Lately I've been catching a lot of fish on topwaters, mostly buzzbaits and poppers. My problem is that I only get bit on topwaters when there isn't very much wind. It's often very windy at my lake. What topwaters work well in heavy wind? I'm not talking about a little ripple on the surface, but actual waves. Will topwaters even work in this situation? My buzzbait keeps going under the water when it hits the waves, and other topwaters just get blown all over the place. If topwaters wont work under these conditions what will? It seems like I can't catch em when the wind is strong, then once it stops I start catching them.

9" Lunker Punker's...   Although, I've never tried it in waves higher than 1 1/2' high..

Strong cross wind makes a top lure difficult to use, wind at your back is much easier.  Out here we use them when the surf is 4-5 ft, believe me aggressive fish just come up and grab them.

In the wind, walk the dog.

Zara Spooks, Lucky Craft Sammys, Rapala Skitter Walks, XCalibur Jimmys...

That new River2Sea bait from Larry Dahlberg that he showed at ICast looks interesting...

Super Spook.

In higher wind situations it can more productive to just fish a subsurface lure such as a spinnerbait, shallow crankbait or jerkbait. If they will still hit your topwater and they are not missing it with high frequency, as can happen in high wind as well, by all means stay on top. As mentioned above larger baits, walking baits, and baits that follow a straight steady line can be best as they give an easier target to the fish who have the added up and down movement to contend with in the waves. Like anything else, experiment, let the fish tell you what they are willing to do.

On windy days, my favorite has always been a big Devil's Horse.  I pop it hard and fast so it makes a good commotion.  Got some real nice fish that way.

Heavy wind makes topwater use difficult but you can still catch them. Bigger buzzbaits with double blades, big propbaits like wounded spooks and Luhr Jensen Woodchoppers, and big dog walkers. Also I do well on bigger swimbaits just under the surface in these conditions, or even larger floating rapalas like the #13 and #17.

chug bugs