TopWater Action
From stalking Bonefish in Key West to commercial fishing in Alaska, my favorite time with a fishing rod in my hands has been spent free-lining for Yellowtail Snapper. But since they’re scarce in Pine Island Sound, let’s talk early morning top-water artificial lure action.
Few inshore experiences compare to the adrenaline you get when you watch the wake of a Snook or a Redfish appear in a foot of water behind your lure at sunrise.
I plan to make my first cast when I can barely see the shoreline. Most prefer to go out a bit later when they can see where they’re going, but you’ll miss the thrill of a sunrise bite. I’ve had days when the morning bite was so strong I was worn out by 8am and decided to pack it up and head to Cabbage Key for breakfast, which makes for a great day fishing and I’m home by 10am for a nap.
Most of my early inshore trips have been time well spent with my dog. Many times I’d shut the boat down and sit with him watching the horizon in the dark and wonder what it was he heard off in the distance. I invited my wife several times but she commented that she had no interest in watching a bobber for hours. Robin grew up fishing with her dad in Missouri and didn’t realize I didn’t spend my mornings bobber-watching.
I can see like a bat in the dark, I see everything. Those runs made her a bit nervous. When daylight broke and we could see the shoreline, she took her first cast and quickly found out how a rattling MirrOlure “She-Pup” walking across the water early can affect your heart-rate.
The first breakfast trip was her idea, her hands were so sore from battling reds and snook so we’d quit early. That’s the difference between learning to run in the dark, or waiting to go out at 9am.
When I was a kid in Key Largo we’d fish the flats in Blackwater Sound for Seatrout with a classic “Red-Head” MirrOlure, when I was first introduced to MirrOlure. I picked up trash at Rowell’s Marina after school and my pay was bait, tackle, or occasionally a red-head MirrOlure. The company, still based in Largo, Florida, and still run by the same family, has been my artificial “go-to” ever since. (For soft-plastics I’m a DOA guy.)
The iconic "mirrored insert" developed in the 50’s is where the lure’s name and signature came from. I’ve got a photo with the current owner holding a shadow box with the original 9 lures his grandfather carved by hand.
I’ve used the Zara Spook which makes a great splash because of it’s light weight, but for the same reason, it doesn’t cast far. Sometimes you need distance if fish are spooked. Plus the Zara gets tangled in your leader from jumping around because it’s so light, ruining a cast.
The MirrOlure has a slightly weighted tail which makes them soar like a football for distance-casting, which can easily find dry land till you get a feel for it. The weighted tail allows you to step-up your braided line weight, and it keeps the lure floating at an angle causing it to “bob” up & down each time you twitch it.
MirrOlure top-water lures, such as the new Pro-Dog pictured above, primarily use high-frequency stainless steel rattles in a water-tight sound chamber. These steel balls are designed to create loud, enticing sounds that call predators far away, which creates more time in the water and less time casting.
Some mornings I watch reds and snook on the flats compete for a top-water lure like it’s an Olympic sport, and some mornings they lay still with no movement at all, almost like they’re sleeping. Sleepy days are rare, and any morning slinging top-water lures beats scraping ice off a car windshield. On the mornings where the “bite” is on, I’m not sure it would matter what you throw at them, I just like my MirrOlures.
It only took getting a lure in the leg once to bend in the barbs with pliers for easy removal. This also helps prevent unnecessary tearing around the mouth of a fish. By bending barbs I’ll lose a fish occasionally, but I’d rather let a fish win as opposed to tearing their mouth.
I don’t have any “secret spots,” reds and snook are all over SW Florida, but I do prefer the northern part of PI Sound. There’s less boat traffic which creates less pressure on the fish, and the grass-flats seem to stay healthy. I’ll usually work the shorelines inside Upper Captiva over to smaller islands around Useppa.
Late summer after the snook spawn I’ll head out to the beaches on the Gulf side, (that would be the Gulf of Nautical Mile,) and work MirrOlure’s “Papa Dog” which is a floating lure with a flat head known as a “popper.” If you’ve ever bass fished you know what a popper is. Late summer is when you can find large snook feeding after mating season, usually late July or August. I don’t fish top-water at all in the winter months. Most of the excitement is in our warmer summer months.
I don’t bother with Fluorocarbon for leader material. I do while Sheepshead fishing in places like Boca Grande around the pilings, but not with top-water lures. I use 40# pink Ande for leaders. Their pink line is much harder than any other monofilament on the market and you can buy a 100-yard spool for about $10. I’m not concerned with the heavy leader material while top-water fishing. The fish come from behind, they’ll never see it.
The 3rd generation owner of MirrOlure, Eric, is a dog lover and sometimes names product after a family dog. I’m working on putting a bug in his ear about making a top-water lure called the “Hooper-Dog” after a Doberman I lost a couple years ago. It has a nice ring to it… I’d make sure they sold a thousand before I retire!
People get a Doberman when they’ve watched too many episodes of Magnum PI and find out the breed needs to be part of your daily life which requires time.
Hooper was a 5-year-old 120-pound full European Doberman abandoned in North Florida in need of a home. He was not the ideal rescue, but he needed us, and things worked out better that we could have expected. Sometimes it’s not about you, it’s about them.
I brought him to SW Florida where our relationship started off boring, but with some time and patience a unique friendship developed between us. His best friend ended up being our 5-ounce Eclectus Parrot, Kozmo. He was a bit intimidating to meet, till you see him sleeping on the couch with Kozmo perched on his leg.
Watch some YouTube videos on top-water fishing and see if it looks inviting. You don’t have to go out in the dark, but the bite does drop off as the water warms up and the sun comes out.
Jim Griffiths
Publisher, Nautical Mile
Nautical Mile Magazine
