, small pops, small walks like that. And then if that's not getting bit for a while, then I kind of speed it up and I'll do maybe like between four to six pops or walks small twitches, let it sit and then pick it back up pretty quick. See if they want something just a little bit faster moving that day. You got to vary up your cadence, quite a bit. You want to vary your cadence to find out just what these fish are looking for. Now. A good tip for you guys. If you're running braid on any kind of top water bait that has got treble hooks is you don't normally want to set that hook too hard. Hopefully we can hook into one today and I can show you guys what I like to do, but on braid and treble hook, especially top water treble hooks. A lot of the time, those hooks are kind of finer wire and on those treble hooks they're finer wires. So you don't want to set too hard, especially with there being no stretch in that braid. You don't want to bend those hooks out.

Alex Epperson:
So you want to just do a good sweeping hook set, kind of sweep off to the side. What's up little turtle. See

Alex Epperson:
I'm covered in bugs right here.

Alex Epperson:
You can see the action. My rod, it's not much. To keep a little bit of slack, a little bit of slack line on the water right there. And that's going to allow that popper to walk back and forth and get that little spit action there. You don't need much action with your rod tip.

Alex Epperson:
You can overwork a popper and overwork a spook. A lot of the time it's not needed to do much.

Alex Epperson:
Now if that walking action is not getting them on a popper. That's when I will start to pop a popper reading kind of a downward, a downward pull of my rod, a little bit harder to get that thing to bloop and splash up some water. Now the only real problem with today, and this is not me giving an excuse before you say I'm giving excuses for not getting bit yet.

Alex Epperson:
We have had a couple of days of some cold rain and some cooler nights. So these smaller bodies of water, not going to heat up near as fast, in the morning time, but as the day goes on, they will heat up faster.

Alex Epperson:
We've got some good sunlight today, decent little bit of cloud cover. Just saw a fish, oh there's some fish busting out there. It could be carp. It could be a little bit of feeding activity.

Alex Epperson:
Now, one reason that I talk about letting that popper or that spook style bait sit for a second. There's a lot of the time you will create such a commotion that you'll have a fish come up and be looking at it. When you got it just sit in there for a second, they're thinking about hitting that. They're just thinking about it. And then when you pick that up and start moving it again, a lot of the time, it will trigger that reaction bite. Now, like I said, I'm not exactly a big fan of throwing spooks on braid, but it's what I've got. So you get what you get and you don't throw a fit. Okay? So we're just going to show you guys a little bit of why I love walking bait, especially around open water situations. Open water situations spook style is just, it's extremely hard to beat.

Alex Epperson:
I love walking baits. I like to go white. And I like to go as bass or blue gill profile color, not profile, but color that I can get. That is me personally. That's what I like. A lot of guys love the shad colors. I like white, bass, or blue gill, that has always worked for me. It's confidence, color and confidence in a color or confidence in a bait 100% matters when you're out fishing. So I brought one that we got an old monster bass box, the Sexy Dog Junior from Strike King. So we're ready to give this guy a toss out of here and then we're talk a little bit about just simple walking the dog. Walking the dog is going to be similar to what I was talking about with your popper, but you do want to keep it at almost a constant state of motion.

Alex Epperson:
Sometimes what'll happen is if you stop and you go to pick that back up, then the slack has kind of moved just a little bit in that line, on your braid. And sometimes it can take a little bit to get that thing started back up. So me personally, I like the constant state of motion on a walking style bait. This is what I like. Now, one thing to note, that I have really found from extensive research. Not, not extensive research, but I've had multiple times when I've been out fishing and I've had a fish blow up on a spook style bait on a walking style bait, and I miss them. And then I just kind of leave it sitting there and nothing happens. So what I like to do now is, if I get a hit and they miss that a lot of the time, what I will do is pick that right back up and do a few sharp walks with it, three or four, just sharp and quick.

Alex Epperson:
Kind of like to see that Sexy Dog Junir doing right there. But what that will do is when you do that, it makes that fish realize, hh crap, I missed that. I missed that meal right there. And now he's trying to run away and they, a lot of the time will come right back and absolutely smash that thing. So, when you have a miss, try that out, try different things. If you get one that knocks it completely out of the water, when it comes back down, try and let it just sit there. Because when they were blasting that spook out of the water, a lot of the time, what they're hoping is it's going to knock that bait fish, unconscious. They've expended a lot of energy. So if you let it sit there and just give it a couple of like small little twitches, make it look like they knocked that bait fish unconscious. It's going to be an easier meal for them to come back and get after. They've just expended. All of that energy.

Alex Epperson:
You kind of see how this guy isn't quite walking the same now. So it was kind of diving, just going off to one side. This is why I am not a fan of throwing these on braid, because this can happen.

Alex Epperson:
Now. I'm not saying don't throw it on braid. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying that this is one of the things that I look out for that I'm not a big fan of throwing these on braid. I like to throw them on monofilament or, a floating copolymer or anything like that. That's what I really prefer because a lot of the time you're going to sit here and you're going to be trying to get this thing unboogered for a lot longer and it's going to take you away from fishing. That was wrapped like seven times wrapped up like seven times on there. But especially when you've got chop on the water and you're throwing braid on a walking style bait, you're going to run into that issue.

Alex Epperson:
Again, I'm not saying to don't throw it on braid. I'm just saying if you have the option to throw it on monofilament or floating co-polymer, that's just going to be a little bit better for you.

Alex Epperson:
Well true to name, Oklahoma's worst angler. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. If you're not subscribed to the monster brass channel already, do so, hit that red button. I think it's just right down there. It says subscribe. It's super simple, super easy. Also, if you're not subscribed to my channel, I'll leave a link down the description for you. Hope to see you guys over there. Hope you guys enjoyed this video and I truly hope you guys go out and smash a new PB, a monster bass this spring, especially on top water because nothing beats a top water PB. That's just me. I'll see you guys next time we're on the water.